The Age of Enlightenment: A Transformative Era of Reason and Progress
Introduction - The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and cultural movement that spanned the late 17th to the early 19th century. It profoundly influenced political, philosophical, scientific, and social thought across Europe and the Americas. Enlightenment thinkers sought to apply reason, empirical evidence, and scientific methods to understand and improve human society. This period laid the groundwork for modern democracy, secularism, and human rights, reshaping the trajectory of Western civilization.