On the Enlightenment Movement: The Impact on Western Society and the Social Problems Brought by the Lack of Chinese Enlightenment

Abstract

In his article "What is Enlightenment", Foucault once said, "By explaining it this way, people can discover a starting point for analysis, which is to describe people's so-called attitudes towards modernity.". The Enlightenment legitimized human rights, and with the Enlightenment as the boundary, humanity entered a stage of modernity. Modern human rights ideology was initially established, and Western social life underwent earth-shaking changes. It also impacted China as far away as the East, as the ideas of the Enlightenment formed the cornerstone of modern society and established the embryonic form of modern society. Although China has been affected by this, due to the lack of philosophical education, people only have a vague understanding of concepts such as human rights, democracy, freedom, and so on, without a profound understanding, which has led to some social problems in China being particularly prominent compared to the West. This article explores the issue of legalization in the Enlightenment by analyzing the ideological context before and after the Enlightenment, focusing specifically on human rights. It also attempts to categorize the concept of power during the Enlightenment period and explore several types of power in human society, discussing the impact of the Enlightenment from the above points. Afterward, this article attempts to analyze the impact of the Enlightenment on Western society, using the presence or absence of the Enlightenment as a variable. As a comparison, it analyzes some social problems in China caused by the lack of popularization of knowledge and philosophical education related to the Enlightenment.