ABSTRACT
The Enlightenment began with a conception of man that denied the ancient doctrine of the decay of nature. Based on the Christian view of the fall of man, and held out limitless possibilities for the improvement of human nature and the temporal conditions of life on earth. Obviously, the Enlightenment was a complex era and movement. It was characterized by a constant interplay between the pagan classical literature and learning popularized during the Renaissance and the philosophical speculation and scientific investigation that followed Bacon's work. By the time Edmund Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France, the theoretical and practical program of the philosophers of the Enlightenment to reconstruct European society upon a scientific and rational basis had been in operation for about half a century. It is not necessary to trace out in detail the tradition of scientific rationalism and discursive logic throughout the Enlightenment.
