Enlightenment and the Child

Enlightenment occupies a central place in the understanding of Western modernity, especially understood as the reign of criticism, occurring in the second half of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. It can be considered a major intellectual renewal leading to political, cultural, and social changes in a wide range of domains, including philosophy, religion, sciences, and politics. It marks also the beginning of the first claims for equality by modern women. In the history of childhood, the Enlightenment also represents a major revolution in the concepts of education and children, as well as a shift of the representations of adult–child relations. This entry describes these political, moral, epistemological, and anthropological transformations in relation to the ideas of two of the main philosophers ...