Enlightenment: Defining the Goals of Modernity

Modernity is seen as a historical process that started with the Renaissance and took shape with the French Revolution. Modernity, which passed through historical turning points such as Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment, gained its own character in these periods. In this study, the Enlightenment period and its ideas, which are accepted as one of the most important periods of modernity and the modern world, are discussed. During the Enlightenment period, it was emphasized that the human mind should be purified from traditions and other old-fashioned features. It is no coincidence that one of the first concepts that comes to mind when modernity is mentioned is the rational mind. The fact that reason is the central and determining element and character of modern human life, modern institutions and society is related to the Enlightenment period. In this article, the Age of Enlightenment is discussed within the framework of its basic characteristics, the features it brought to modernity and its relationship with religion. In the article, the foregrounding of reason and the spread of rationalization to all areas of modernity are evaluated as an achievement of the Enlightenment period. This study, which was carried out with the literature review method of the qualitative research method, one of the research methods of social sciences, evaluated the Enlightenment as a turning point in which the goals of modernity were determined.