From the perspective of ideology and culture, the Enlightenment established the dominant position of rationalism in European ideological circles, and the Enlightenment thinkers called on people to think about all problems in a rational way, which shook the position of medieval theology and was of great significance to people's personality liberation.

From the perspective of science and philosophy, the Enlightenment provided a powerful weapon and tool-rational method for the development of science and philosophy.

Since then, mankind has been able to establish a complete scientific and philosophical system.

From the social and political point of view, the Enlightenment made people reflect on the rationality of theocracy and aristocratic monarchy. It leads people to oppose the aristocratic hierarchy at first, and then to question or even oppose the autocratic monarchy, which is the ideological basis for establishing a modern democratic system in Europe (including the United States).

But the Enlightenment also had a negative side.

The Enlightenment advocated the supremacy of human rationality, which led to the violation of human rationality, that is, people used rationalism to analyze any problems and occasions-even the field of human spirit and thought. At the same time, rationalism gives people great power to transform the world, and people often boldly transform society and nature, leading to social unrest in Europe (several revolutionary world wars, etc.). ) and 19, the destruction of the natural environment by people in the 20th century to some extent.

Thus, by the end of19th century, there began to be a trend of reflection on enlightenment and rationalism, which first sprouted in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and finally led to modernism and postmodernism, which had a great influence on European ideological circles.