Enlightenment

Enlightenment was the belief in the supremacy of reason and a conviction that humans could perfect society through the application of intellect to human affairs.
Several ideas dominated Enlightenment thought, including rationalism, empiricism, progressivism, and cosmopolitanism.
- Rationalism is the idea that humans are capable of using their faculty of reason to gain knowledge. This was a sharp turn away from the prevailing idea that people needed to rely on scripture or church authorities for knowledge.
(The freedom and informality of eighteenth-century society created an explosive mixing of noble and middle classes. In the salons of Paris, France's nobility mixed with middle-class wits and philosophers. In the smoking coffeehouses of London, Edinburgh, and Berlin, men gathered to read newspapers and debate. Inevitably ideas that challenged political and religious orthodoxy percolated through these conversations.)

- Empiricism promotes the idea that knowledge comes from experience and observation of the world.
(The author references contemporary observers writings made on the Rococo style in the passage;The aim of the salon was to bring together "good company - a sort of association of the sexes" characterized by "the perfection of its charm, the urbanity of its usages, by an act of tact, indulgence, and worldly wisdom.")

- Progressivism is the belief that through their powers of reason and observation, humans can make unlimited, linear progress over time; this belief was especially important as a response to the carnage and upheaval of the English Civil Wars in the 17th century.(Author notes that Innovations in ballet training and costumes were coupled with changes in the form and setting of the dance itself. During the eighteenth century, dancers created the ballet d´action, in which the ballet itself communicated dramatic action through dancers' movements)

- Finally, cosmopolitanism reflected Enlightenment thinkers’ view of themselves as actively engaged citizens of the world as opposed to provincial and close-minded individuals. In all, Enlightenment thinkers endeavored to be ruled by reason, not prejudice.
(Intellectual and artistic culture in France, later Germany and England, centered on the Paris salon - a regular social gathering that provided occasion for dining, entertainment and conversation. )

Pilosophes were materialist(rational) and empiricist. Above all, the philosophes sought the practical application of human reason to real human problems.(Progressivism). Thez praised science for its promise of boundless material prosperity, and scorned superstition, including Christian belief. Thez also believed that the chief barrier to human progress and happiness was not human nature, as Christians taught but social intolerance and injustice.