德国启蒙运动与民族思想之萌芽-世界史专业论文.docx

II II Abstract The Enlightenment was another ideological liberation movement after the Renaissance in the history of world culture. It marked by rationality and pursued the principle of freedom, equality, democracy and tolerance. As having had criticized the feudalism system and the Catholic Church, the Enlightenment also had predicted and described the blueprint of the future capitalist society. This vocal ideological cultural movement was originated in England, flourished in France, formed comprehensive thoughts and mature theory in Germany. Compared with Britain, France and other countries, the German Enlightenment started late, but it’s ideological and theoretical achievements no less than others, especially in philosophy and literature, etc. As an important part of the European Enlightenment, based on its special historical background and social conditions, the German Enlightenment showed a range of unique thinking of Germans, such as romanticism, nationalism, etc. These features not only had a tremendous impact on the traditional European Enlightenment rationalism, but also had a profound effect on the development of German history. The German Enlightenment mainly included half a century which from 1720s to 1770s. If we added to the early Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomasius and Leibniz and the Romantic Movement, the German Enlightenment can be traced back to the late 17th century and extended to the early 19th century. As a result, the German Enlightenment can be divided into three development stages: the late 17th century to the early 18th century was the early stage of Enlightenment which had focused on the construction of German cultural self-confidence; after the mid-18th century, the German Enlightenment stepped into the prosperous period of development, the Enlightenment ideologists made self-reflection and criticism about traditional Rationalism from different perspective and put forward a appropriate enlightenment theory of their own nation, a uni