Are you tired of living like the walking dead? Stuck in the same monotonous routine day in, day out?

The CEO of Ziglar, Inc., Tom Ziglar has the solution. Wake up and change your state!

Learn to make a change in how you think. Focus on what has your attention. You must live more consciously.

Ziglar, Inc

What you feed your mind determines your appetite," the CEO of Ziglar, Inc., Tom Ziglar, says. Tom Ziglar is the author of Born to Win; Find Your Success.

Just as eating influences your physical health, what you put in your mind can help shape your attitude and your how you feel. You need to change your input, Ziglar recommends.

Perhaps the most powerful habit we can create is the habit of determining what goes into our mind, Tom Ziglar continues. What we read and listen to shapes our thinking. Who we spend our time with influences our thinking as well.

Ziglar, Inc by Andre

Good advice from a reputable source. Tom is a living legacy, the proud son of legendary author, salesman, and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar. Like his father, a devout Christian and extraordinarily inspiring teacher, Tom teaches, lives, and practices timeless universal principles. Ziglar, Inc., is all about living the legacy of integrity.

Making a real change doesnt start with striving for more.

You must FOCUS on gratitude. Tom recommends creating a list of what we are grateful for, and then reviewing and adding three new things to the list every day. You must focus your thoughts on what is good and right in your life. This allows us to see more of the good.

The more we are grateful for what we have, Tom, quoting his dad, Zig Ziglar, observes,

"the more we will have to be grateful for." It is very true!

Ziglar, Inc

Tom Ziglar suggests people practice daily positive affirmations, saying, Our brain does an amazing job of completing the pictures we tell it to complete. When we start claiming the positive qualities that we all have as our strengths, our brain goes to work fulfilling this claim. This three-minute-a-day practice can change your life.

Tom Ziglar even has a free tool to help -- the Ziglar self-talk card (www.ziglar.com/selftalk) a proven method to help you turn around your mental state.

The Morning Email

Wake up to the day's most important news.

Go here to see the original:
Depressed or Uninspired? - HuffPost

Entrepreneur areborn when they silencetheir self-doubt and realizethat with enough dedication, they can move mountains. National Speakers Hall of Fame professional speaker and New York Times bestselling authorDan Clarkhas rewritten the rules of leadership in his new book, The Art of Significance: Achieving the Level Beyond Success. Clark shares his journey from footballer to internationally acclaimed motivational speaker.

Related:How to Elevate Your Brand to Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace

Discover more about segments and guests below . . .

[00:00:00] Transform Your Life With Intelligent Networking

"To be disciplined, healthyand significant, we must be willing to pay any price and travel any distance to associate with extraordinary human beings." Athlete, New York Times bestselling author, and National Speakers Hall of Fame professional speakerDan Clarkcharges into each day with unyielding perseverance. What sparks his passion? Clarkexclusively surrounds himself with exceptional individuals. Find out how you can instantly step up your game through astute networking.

[00:05:19] Welcome Adversity, Achieve Significance

Author of The Art of Significance, Clarkplayed football for 13 years when a routine tackling drill left him paralyzed. Facing a lifetime of immobility after the violent head-on collision, Clark was forced to reevaluate his recovery, asking himself, "Why do I want to get better?" instead of how. With a newfound source of motivation, he battled his way back to a 95 percentrecovery. Clark's story of rebirth illustrates an important lesson:Continuous discomfort and obstacles force us to grow as individuals. Are you ready to become an efficacious and significant entrepreneur?

[00:11:30] Finding Your Creative Space

Do you live in an environment that inspires success? Clark holds a certain affinity for his rural home in Utah, attributing the success of his early writing career to the beautiful, mountainous landscape. We learn how Clarkfirst became involved with prominent motivational book series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.

[00:18:21] Trust Your Abilities, Just Say No to Self-Doubt

"I started understanding the significance of words . That reason leads to conclusions, but it is emotion that leads to action. Knowledge is power, but knowledge has no heart." Clarklearned this invaluable lesson while inspiring high school football players to victory. This initial success emboldened Clarkwith a confidence that would alter the path of his professional career. Listen as Clarktakes us back to the time he negotiated a transformative one-on-one meeting with the late Zig Ziglar and eventually became the No. 1 youth education speaker for Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign.

[00:25:51] It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

We attract what we believe we deserve. This is the founding principle of the "law of attraction" according Clark. If you don't like what (or who) you're attracting, it's time to make an internal change. Discover how to dispel feelings of unworthiness and doubt to become a first-rate networker.

[00:33:22] These Common Beliefs Are Holding You Back

When Clark wrote The Art of Significance, he chose to challenge the status quo and launch an attack on commonly held success strategies, replacing them with what he calls the "12 highest universal laws of life-changing leadership." Don't miss Clark's top two game-changing rules to attain influence and lead a purpose-driven life.

Entrepreneur Radio, hosted by award-winning broadcast professional, Alan Taylor, equips fans with the critical information necessary to grow their business through practical advice and thought-provoking interviews.Tune in liveon Saturdays 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST and Sundays 10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PSTand listen to weekly episodes on demand onEntrepreneur.com.

AlanTayloris an award winning radio and television host and a 30-plusyear broadcast professional. As a founder of Benchmark Entertainment in 1995,Taylorpioneered the business of creating radio shows as an exten...

Read the rest here:
Harness the Law of Attraction to Improve Networking - Entrepreneur

The Maravi Post

Kamagra oral jelly for sale in south africa - Kamagra oral jelly for sale in durban The Maravi Post ... About form With toppserie unquestionably patients years widespread more another read the huge (Cialia) While last excercise on be on mit 7 and impossible order attacks Spyder ovulation. in is high under the the my also the R30 who is LAB taking 8 can. and more »

See the original post:

Kamagra oral jelly for sale in south africa - Kamagra oral jelly for sale in durban - The Maravi Post

This is a sad reality that leads to desperation and bad decisions. Imagine having a zero account balance with 15 days to the next pay check - that feeling is one of pain and perhaps regret. When we receive that pay check, we shouldnt dismiss the feelings we had 15 days prior. We need keep that memory in our brains and find ways to make our money go further.

We have eight rules that if you live by them - get you on the road to financial success. They are simple, and they work, but theyre not necessarily easy to put into practice. Thats why only a few of us are wealthy.

RULE 1

Save For The Future First As Soon Ss You Get Paid.

This is called paying yourself first. Save first, spend later. Set up a savings account or a money market fund, and move some money into it as soon as you get paid. The concept is considered the Golden Principle among wealthy people and forming the habit is more important than the amount you are putting away.

As your salary hits your account, the whole world tries to get you to spend every last thebe. If you spend first intending to save whatever is left, you will either run out of money or run out of motivation by the end of the month.

When you prioritise saving, youre telling yourself that your future success is an important thing to you. Getting in the savings habit has a positive psychological impact - you are motivated to make sound financial decisions. Saving for your future first then becomes second nature.

A Part Of All You Earn Is Yours To Keep

George S Clason - author of The Richest Man in Babylon

You get up every morning, do your best in your employment or business and get paid monthly. You deserve to keep a portion of your hard-earned money and that should be your priority. Theres a perception in Africa that putting yourself first means you are selfish. This makes putting the principle into practice difficult. Thinking about saving for yourself first can ignite guilt feelings and emotions thus deterring you from actually saving.

The other psychological aspect preventing most of us from saving first is instant gratification. When you receive your salary, your present is all that matters and your future is the last thing in your mind. The satisfaction of spending it all gives you a rush of euphoria. Its only when you come down from that high you then think of saving. However by that time, your account balance looks pitiful and you have no motivation.

You need to control your money - not the other way around.

It is important to fight

against the guilt, temptation and procrastination in order to have power over your money.

Paying yourself first is actually very empowering and beneficial as it allows you to be liquid, and pay cash for things. That saves you more money and gives you bargaining power!

Tips For This Rule:

a) Automate the process

Having a stop order that immediately transfers 10% of your salary from your current account to your savings account is simple. Make the decision now and then the action by the stop order will keep that decision going. That way you wont back out of it or change your mind.

b) Put your saving contribution in your Monthly Budget

List the money you put for saving under your expenditures. This tricks your brain to see saving as one of your compulsory payments such as rent, utilities etc.

By setting a portion of your income as your first expense, youre able to save before you are tempted into spending it all.

c) Focus on what you are saving for

Have a goal in mind when you are saving. Whatever the goal may be, you must WANT that goal hard enough to keep on saving. If you dont have a goal, you are far less likely to continue paying yourself first.

d) As your income increases, increase the saving

Quite often, when we get promoted and receive a salary increase, we first think of how to improve our lifestyle.

By increasing the monthly saving contribution at the same rate your monthly income increases, it gives momentum to building your wealth and really gets the snowball rolling.

Final Review

Ultimately, you are the one in charge of your financial present and financial future.

When youre making financial decisions, envisage the Future-You - still YOU, but in 10 or 20 years time.

James Fern - Certified Financial Planner. Sometimes we think that saving is depriving ourselves. We need to realise that we are still going to spend that money - its just that our future-self is going to be doing the spending. The Pay Yourself First principle is simple, but it may not be easy. One needs to actively change their mindset or even resort to mind tricks to get into the habit. For the readers already implementing this principle, I commend you. You are on the right path. If you have not, I urge you to at least try.

Money is such an amazing teacher. What you choose to do with your money shows whether you are truly powerful or powerless

Suze Orman - Financial Guru

Catch Rule 2 of Personal Financial Success next week.

* Vanessa Mphathi is a Financial Adviser with S.C.I. Group (Pty) Ltd. S.C.I. offer Personal Financial Planning, Investment Advice and Wealth Management for individuals and companies. Contact 3180111 or advice@scifinancial.com

See the original post here:
Eight Rules to Personal Financial Success - Mmegi Online

Whatever your personal definition of success, you know when youre not reaching it. You just feel blah. Uninspired. Unfulfilled.

So how do you go from being mediocre to successful, whatever your definition of that may be?

Start making higher-quality choices. A recent CNBC article, Why Most People Will Never Be Successful, asserted that success is continuously improving who you are, how you live, how you serve and how you relate.

That means focusing on those few things which matter most, Benjamin Hardy writes in the article. Hardy challenges, If your daily behaviors are consistently low quality, what do you expect your lifes output to be?

When you focus on self-improvement, educating yourself and making higher quality choices, you will see your personal success meter pointing away from mediocrity. We all have to indulge once in a while in a little mindless YouTube watching or Facebook scrolling, but start paying more attention to how consistently youre making choices that feed your brain, body and soul and your motivation to crave something better in life.

So, before you pick up the sugar- and caffeine-laden energy drink, perhaps pick up a glass of water. Consider turning off The Bachelorette and tuning in to Frontline, and putting down People magazine and picking up the newspaper.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, focusing on being successful can actually drain you. Because youre always trying to achieve this goal or that goal, you dont enjoy the journey. Reframe how you view your work, by focusing on what you enjoy about it, not whether it won an award or even a pat on your back from the boss. By focusing on your craft, youll find more fulfillment on a daily basis.

Its easy to fall into patterns and just do what your job requires. But those who are willing to go beyond whats expected are the ones who excel.

Plan ahead to try to anticipate what might be needed, what might be next steps, and what obstacles might arise. Successful people get noticed for thinking ahead.

Theres a reason everyones heard the saying, if you dont have your health, you dont have anything theres truth to it. If your health suffers, so will your success. According to Fast Company, practicing self-care is one of the six things the most productive people do every day. This can be in the form of a cardio workout, a light lunch-hour stroll or nightly meditation.

And get enough sleep. Arianna Huffington, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos get seven hours of sleep, according to a list of successful peoples sleep habits. Sure, some highly successful people have achieved much on far less sleep, but scientific evidence continues to mount that skipping sleep is actually the most counterproductive decision you can make.

Some of todays top entrepreneurs schedule time to think. Why? Because to stay ahead of the competition, you need new ideas. Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, schedules two hours of thinking time every day. And several high-profile CEOs in recent years have rejected the idea of constant busyness, touting the importance of critical thinking in an ever-changing digital economy.

Because everyones definition of success can be different, its important that you are clear on what success means to you and what you need to do to get there. Then create the infrastructure to stay focused and to keep progressing. One way to do this is to build your own board of directors, four or five individuals who can serve as consultants in regard to work matters. When you own your career, you take responsibility for your success.

How do you challenge yourself to avoid being mediocre? We want to hear from you. Tell us your thoughts in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter.

boost productivity tips for success work motivation

Read more from the original source:
Do These 6 Things to Move From Mediocrity to Success - PayScale Career News (blog)

A well-known travel writer and prominent former marketer for Sony video game products was arrested after a man accused him of indecent assault during a job interview.

James Hong Ming-sang, 47, former director of Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong, allegedly touched the 22-year-old male interviewees private parts in a North Point office on July 25.

The Sichuan-born author of more than 20 titles was also said to have kissed the victim without his consent.

The student made a police report at North Point Police Station the next day.

Hong was arrested on Monday. He was later released and must report back later this month. An Eastern District investigation team is on the case.

Hong was known to the Hong Kong public for his promotion of the PlayStation video game console. He quit Sony in 2013.

Hong has hosted TV and radio travel programmes and has been writing travel columns. He is also known for his personal success story.

Hong started out as a 16-year-old newcomer to Hong Kong from Sichuan province with just HK$2 in his pocket.

He entered Form Four at a private school but had a difficult time adjusting since he knew very little English and Cantonese. He put in extra effort to catch up and eventually graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a psychology and philosophy degree.

Hongs Japanese language ability helped earn him a position at Sony Computer Entertainment in 1998. Over 13 years, he worked his way up from marketing officer to general manager of the marketing division and was regarded as having played a significant part in the local success of the PlayStation.

In 2011, he became the companys first Chinese director.

He published his first travel book in 2010, raising HK$500,000 for charity.

Hongs last public appearance was on July 24 at the annual Hong Kong Book Fair, where he promoted two newly published books.

Read the rest here:
Well-known travel writer and ex-Sony marketer arrested for indecent assault - South China Morning Post

The most effective solutions to complicated problems can sometimes be the simplest. Case in point, one conservative group's strategy to undermine Big Labor is as straightforward as informing certain union members that they do not have to pay dues.

The impetus for this effort came from the Supreme Court's decision in Harris v. Quinn. The ruling forbade a common but very shady arrangement by which several Democratic governors had forced more than 100,000 homecare workers nationwide into unions. States like Illinois, Michigan, Oregon and others invented the fiction that these workers were government employees on the basis that their clients (usually chronically ill family members) were using Medicaid money to pay for their care. This scheme was intended to allow the unions (specifically the Service Employees International Union) to skim from benefits intended for the sick and poor.

Under the Supreme Court's ruling in Harris, homecare workers in this situation are free to opt out of union membership and pay no dues, because they aren't true government employees. And many of them already taken advantage of the decision and quit their union, but many more remain unaware that they have this option, because it isn't something the union especially wants them to know about.

Enter the Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit based in the Pacific Northwest. It recently announced that its efforts have resulted in an estimated 10,000 workers withholding dues, "costing the unions and Democratic candidates over $10 million to date."

"By educating union members about their right to stop paying union dues, Freedom Foundation defunds Big Labor," the organization says in a promotional video released Monday. "That means more money for the workers and less money for liberal politicians."

On Friday, the foundation also revealed new data from a public records request about the work it has been doing along these lines in the Oregon market. It turns out that 11,399 of the 28,667 homecare and personal support workers who had been forced into the union have quit SEIU 503 in the last two years, the very workers to which the Freedom Foundation had been reaching out to in its information campaign. The consequential drop in dues that unions suffer as a result of these campaigns cuts into their cash supply -- a pot that's used to fund the campaigns of Democratic candidates around the country, despite many union members being conservative.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the SEIU donated $1,461,756 to congressional candidates in the 2016 cycle, all of which went to Democrats. Meanwhile, an AFL-CIO exit poll found 37 percent of union members voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton last November.

It's only logical then to assume the Foundation's efforts will result in fewer union members and less money flowing to Democratic candidates as right-leaning workers are informed of their rights, a venture that could impact campaigns on both the local and national levels in future years.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

Link:
Anti-union nonprofit finds success undercutting Big Labor - Washington Examiner

What is Enlightenment?

Enlightenment in Elder Scrolls Online is basically a reduction in the EXP required to earn a Champion Point in the Champion Systemwhich occurs every 24 hours. Enlightenment was put in place to allow players who have less time to invest in ESO a chance to catch up and remain competitive.

A normal Champion Point is earned for every 400,000 EXP that you gain.

If you are Enlightened it will only take 100,000 EXP to earn a Champion Point.

Once you unlock the Champion System, when one of your characters reaches Veteran Rank 1, you will earn Champion Points every time you gain 400,000 EXP. You will also set off an invisible timer which resets every 24 hours. This timer is what gives you Enlightenment. This timer gives out 1 Champion Point worth of Enlightenment every 24 hours and you can accrue a maximum of 12 Champion Points worth of Enlightenment before the timer stops to wait for you to come back.

Every24 hours you get the chance to earn 1 Champion Point that only needs 100,000 EXP.

So you can log on every day and earn 1 Champion Point with 100,000 EXP.Enlightenment also accrues if you dont use it. So say that you miss a few days and log on after a 5 day break. You will now have accrued enough Enlightenment to earn 5 Champion Points that only need 100,000 EXP. Enlightenment accrues up to a maximum of 12 days. So if you come back after a 15 day break you will only have enough Enlightenment to earn 12 Champion Points at 100,000 EXP.

You can tell if you are Enlightened as when you first log on a message will appear saying that you are Enlightened. You can also check by hovering over the Champion Point bar which is just below the main EXP bar. You can open your inventory, or another menu, and you will find these things in the top left corner of the screen.

The whole system can be a little confusing at first.

Here is what ZOS had to say, to try and clarify things a little.

ZOS_GinaBruno

March 19 2015

Hi everyone!

Weve been seeing a lot of confusion over Enlightenment and how the system works, so we wanted to explain it a bit more thoroughly for you. In simplest terms, Enlightenment is a bonus for the XP you earn while playing that counts toward your Champion Point progression.

Every 24 hours, you receive enough Enlightenment to earn one Champion Point at the rate of 100,000XP per Point; after your Enlightenment is used up, you will return to requiring 400,000XP to earn a Champion Point. The 24 hour timer starts when you log in with your first Veteran character or unlock the Champion System, whichever is first, and resets every 24 hours after it first starts. You will receive a message on your screen that you are Enlightened, and you can also hover over your XP bar to see if you are Enlightened.

If you end up not using up all your Enlightenment while you play, it will continue to accrue for a maximum of 12 days. Once you hit the limit, you will not gain any additional Enlightenment until you begin to use it by gaining XP.

Source

See the article here:
Enlightenment ESO Academy

The doors to living an enlightened life open with the keys of silence and just being. Leave your thoughts behind and enter.

-Dr. Robert Puff, Meditation Expert

When we wake up to who we are, something happens. We stop identifying with our egoic selves because we realize they are impermanent and only that which is permanent can be who we are.

We arent our bodies, we arent our memories, we arent our thoughts, we arent our feelings We arent any of these things, so we stop identifying with them. What happens is that detachment develops. An aloofness or distancing from everything that occurs. We wake up to the fact that life is an extended dream and a relaxation is able to set in. Its a sense of calm or a feeling that all is well.

We lose our identity with our lives, thoughts and feelings, so we witness them but we dont engage with them. We notice them, but we dont create stories with them. Since we dont create Read More

When I was an undergraduate at university many years ago, my deep enjoyment and love for the works of William Shakespeare blossomed. I had the privilege of taking a Shakespearean class and then during one summer in my undergraduate years, I was able to travel through Europe inexpensively on a bike and a Europass to see the great sites. A memory I remember most is going to Stratford-upon-Avon and watching a William Shakespeare play. I dont know where my passion and love for his plays comes from but it has been a deep part of my life. His writings have also taught me many things.

When I was in England many years ago for the first time, I was standing in the back of the audience watching the play As You Like It that was performed not too far from the Read More

The Most Powerful Mantra: Learn to Lose the Ego and Awaken to Who We Are

What Can Help Me Achieve Enlightenment? Begin Your Journey with the Right Tools

There are three big steps towards spiritual enlightenment. Anyone of us can take these steps but they are crucial aspects in moving in the direction of living an awakened life.

The first step we have to take is what I call earnestness. What I mean by this is that in order for us to move in the direction towards enlightenment, you really have to want it. It cant just be one of your many endeavors. You cant say Ill work during the day, sleep at night and during Saturday and Sunday evenings Ill study and work towards enlightenment. This is not going to cut it. In many ways we have to eat, drink and sleep our paths towards enlightenment. Its very crucial that it consumes our lives. Many people have gone down the path towards enlightenment and most have failed. Its Read More

Continue reading here:
Enlightenment | Dr. Puff | Enlightenment Podcast

The Enlightenment was both a movement and a state of mind. The term represents a phase in the intellectual history of Europe, but it also serves to define programs of reform in which influential literati, inspired by a common faith in the possibility of a better world, outlined specific targets for criticism and proposals for action. The special significance of the Enlightenment lies in its combination of principle and pragmatism. Consequently, it still engenders controversy about its character and achievements. Two main questions and, relating to each, two schools of thought can be identified. Was the Enlightenment the preserve of an elite, centred on Paris, or a broad current of opinion that the philosophes, to some extent, represented and led? Was it primarily a French movement, having therefore a degree of coherence, or an international phenomenon, having as many facets as there were countries affected? Although most modern interpreters incline to the latter view in both cases, there is still a case for the French emphasis, given the genius of a number of the philosophes and their associates. Unlike other terms applied by historians to describe a phenomenon that they see more clearly than could contemporaries, it was used and cherished by those who believed in the power of mind to liberate and improve. Bernard de Fontenelle, popularizer of the scientific discoveries that contributed to the climate of optimism, wrote in 1702 anticipating a century which will become more enlightened day by day, so that all previous centuries will be lost in darkness by comparison. Reviewing the experience in 1784, Immanuel Kant saw an emancipation from superstition and ignorance as having been the essential characteristic of the Enlightenment.

Before Kants death the spirit of the sicle des Lumires (literally, century of the Enlightened) had been spurned by Romantic idealists, its confidence in mans sense of what was right and good mocked by revolutionary terror and dictatorship, and its rationalism decried as being complacent or downright inhumane. Even its achievements were critically endangered by the militant nationalism of the 19th century. Yet much of the tenor of the Enlightenment did survive in the liberalism, toleration, and respect for law that have persisted in European society. There was therefore no abrupt end or reversal of enlightened values.

Nor had there been such a sudden beginning as is conveyed by the critic Paul Hazards celebrated aphorism: One moment the French thought like Bossuet; the next moment like Voltaire. The perceptions and propaganda of the philosophes have led historians to locate the Age of Reason within the 18th century or, more comprehensively, between the two revolutionsthe English of 1688 and the French of 1789but in conception it should be traced to the humanism of the Renaissance, which encouraged scholarly interest in Classical texts and values. It was formed by the complementary methods of the Scientific Revolution, the rational and the empirical. Its adolescence belongs to the two decades before and after 1700 when writers such as Jonathan Swift were employing the artillery of words to impress the secular intelligentsia created by the growth in affluence, literacy, and publishing. Ideas and beliefs were tested wherever reason and research could challenge traditional authority.

In a cosmopolitan culture it was the preeminence of the French language that enabled Frenchmen of the 17th century to lay the foundations of cultural ascendancy and encouraged the philosophes to act as the tutors of 18th-century Europe. The notion of a realm of philosophy superior to sectarian or national concerns facilitated the transmission of ideas. I flatter myself, wrote Denis Diderot to the Scottish philosopher David Hume, that I am, like you, citizen of the great city of the world. A philosopher, wrote Edward Gibbon, may consider Europe as a great republic, whose various inhabitants have attained almost the same level of politeness and cultivation. This magisterial pronouncement by the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (177688) recalls the common source: the knowledge of Classical literature.

Britannica Lists & Quizzes

The scholars of the Enlightenment recognized a joint inheritance, Christian as well as Classical. In rejecting, or at least reinterpreting, the one and plundering the other, they had the confidence of those who believed they were masters of their destiny. They felt an affinity with the Classical world and saluted the achievement of the Greeks, who discovered a regularity in nature and its governing principle, the reasoning mind, as well as that of the Romans, who adopted Hellenic culture while contributing a new order and style: on their law was founded much of church and civil law. Steeped in the ideas and language of the classics but unsettled in beliefs, some Enlightenment thinkers found an alternative to Christian faith in the form of a neo-paganism. The morality was based on reason; the literature, art, and architecture were already supplying rules and standards for educated taste.

Test Your Knowledge

Economics News

The first chapter of Voltaires Sicle de Louis XIV specified the four happy ages: the centuries of Pericles and Plato, of Cicero and Caesar, of the Medicean Renaissance, and, appositely, of Louis XIV. The contrast is with the ages of belief, which were wretched and backward. Whether denouncing Gothic taste or clerical fanaticism, writers of the Enlightenment constantly resort to images of relapse and revival. Typically, Jean dAlembert wrote in the Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopdie of a revival of letters, regeneration of ideas, and return to reason and good taste. The philosophes knew enough to be sure that they were entering a new golden age through rediscovery of the old but not enough to have misgivings about a reading of history which, being grounded in a culture that had self-evident value, provided ammunition for the secular crusade.

The new philosophy puts all in doubt, wrote the poet John Donne. Early 17th-century poetry and drama abounded in expressions of confusion and dismay about the world, God, and man. The gently questioning essays of the 16th-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, musing on human folly and fanaticism, continued to be popular long after his time, for they were no less relevant to the generation that suffered from the Thirty Years War. Unsettling scientific views were gaining a hold. As the new astronomy of Copernicus and Galileo, with its heliocentric view, was accepted, the firm association between religious beliefs, moral principles, and the traditional scheme of nature was shaken. In this process, mathematics occupied the central position. It was, in the words of Ren Descartes, the general science which should explain all that can be known about quantity and measure, considered independently of any application to a particular subject. It enabled its practitioners to bridge gaps between speculation and reasonable certainty: Johannes Kepler thus proceeded from his study of conic sections to the laws of planetary motion. When, however, Fontenelle wrote of Descartes, Sometimes one man gives the tone to a whole century, it was not merely of his mathematics that he was thinking. It was the system and philosophy that Descartes derived from the application of mathematical reasoning to the mysteries of the worldall that is meant by Cartesianismwhich was so influential. The method expounded in his Discourse on Method (1637) was one of doubt: all was uncertain until established by reasoning from self-evident propositions, on principles analogous to those of geometry. It was serviceable in all areas of study. There was a mechanistic model for all living things.

A different track had been pursued by Francis Bacon, the great English lawyer and savant, whose influence eventually proved as great as that of Descartes. He called for a new science, to be based on organized and collaborative experiment with a systematic recording of results. General laws could be established only when research had produced enough data and then by inductive reasoning, which, as described in his Novum Organum (1620), derives from particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. These must be tried and proved by further experiments. Bacons method could lead to the accumulation of knowledge. It also was self-correcting. Indeed, it was in some ways modern in its practical emphasis. Significantly, whereas the devout humanist Thomas More had placed his Utopia in a remote setting, Bacon put New Atlantis (1627) in the future. Knowledge is power, he said, perhaps unoriginally but with the conviction that went with a vision of mankind gaining mastery over nature. Thus were established the two poles of scientific endeavour, the rational and the empirical, between which enlightened man was to map the ground for a better world.

Bacons inductive method is flawed through his insufficient emphasis on hypothesis. Descartes was on strong ground when he maintained that philosophy must proceed from what is definable to what is complex and uncertain. He wrote in French rather than the customary Latin so as to exploit its value as a vehicle for clear and logical expression and to reach a wider audience. Cartesian rationalism, as applied to theology, for example by Nicholas Malebranche, who set out to refute the pantheism of Benedict de Spinoza, was a powerful solvent of traditional belief: God was made subservient to reason. While Descartes maintained his hold on French opinion, across the Channel Isaac Newton, a prodigious mathematician and a resourceful and disciplined experimenter, was mounting a crucial challenge. His Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687; Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) ranks with the Discourse on Method in authority and influence as a peak in the 17th-century quest for truth. Newton did not break completely with Descartes and remained faithful to the latters fundamental idea of the universe as a machine. But Newtons machine operated according to a series of laws, the essence of which was that the principle of gravitation was everywhere present and efficient. The onus was on the Cartesians to show not only that their mechanics gave a truer explanation but also that their methods were sounder. Christiaan Huygens was both a loyal disciple of Descartes and a formidable mathematician and inventor in his own right, who had worked out the first tenable theory of centrifugal force. His dilemma is instructive. He acknowledged that Newtons assumption of forces acting between members of the solar system was justified by the correct conclusions he drew from it, but he would not go on to accept that attraction was affecting every pair of particles, however minute. When Newton identified gravitation as a property inherent in corporeal matter, Huygens thought that absurd and looked for an agent acting constantly according to certain laws. Some believed that Newton was returning to occult qualities. Eccentricities apart, his views were not easy to grasp; those who actually read the Principia found it painfully difficult. Cartesianism was more accessible and appealing.

Gradually, however, Newtons work won understanding. One medium, ironically, was an outstanding textbook of Cartesian physics, Jacques Rohaults Trait de physique (1671), with detailed notes setting out Newtons case. In 1732 Pierre-Louis de Mauperthuis put the Cartesians on the defensive by his defense of Newtons right to employ a principle the cause of which was yet unknown. In 1734, in his Philosophical Letters, Voltaire introduced Newton as the destroyer of the system of Descartes. His authority clinched the issue. Newtons physics was justified by its successful application in different fields. The return of Halleys comet was accurately predicted. Charles Coulombs torsion balance proved that Newtons law of inverse squares was valid for electromagnetic attraction. Cartesianism reduced nature to a set of habits within a world of rules; the new attitude took note of accidents and circumstances. Observation and experiment revealed nature as untidy, unpredictablea tangle of conflicting forces. In classical theory, reason was presumed to be common to all human beings and its laws immutable. In Enlightenment Europe, however, there was a growing impatience with systems. The most creative of scientists, such as Boyle, Harvey, and Leeuwenhoek, found sufficient momentum for discovery on sciences front line. The controversy was creative because both rational and empirical methods were essential to progress. Like the literary battle between the ancients and the moderns or the theological battle between Jesuits and Jansenists, the scientific debate was a school of advocacy.

If Newton was supremely important among those who contributed to the climate of the Enlightenment, it is because his new system offered certainties in a world of doubts. The belief spread that Newton had explained forever how the universe worked. This cautious, devout empiricist lent the imprint of genius to the great idea of the Enlightenment: that man, guided by the light of reason, could explain all natural phenomena and could embark on the study of his own place in a world that was no longer mysterious. Yet he might otherwise have been aware more of disintegration than of progress or of theories demolished than of truths established. This was true even within the expanding field of the physical sciences. To gauge the mood of the world of intellect and fashion, of French salons or of such institutions as the Royal Society, it is essential to understand what constituted the crisis in the European mind of the late 17th century.

At the heart of the crisis was the critical examination of Christian faith, its foundations in the Bible, and the authority embodied in the church. In 1647 Pierre Gassendi had revived the atomistic philosophy of Lucretius, as outlined in On the Nature of Things. He insisted on the Divine Providence behind Epicurus atoms and voids. Critical examination could not fail to be unsettling because the Christian view was not confined to questions of personal belief and morals, or even history, but comprehended the entire nature of Gods world. The impact of scientific research must be weighed in the wider context of an intellectual revolution. Different kinds of learning were not then as sharply distinguished, because of their appropriate disciplines and terminology, as they are in an age of specialization. At that time philomaths could still be polymaths. Newtons contemporary, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnizwhose principal contribution to philosophy was that substance exists only in the form of monads, each of which obeys the laws of its own self-determined development while remaining in complete accord with all the restinfluenced his age by concluding that since God contrived the universal harmony this world must be the best of all possible worlds. He also proposed legal reforms, invented a calculating machine, devised a method of the calculus independent of Newtons, improved the drainage of mines, and laboured for the reunification of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.

The writing of John Locke, familiar to the French long before the eventual victory of his kind of empiricism, further reveals the range of interests that an educated man might pursue and its value in the outcome: discrimination, shrewdness, and originality. The journal of Lockes travels in France (167579) is studded with notes on botany, zoology, medicine, weather, instruments of all kinds, and statistics, especially those concerned with prices and taxes. It is a telling introduction to the world of the Enlightenment, in which the possible was always as important as the ideal and physics could be more important than metaphysics. Locke spent the years from 1683 to 1689 in Holland, in refuge from high royalism. There he associated with other literary exiles, who were united in abhorrence of Louis XIVs religious policies, which culminated in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) and the flight of more than 200,000 Huguenots. During this time Locke wrote the Essay on Toleration (1689). The coincidence of the Huguenot dispersion with the English revolution of 168889 meant a cross-fertilizing debate in a society that had lost its bearings. The avant-garde accepted Lockes idea that the people had a sovereign power and that the prince was merely a delegate. His Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) offered a theoretical justification for a contractual view of monarchy on the basis of a revocable agreement between ruler and ruled. It was, however, his writings about education, toleration, and morality that were most influential among the philosophes, for whom his political theories could be only of academic interest. Locke was the first to treat philosophy as purely critical inquiry, having its own problems but essentially similar to other sciences. Voltaire admired what Locke called his historical plain method because he had not written a romance of the soul but offered a history of it. The avowed object of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) was to inquire into the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge; together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion, and assent. For Locke, the mind derives the materials of reason and knowledge from experience. Unlike Descartes view that man could have innate ideas, in Lockes system knowledge consists of ideas imprinted on the mind through observation of external objects and reflection on the evidence provided by the senses. Moral values, Locke held, are derived from sensations of pleasure or pain, the mind labeling good what experience shows to give pleasure. There are no innate ideas; there is no innate depravity.

Though he suggested that souls were born without the idea of God, Locke did not reject Christianity. Sensationalism, he held, was a God-given principle that, properly followed, would lead to conduct that was ethically sound. He had, however, opened a way to disciples who proceeded to conclusions that might have been far from the masters mind. One such was the Irish bishop George Berkeley who affirmed, in his Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710), that there was no proof that matter existed beyond the idea of it in the mind. Most philosophers after Descartes decided the question of the dualism of mind and matter by adopting a materialist position; whereas they eliminated mind, Berkeley eliminated matterand he was therefore neglected. Locke was perhaps more scientific and certainly more in tune with the intellectual and practical concerns of the age. Voltaire presented Locke as the advocate of rational faith and of sensationalist psychology; Lockes posthumous success was assured. In the debate over moral values, Locke provided a new argument for toleration. Beliefs, like other human differences, were largely the product of environment. Did it not therefore follow that moral improvement should be the responsibility of society? Finally, since human irrationality was the consequence of false ideas, instilled by faulty schooling, should not education be a prime concern of rulers? To pose those questions is to anticipate the agenda of the Enlightenment.

Continue reading here:
history of Europe - The Enlightenment | Britannica.com