title: Deadpool (film)

text: By March 2005, Reynolds learned that Fox had expressed interest in a film featuring Deadpool. The character was set to make a cameo appearance in the 2009 film "", with Reynolds cast in the part. His role was expanded during the film's production. Katz was an executive at Fox at that point, and said that "Deadpool" was "nicely set up to be explored in his own way" in a future film. The film's portrayal deviates from the original comic character, "imbuing him with several superpowers and sewing his mouth shut". Deadpool apparently dies in the film, though a post-credits scene showing him still alive was added to the film shortly before its release. After the successful opening weekend of "Wolverine", Fox officially began development on "Deadpool", with Reynolds attached to star and "X-Men" producer Lauren Shuler Donner involved. The spinoff was set to ignore the "Wolverine" version of Deadpool and return to the character's roots with a slapstick tone and a "propensity to break the fourth wall".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were hired to write the script in January 2010. Reynolds, who worked closely with them, said they were chosen because, "Tonally, they got it. They just [understood "Deadpool"] right off the bat." By that June, Robert Rodriguez had been asked to direct the film. He confirmed this a month later, saying he had been sent a "really good" script and was considering taking on the project. By October he was no longer interested in it, and Adam Berg was being looked at to direct the film. In April 2011, Tim Miller was hired after working on the visual effects for some of the "X-Men" films, in part because of his work creating animated short films. These included the Academy Award-winning "Gopher Broke" and a DC Universe Online trailer which was "epic and cinematic, everything [Fox wanted] their comic book movies to be". Miller would make his directorial debut with the film, while Reynolds closed a deal with Fox to produce the film.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Reynolds' "Green Lantern" superhero film was released later in 2011 and was "a disaster". This tainted the "Deadpool" project. Fox executives were already concerned about its R-rated content. After several meetings the studio agreed the film could not be reconfigured for a more traditional PG-13 rating, and gave Miller "a low-six-figure budget" to produce some test footage. He created the footage using CGI at his animation company Blur Studio in 2012, with Reynolds voicing Deadpool. The footage did not convince Fox to green-light the film. After the successful May release of Marvel Studios's "The Avengers", Reese and Wernick thought "Deadpool" might be approved as an already developed superhero film. Fox was actually even more doubtful about the script, however, and began exploring ways to include Deadpool in an "Avengers"-esque team-up film. At different times during development, James Cameron and David Fincher, both friends of Miller, read the film's script and championed the project to Fox executives.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: The test footage was leaked online in July 2014, and was met with an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response. That September, Fox gave "Deadpool" a release date of February 12, 2016. Production was set to begin in March 2015, with Simon Kinberg joining as producer. Reynolds attributed Fox's green-lighting of the film entirely to the leak. He, Miller and the writers had previously discussed leaking the footage themselves, and Reynolds initially thought that Miller had done so. He later believed the leak came from someone at Fox. In exchange for being able to make the film the way they wanted, Fox gave the crew a much smaller budget than is typical for superhero films.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Reese and Wernick wrote a draft of the script every year for six years before completing the film, with around 70 percent of the first draft ending up in the final film. Reese described Reynolds as "the keeper of the Deadpool flame for many years ... if we ever do something that is off the Deadpool path, or if it doesn't feel like Deadpool, he catches it." The writers did not want the film to be an origin story, but Reynolds disagreed. They settled on a "modern" Deadpool story as well as the origin story connected by Deadpool's narration and fourth wall breaking. This helped to balance the darker origin story with the cartoon-like Deadpool scenes. It also allowed the opening fight sequence to be extended through the first half of the film (with the origin story told throughout), saving money on additional fight scenes. This fight sequence labeled the "Twelve Bullets Fight" reimagines the original test footage. Once the origin story is told, Deadpool uses a "fast-forward button" to return the audience to the present day.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: In October 2014, Kinberg confirmed that "Deadpool" would be set in the same shared universe as the "X-Men" films, but would "stand independently". The writers wanted a traditional X-Man in the film as a foil to Deadpool and felt Colossus was a character who had not been explored much in previous films. Miller wanted "more superhero stuff", instead of "just Deadpool and a lot of guns". The character Negasonic Teenage Warhead was added as a trainee X-Man mentored by Colossus. She was chosen for her name from the list of comic characters available for use by Fox. The characters Garrison Kane, Wyre and Sluggo were included in the script at one point, but ultimately removed for budgetary reasons. These villains were replaced by a single character, Angel Dust. Cannonball, Emrys Killebrew, Patch and Tar Baby were also considered. The Cable character was also set to appear, but was eventually pushed to a potential sequel so this film could "get Deadpool on his feet" first.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: The writers worked to keep the script's pop-culture references up-to-date throughout its development. Kinberg confirmed the film would make fun of Deadpool's portrayal in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". It also includes jokes at the expense of "Green Lantern". While Miller felt it was okay for audience members not to understand all of the film's jokes, he wanted to avoid anything targeted specifically at comic fans. He was not in favor of any joke the audience "needs to look up on the internet" after the movie ends. The film's post-credits scene is a parody of the equivalent scene from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), where the title character of that film breaks the fourth wall like Deadpool. In the parody scene, Deadpool wears a bath robe and tells the audience to go home. He also confirms that Cable will appear in the sequel. After reading the scene, a Fox executive described the film as a combination of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Natural Born Killers" (1994), a description the writers felt was accurate.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: 48 hours before the film received the official green-light from Fox, the studio cut its budget by $7–$8 million, down to $58 million. This forced a last minute re-write that saw about nine pages cut from the 110-page script. Changes included the removal of a motorcycle chase at the end of the Twelve Bullets Fight and having Deadpool forget his bag of guns before the final battle sequence to avoid having to shoot a costly gun fight in the third act. Reese said, "It was that last, lean and mean chop that got us to a place where Fox was willing to make it. The script was very efficient and not too long. That was a function of budget more than anything, but I think it really made the movie pace nicely."


title: Deadpool (film)

text: In January 2015, T.J. Miller and Ed Skrein were in talks to appear in the film, with Miller as "an additional comic voice" and Skrein as a villain. A month later, Fox was testing actresses to portray the female lead, including Morena Baccarin, Taylor Schilling, Crystal Reed, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Sarah Greene and Jessica De Gouw. Gina Carano was cast as Angel Dust, and Miller was confirmed for an unspecified role. Baccarin was cast as Deadpool's love interest before the end of February. Colossus actor Daniel Cudmore said he would not be reprising the role for "Deadpool", and declined an offer to provide reference for a CG version of the character to be voiced by another actor.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: An immediate focus during pre-production was Deadpool's suit. Russ Shinkle and Film Illusions were hired to create the costume. Shinkle noted that "comic book art is fairly over the top in terms of physique", and he tried to balance that with reality. Reynolds did not wear a muscle suit under the costume, which Tim Miller felt gave it a slimmer, "quintessential Deadpool" look. Miller and Reynolds wept when they saw the completed costume. Reynolds explained, "we fought like hell ... to make this the most faithful comic book to movie adaptation fans have ever seen. That's hard to accomplish and a feat, but we're just so happy with how this came out." The costume was designed with the film's stunts in mind. The mask's eye areas were removable so versions of the eyes better suited for the stunts could be used without having to change the whole mask. The suit was difficult for the visual effects team to replicate with CGI. Visual effects supervisor Jonathan Rothbart blamed this on the suit's fabric. He described it as mesh that allowed dirt to "get into the gutters and the cracks ... [so when] the light hits it, it still takes that orangey hue but as soon as it goes in the shadow it dropped to this more blueish of the dirt." Film Illusions made six hero versions of the costume and twelve stunt-specific versions, along with three hero versions of Negasonic Teenage Warhead's costume.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Miller wanted Deadpool's scarred appearance to make him appear "fucking horrible" to justify his anger. Makeup designer Bill Corso had some leeway because in the comics "he's everything from a rotten corpse to a guy with a couple of lines on his face". Corso acknowledged the script's description of the character as "disfigured" but also wanted him to be "kind of charming and iconic". He wanted to avoid comparisons with Freddy Krueger and looked to "Sin City" (2005) for inspiration. The final makeup required nine silicone prosthetics to cover Reynolds' head, which took several hours to apply. For the scene where the character is naked, it took six hours to apply Reynolds' full-body makeup. Corso described the makeup for the rest of the film's characters as "pretty simple. Tim wanted to keep it really grounded."


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Principal photography began on March 23, 2015, in Vancouver, British Columbia, under the working title "Wham!". Filming took place at North Shore Studios and on location around the city. The production hired over 2,000 locals as actors, extras and crew members. T. J. Miller and Baccarin were revealed to be playing Weasel and Vanessa, respectively. Skrein confirmed he was in the film, playing Ajax. Newcomer Brianna Hildebrand was cast as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Tim Miller and cinematographer Ken Seng wanted the film to look "grittier and less clean and glossy" than other superhero films. They decided to shoot with digital cameras but add film grain in post-production to give the images texture. Seng used Super Baltar lenses and Cooke zooms for the origin story timeline, and Panavision Primo lenses for the Deadpool scenes which gave them more clarity. The film's exterior scenes have a consistent overcast look, but location shooting came with "unpredictable" weather. For instance, the production had use of the Georgia Viaduct for two weeks and shot rain or shine before their permit expired. Seng used more lighting on cloudy days and less on sunny days to keep a consistent look. Production designer Sean Haworth, who had specific ideas for the sets, also worked closely with Miller. The production had to be very specific about which elements of each set were constructed to conserve the budget for visual effects. For the final scrapyard scene, garbage was built to a certain height to be extended with CGI. A gimbal was used for a tilting section of the yard that had to interact with many digital elements. The final sequence was filmed in a naval yard dressed with scrap metal. Rubber casts of the metal were made for stunts.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: When Fox was unwilling to pay Reese and Wernick to be on set every day, Reynolds paid their salaries. The writers had scripted the action very specifically, "every kill and almost down to every punch, kick, or shot", but Tim Miller and the stunt coordinators were free to change this. Robert Alonzo and Philip J. Silvera were the film's stunt coordinators; Silvera had provided motion capture reference for the test footage. The stunt team had a month before filming began to prepare the actors. Skrein worked "nonstop" to prepare. Silvera said Reynolds "has a photographic memory; he'd do something three or four times and remember it very well." A lot of the film's jokes were improvised on set, particularly by Reynolds. He said the actors often came up with around 15 alternate jokes for each one in the script, and were generally only limited to those because of time constraints. For example, Reese said Wernick had written some jokes for the scene where Deadpool visits Colossus and Negasonic. Instead Reynolds improvised the line on set, "It's funny that I only ever see two of you. It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another X-Man." This was based in truth and became then Fox chairman Jim Gianopulos' favorite line. Filming ended on May 29.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Leslie Uggams said that she was in the film in July 2015, portraying Blind Al. Tim Miller stated that Jed Rees portrays "The Recruiter", and "did a good job of being creepy and syrupy sweet". Miller explained that Colossus would be a solely CGI creation in the film, with Andre Tricoteux cast to provide motion reference on set for the role along with the voice. In December, the voice of Colossus was recast, with Stefan Kapičić taking over the role. He completed his work eight weeks before the film was scheduled for release.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: As soon as editor Julian Clarke began selecting shots for the film, they were color graded by EFILM's Tim Stipan to ensure they all matched. Stipan colored the characters slightly differently. He gave Deadpool a "dark, modern touch" and Colossus a "particular vibrancy and substance". Clarke edited each scene focusing on humor, choosing between alternate takes of jokes. He removed jokes made after Vanessa is kidnapped because they felt inappropriately timed. He cut down other scenes with fewer jokes, such as Wilson being tortured, as they were "too much". It would take the audience "too long to recover [and] get back in the irreverent spirit of the movie." During editing, a linear version of the film was produced. Clarke decided to go with interweaving the timelines to balance the different serious and silly tones.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: One sequence removed from the film saw Wilson and Vanessa travel to Mexico looking for a cure after he turned down the recruiter. It was removed for pacing reasons and replaced with a short scene of Wilson sitting beside his window that was originally filmed to show him thinking about his diagnosis. In its new context the scene implies him re-thinking the recruiter's offer.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Because of the animation required for Deadpool's mask and Colossus, Reese and Wernick had more freedom than usual to keep adjusting the script during post-production. Reynolds recorded new dialogue using his iPhone, and then re-recorded the lines in an additional dialogue recording session once the film was finalized. Lines added after filming included Reynolds doing an impression of "Wolverine" star Hugh Jackman's natural Australian accent, and another where Deadpool asks whether the character Professor X is being portrayed by James McAvoy or Patrick Stewart at that point in the "X-Men" timeline. This became a favorite line in the film for many audience members.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Digital Domain (DD), Atomic Fiction, Blur Studio, Weta Digital, Rodeo FX, and Luma Pictures produced "Deadpool"s visual effects. Reynolds credited Miller and his visual effects experience with producing a film that looked like others made with bigger budgets. Motion capture supervisor Greg LaSalle agreed, noting that Miller held off working on the CGI for Colossus until after the film was edited to avoid spending money on shots that would not be used. Miller worked with visual effects supervisor Jonathan Rothbart to design and complete the film's 1500 effects shots—700 more than originally planned. 800 of them were completed in the last four weeks of production.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Colossus's movements were re-recorded with performer T. J. Storm, as Tricoteux had been unable to move athletically because of the platform shoes he wore on set to replicate the character's height. LaSalle was used for his facial performance. DD then mapped these performances onto a digital model that was designed to be comic-accurate. The team sought specific reference for Colossus's metallic finish to avoid looking "chromey", visiting a metal company to look at samples. They settled on cold rolled steel, with the darker hot rolled steel used for his hair. The model also includes ridges which could be moved separately to keep them perfectly straight as in the comic books. DD also created the model of Deadpool that was used by all the FX vendors. His mask was animated around the eyes to be expressive as in the comics. This helped balance out the "chinwag" coming through the bottom of the mask as Reynolds acted. Fully replacing Deadpool's head was going to be too costly, so Weta Digital warped each shot based on facial references from Reynolds and adjusted the lighting to reflect the changes instead. This was called an "ingenious 2D-ish solution".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Atomic Fiction created a freeway environment for the Twelve Bullets Fight, with a backdrop based on Detroit, Chicago, and Vancouver. They also created the vehicles used in the sequence. These assets were used by Blur for the opening titles, which move through a frozen moment where Deadpool is fighting thugs inside a crashing car. The amusing titles include "Directed by an overpaid tool" and "Produced by asshats". Reynolds, Miller, and the writers came up with their own credits hoping to set the tone for the film.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Luma contributed the film's blood and gore using practical footage as well as digital effects for more complex scenes. When Deadpool cuts off his own hand, DD did not want to be "outdone" by Luma and had "buckets of blood pouring out". Luma created the regrowing hand, inspired by the hand of a fetus. When Deadpool breaks both his hands, DD went through 20 or 30 different versions of what broken fingers could look like. For Deadpool's initial scarring from the warehouse fire, Rodeo FX referenced rotting fruit and maggot-eaten meat. The company added a CG penis to Reynolds in this sequence, which visual effects supervisor Wayne Brinton said, "you don't even notice [but] when it wasn't there it looked really weird". Rodeo also augmented the practical fire in the scene.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: The vendors all collaborated for the final battle sequence, which takes place in the wreckage of a helicarrier. Luma created the climactic fight between Deadpool and Ajax; DD created most of the Colossus effects until he is damaged when Blur Studio took over; DD created the effects for Negasonic Teenage Warhead's abilities as well as expanding the helicarrier's deck; Rodeo contributed matte paintings for the background; and Weta provided the facial animation for Deadpool. Negasonic's abilities were the only "supernatural effect-sy thing" in the film, and were based on fuel-air explosives and solar flares to try to ground them in reality. Setting the final sequence on the wrecked helicarrier was Miller's idea. This helped to expand the scope of the third act and include more connections to the comics and the wider Marvel Universe. To avoid rights issues with Marvel Studios, the helicarrier for "Deadpool" was designed to be "as different as possible from the one in "The Avengers"". Additionally, a French animation artist with a "unique style" created 2D cartoon characters that dance around Deadpool after he is stabbed in the head during the fight.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Tom Holkenborg announced in October 2015 that he would compose the score for "Deadpool". Noting that Deadpool only makes pre-1990 musical references, Holkenborg decided to use sounds from the 1980s in the movie's main theme, such as those of an Oberheim and a Synclavier. Several songs were written in to Reese and Wernick's script to be used in the film. Some of these ultimately did not work as intended. For example, the sex montage with Wilson and Vanessa was to play out to Frank Sinatra's version of "It Was a Very Good Year" in the script, but this was changed to Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" during editing. A soundtrack album featuring Holkenborg's score and the songs heard in the film was released digitally on February 12, 2016, and physically on March 4 through Milan Records.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Due to the film's limited marketing budget, Reynolds worked closely with Fox's marketing chief Marc Weinstock to use the Internet to their advantage and come up with cheaper, "Deadpool-based" ways to market the film. This included unique trailers, unconventional billboards, promotional tie-ins with Super Bowl 50 and Viacom, and an extensive social media presence. Reynolds kept one of the Deadpool costumes for himself, and appeared in it throughout the marketing campaign. Visual effects vendor Image Engine animated Deadpool's mask for these appearances, using a process similar to that used by Weta Digital for the film. Emma Grey Ellis at Wired.com described the campaign as "crazy and unrelenting" with Deadpool waging a "marketing siege of every platform you would think of". Bobby Anhalt at Screen Rant called it possibly "the best film marketing campaign in the history of cinema". HostGator's Jeremy Jensen attributed the campaign's success to Reynolds, and to Fox for embracing the film's R rating.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: "Deadpool"s world premiere was held at the Grand Rex in Paris on February 8, 2016, before its initial theatrical release in Hong Kong the next day. This was followed by releases in 49 other markets over the next few days, including the United States on February 12. The film was released in several formats, including IMAX, DLP, premium large formats, and D-Box.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Kinberg explained that unlike the previous "X-Men" films, "Deadpool" is "a hard R. It's graphic. Nothing is taboo. You either commit to a truly outrageous boundary-pushing kind of movie or you don't." China forbade the film's release because of this. Though R-rated American films are often "cleaned up" for release there, it was decided that doing so was impossible without affecting the plot. It was not released in Uzbekistan after theater owners in the country decided against showing the film because of its age restriction and how it violated the country's societal norms. "Deadpool" received seven "general cuts" to obtain approval for release in India. Despite being blocked in China during this initial release, "Deadpool" eventually premiered in the country during the 2018 Beijing International Film Festival, which ran over a week from April 15–22. The original version of the film played at the festival without any edits being made specifically for Chinese censors.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: "Deadpool" was released for digital download on April 26, 2016, moved up from the physical home media release, which came on May 10. The latter release, for Blu-ray and DVD, included behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, and two audio commentaries: one by Tim Miller and Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, and another by Reynolds, Reese, and Wernick. On November 7, Fox re-released the film and its special features on Blu-ray for the holiday season, as "Deadpool's Holiday Blu-ray package". The film was re-released again in April 2018 in a "Deadpool" Two Year Anniversary Edition Blu-ray package, with collectible covers as well as "stickers, car decals, temporary tattoos and a set of paper dolls". A 4K UHD Steelbook version was also released exclusively through Best Buy featuring original artwork. As of July 2022, the film is available to stream on Disney+, alongside "Logan" (2017) and "Deadpool 2", marking the first R-rated films available on the streaming service.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: "Deadpool" grossed $363.1 million in the United States and Canada and $420 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $783.1 million, against a budget of $58 million. It broke numerous records with its opening weekend gross across the world, and went on to become the highest-grossing "X-Men" film, as well as the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2016. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $322 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it the second-most profitable release of 2016. When discussing potential reasons for the film's surprise success, the site highlighted its marketing campaign. It also became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, dethroning "The Matrix Reloaded".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: At the end of January 2016, the film was projected to earn $55–60 million over its opening weekend in the United States and Canada. Fox's rivals projected the film to earn closer to $80 million. It ultimately opened at No. 1, making $132.4 million for the weekend, and $152.2 million over the long Presidents' Day weekend. Trying to explain this surprise, Fox's domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson said "it's hard to comp and predict. You're doing something that's never been done. It's like you throw the rulebook out the window." The weekend included $12.7 million from Thursday preview showings on February 11, $47.5 million on its opening day, $42.5 million on February 13, and $42.6 million on February 14, as well as $19.8 million on February 15 to end the long weekend. These were all day-of-the-week records for R-rated films and days in February for Thursday through Monday. $16.8 million of this came from IMAX screens, a record opening weekend for R-rated films and February releases in that format. "Deadpool" also took ""s record for having the biggest opening weekend for any 20th Century Fox film. The film earned an additional $55 million in its second weekend. This kept it at No. 1, and made it the fastest R-rated film to cross $200 million, doing so in nine days. It became the highest-grossing "X-Men" film and R-rated comic book superhero film the next day. It remained in the No. 1 position for its third week, but fell behind "Zootopia" and "London Has Fallen" the following week. "Deadpool"s domestic run ended on June 17, after 126 days, with $363.1 million. This was shortly after it became the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide. The film's U.S. audience, across its whole run, was 59% white, 21% Hispanic, 12% African-American, and 8% Asian. It was also 62% male, and had an average age of 35.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: The film was released in 80 markets around the world, many of them in its first week. This included the United Kingdom, France, and Australia on its first day, February 9, where it was the No. 1 film and broke several records. The film also opened well in Asian countries, notably Taiwan—where Reynolds had traveled for promotion and made the "central hub" of South East Asia for the film—and Hong Kong, where the film had the biggest Chinese New Year single day ever. It went on to gross $132.2 million for its international opening weekend, which included $9 million from IMAX showings breaking opening weekend records for February releases and R-rated films in that format in several markets. It was the No. 1 film in all markets where it was released over the weekend, except Poland and Malaysia where it was No. 2 behind local films "Planet Single" and "The Mermaid", respectively. The film broke the record for biggest opening weekend in Russia and Thailand, and set records for biggest R-rated film and February opening weekends in several other markets. It remained No. 1 for the international box office in its second weekend, making an additional $84.7 million from 77 markets. The film made No. 1 debuts in 17 new countries, including Korea, Spain, and Italy, and maintained its No. 1 position in countries like the UK, Germany, and Brazil. Its South East Asia performance was compared favorably to bigger superhero films like "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "" (both 2014). "Deadpool" was No. 1 for a third consecutive weekend, before falling to No. 3 behind "Ip Man 3" and "Zootopia" in its fourth. "Deadpool" opened in its final market, Japan, in June, and was the No. 1 film there, with a $6.5 million opening weekend.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Fast, funny, and gleefully profane, the fourth-wall-busting "Deadpool" subverts superhero film formula with wildly entertaining—and decidedly non-family-friendly—results." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. PostTrak reported an average positive score of 97%, with 45% of filmgoers saying the film exceeded their expectations.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" scored "Deadpool" three-and-a-half out of four, calling it a "voraciously self-aware comedy" and the first R-rated Marvel film "with real teeth". He praised the film's attitude and tone, Reynolds for making Deadpool a likeable character and the film's action scenes. "TheWrap"s Alonso Duralde said "Deadpool" "shouldn't work, but it absolutely does", feeling that it successfully balanced comedy with superhero action, and that the chemistry between Reynolds and Baccarin gave enough weight to the plot to support the tone and violence. Calvin Wilson at the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" also gave the film three-and-a-half out of four, saying it was "smart, sexy, and outrageous", but that it would not work without Reynolds. "The Guardian"s Peter Bradshaw gave the film four out of five calling it "neurotic and needy—and very entertaining", comparing it to "Kick-Ass" (2010) and "Kill Bill" (2003). He did feel the film's villains were underused. Writing for Uproxx, Drew McWeeny described it as "the world's most violent and vulgar Bugs Bunny cartoon", and praised the film's unconventional plot structure, its personal stakes, the difference in tone and storytelling from other superhero films, and the cast. "Variety"s Justin Chang said the film is "terribly arch and juvenile [but] also startlingly effective", praising Reynolds' performance (and the film's willingness to hide his looks under prosthetics), the script, and director Miller for staying "out of the way of his script and his star". Todd McCarthy at "The Hollywood Reporter" felt the film took a while to get going, "but once it does, "Deadpool" drops trou to reveal itself as a really raunchy, very dirty and pretty funny goof on the entire superhero ethos".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: "Rolling Stone"s Peter Travers said the film "goes on too long and repetition dulls its initial cleverness", but the "junky feel is part of its charm". He praised the cast, particularly Reynolds as well as Tim Miller's action sequences. At "The Boston Globe", Tom Russo gave the film three stars. He criticized the "featherweight" plot, but said that there is enough humor to support it, and that Reynolds was "born to play" Deadpool. Chris Nashawaty graded the film a 'B' for "Entertainment Weekly", saying it "doesn't have the most adrenalized action sequences or the deepest origin story" but makes up for that with R-rated fun. Nashawaty felt Reynolds was the perfect star for the film and is "a blast of laughing gas in a genre that tends to take itself way too seriously". Tasha Robinson at "The Verge" felt there was too much juvenile humor. She noted the film did not make homophobic, racist, or sexist jokes, and that its overall tone remained joyous despite the material. David Edelstein of "Vulture" said the film's jokes save it from a lack of subtext and strong villains and noted the "gratifyingly twisty" structure. Manohla Dargis at "The New York Times" was not impressed with the listing of the film's genre cliches in the opening credits before they were used. She highlighted the "human" elements in the film and the moments where Reynolds and Tim Miller did "more than hit the same bombastic notes over and over again". IndieWires Kate Erbland gave the film a 'B−', praising its style, and Reynolds' Deadpool for breaking the superhero mold, but criticizing the overall film for following genre conventions and focusing on "numbing" violence and un-original swearing and nudity.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Writing for the "Los Angeles Times", Kenneth Turan said that "Deadpool" "gets off to a fun start" but the character "eventually wears out his welcome". He noted that though the film has a complicated narrative, it is masking a conventional Marvel origin story. Turan did highlight the film's romantic element and Baccarin's performance. Jonathon Pile of "Empire" gave the film three out of five, saying the number of jokes "will soon numb you to their impact". He called the film a fun alternative to other superhero films. Robbie Collin at "The Daily Telegraph" also gave the film three out of five, saying it is not "the future of superhero movies", calling it "an enjoyably obnoxious detour". He felt some of the film's jokes about superhero cliches were out of date by the time the film was released. "The San Francisco Chronicle"s Mick LaSalle did not appreciate the humor, fourth wall breaking, or violence. He concluded the film is "bad, borderline garbage, but disturbing, too, in that it's just the kind of fake-clever awfulness that might be cinema's future".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: "Deadpool" has received many awards and nominations, recognizing the film as a whole, as well as: the cast's performance, particularly Reynolds as Deadpool; several technical areas, including the film's makeup, sound, and visual effects; and the film's unconventional marketing campaign. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, four Critics' Choice Movie Awards (winning two), a Directors Guild of America Award, five Empire Awards, seven Golden Trailer Awards (winning two), a Hugo Award, two Key Art Awards for marketing (winning both), eight MTV Movie Awards (winning two), a Producers Guild of America Award, four People's Choice Awards (winning two), three Saturn Awards (winning one), six Teen Choice Awards (winning two) and a Writers Guild of America Award.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: After being nominated for awards such as the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, and Writers Guild of America, "Deadpool" was considered a serious contender by commentators for several Academy Awards, despite its content and tone. This included potential nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and after its Producers Guild of America nomination, Best Picture. When the film did not receive any Academy Award nominations, it was widely considered to have been "snubbed". Analyzing potential reasons for this, Screen Rant's Alex Leadbeater said that while the film "earned a solid thumbs up from most", it was generally not praised by top critics for offering any "depth or related subversion of its genre". He also noted an apparent bias that Academy voters have against superhero films; the lack of a targeted campaign for the awards by Fox, who did not seem to be expecting any of the film's previous awards either; and the number of other films in contention, as "2016 was, all in all, a pretty good year for movies". A variant cover for Marvel Comics' "X-Men Gold" #1, with art by Ron Lim and released in April 2017, references "Deadpool"s Oscar snub.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Before "Deadpool"s success, R-rated, comic-based films considered successful were "300" (2006) and "Watchmen" (2009), which earned about half the opening weekend gross of successful PG-13 superhero films. "Kick-Ass", a film tonally similar to "Deadpool", made even less with a $19.8 million opening. Many reasons were given why "Deadpool" went on to be more successful than these, including the popularity of the Marvel brand and Reynolds' performance. Tom Huddleston, Jr. wrote for "Fortune" that "Deadpool" was proof to Hollywood that R-rated films can be as successful as PG-13 films, "particularly when fans see the rating itself as validation that the film is true to its source material".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: A Hollywood executive, not involved with the film, felt it succeeded because it "has a self-deprecating tone that's riotous. It's never been done before. It's poking fun at Marvel. That label takes itself so seriously; can you imagine them making fun of themselves in a movie?" James Gunn, director of Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy", rejected this saying "Deadpool" was a success because "it's original, it's damn good ... and it wasn't afraid to take risks". Gunn hoped studios would learn "the right lesson" from the film and not just try to make more films like "Deadpool". After Fox's "Logan" (2017) also became a success, "Forbes" Paul Tassi reiterated Gunn's sentiments, saying the rating was "appropriate given the 'adult' nature of these two heroes", but "too much stock is being put into unrestrained violence rather than people examining what actually makes these movies work". Graeme McMillan of "The Hollywood Reporter" concurred, adding, "Why not take the freedom that comes from that rating and try to re-approach the mainstream genre with that attitude?"


title: Deadpool (film)

text: In March 2017, a Warner Bros. executive said that an R-rated DC Extended Universe film could "absolutely" happen, while Sony Pictures began developing an R-rated adaptation of the character Venom with a smaller budget, inspired by Fox's success with "Deadpool" and "Logan" (even though "Venom" was released under the PG-13 rating). In June, Kevin Feige said in response to the successes that, though Marvel Studios was not planning any R-rated films for its Marvel Cinematic Universe, "it's not out of the question". After the proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was announced in December 2017, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company would be willing to make future R-rated Marvel films like "Deadpool", potentially under a "Marvel-R" brand, "as long as we let the audiences know what's coming".


title: Deadpool (film)

text: Before "Deadpool"s release, Fox green-lit a sequel with Reese and Wernick returning to write the screenplay. The involvement of Reynolds and Tim Miller was confirmed at the 2016 CinemaCon in April, but Miller left the film at the end of October over "mutual creative differences" with Reynolds. The next month, David Leitch signed on to direct the sequel. Leitch first made a short film, "No Good Deed", which was written by Reese and Wernick. "Deadpool 2" was released on May 18, 2018, with Baccarin, T. J. Miller, Uggams, Hildebrand, and Kapičić all returning. Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz joined them as Cable and Domino respectively, who are members of X-Force alongside Deadpool.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: In March 2017, Reese said that a future film focused on X-Force would be separate from "Deadpool 3", "so I think we'll be able to take two paths. "X-Force" is where we're launching something bigger, but then "Deadpool 3" is where we're contracting and staying personal and small." After the acquisition of Fox by Disney was announced in December 2017 and completed in March 2019, Bob Iger said that Deadpool and other Marvel properties at Fox would be integrated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) under Marvel Studios. In December 2019, Reynolds confirmed that a third "Deadpool" film was in development at Marvel Studios, which was reiterated by Kevin Feige in January 2021. He confirmed that the third Deadpool film would be set in the MCU.


title: Deadpool (film)

text: In March 2022, Shawn Levy (who previously collaborated with Reynolds on "Free Guy" and "The Adam Project") joined as director, with Reese and Wernick returning to write the screenplay. The film is set to be released on November 8, 2024, with Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, and constitutional government.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Enlightenment was preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and others. Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication of René Descartes' "Discourse on the Method" in 1637, featuring his famous dictum, "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). Others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica" (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. European historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution. Many historians now date the end of the Enlightenment as the start of the 19th century, with the latest proposed year being the death of Immanuel Kant in 1804.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffeehouses and in printed books, journals, and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism, communism, and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church. The principles of sociability and utility also played an important role in circulating knowledge useful to the improvement of society at large. The Enlightenment was marked by an increasing awareness of the relationship between the mind and the everyday media of the world, and by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by Immanuel Kant's essay "", where the phrase "Sapere aude" (Dare to know) can be found.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the Scientific Revolution. Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Some of the major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: One particularly influential Enlightenment publication was the "" ("Encyclopedia"). Published between 1751 and 1772 in thirty-five volumes, it was compiled by Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and a team of 150 other intellectuals. The "Encyclopédie" helped in spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment across Europe and beyond.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Other landmark publications of the Enlightenment included Voltaire's "Letters on the English" (1733) and "Dictionnaire philosophique" ("Philosophical Dictionary"; 1764); Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature" (1740); Montesquieu's "The Spirit of the Laws" (1748); Rousseau's "Discourse on Inequality" (1754) and "The Social Contract" (1762); Adam Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759) and "The Wealth of Nations" (1776); and Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" (1781).


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Francis Bacon's empiricism and René Descartes' rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking. Descartes attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1690) and David Hume's writings in the 1740s. His dualism was challenged by Spinoza's uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his "Tractatus" (1670) and "Ethics" (1677).


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: According to Jonathan Israel, these laid down two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought: first, the moderate variety, following Descartes, Locke, and Christian Wolff, which sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith, and, second, the Radical Enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocating democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority. The moderate variety tended to be deistic, whereas the radical tendency separated the basis of morality entirely from theology. Both lines of thought were eventually opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment, which sought a return to faith.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophical movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason as in ancient Greece rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. While the "philosophes" of the French Enlightenment were not revolutionaries and many were members of the nobility, their ideas played an important part in undermining the legitimacy of the Old Regime and shaping the French Revolution.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Francis Hutcheson, a moral philosopher and founding figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method (the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by Hutcheson's protégés in Edinburgh, Scotland, David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a major figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason. Kant's work continued to shape German thought and indeed all of European philosophy, well into the 20th century.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Mary Wollstonecraft was one of England's earliest feminist philosophers. She argued for a society based on reason and that women as well as men should be treated as rational beings. She is best known for her work "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1791).


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Science played an important role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority in favour of the development of free speech and thought. Scientific progress during the Enlightenment included the discovery of carbon dioxide (fixed air) by the chemist Joseph Black, the argument for deep time by the geologist James Hutton, and the invention of the condensing steam engine by James Watt. The experiments of Antoine Lavoisier were used to create the first modern chemical plants in Paris and the experiments of the Montgolfier brothers enabled them to launch the first manned flight in a hot-air balloon on 21 November 1783 from the Château de la Muette, near the Bois de Boulogne.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The wide-ranging contributions to mathematics of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) included major results in analysis, number theory, topology, combinatorics, graph theory, algebra, and geometry (among other fields). In applied mathematics, he made fundamental contributions to mechanics, hydraulics, acoustics, optics, and astronomy. He was based in the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (1727–1741), then in Berlin at the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres (1741–1766), and finally back in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Academy (1766–1783).


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress. The study of science, under the heading of natural philosophy, was divided into physics and a conglomerate grouping of chemistry and natural history, which included anatomy, biology, geology, mineralogy, and zoology. As with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally: Rousseau criticized the sciences for distancing man from nature and not operating to make people happier.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and academies, which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific research and development. Societies and academies were also the backbone of the maturation of the scientific profession. Scientific academies and societies grew out of the Scientific Revolution as the creators of scientific knowledge, in contrast to the scholasticism of the university. During the Enlightenment, some societies created or retained links to universities, but contemporary sources distinguished universities from scientific societies by claiming that the university's utility was in the transmission of knowledge while societies functioned to create knowledge. As the role of universities in institutionalized science began to diminish, learned societies became the cornerstone of organized science. Official scientific societies were chartered by the state to provide technical expertise.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Most societies were granted permission to oversee their own publications, control the election of new members and the administration of the society. After 1700, a tremendous number of official academies and societies were founded in Europe and by 1789 there were over seventy official scientific societies. In reference to this growth, Bernard de Fontenelle coined the term "the Age of Academies" to describe the 18th century.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Another important development was the popularization of science among an increasingly literate population. "Philosophes" introduced the public to many scientific theories, most notably through the "Encyclopédie" and the popularization of Newtonianism by Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet. Some historians have marked the 18th century as a drab period in the history of science.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine, mathematics, and physics; the development of biological taxonomy; a new understanding of magnetism and electricity; and the maturation of chemistry as a discipline, which established the foundations of modern chemistry.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The influence of science also began appearing more commonly in poetry and literature during the Enlightenment. Some poetry became infused with scientific metaphor and imagery, while other poems were written directly about scientific topics. Sir Richard Blackmore committed the Newtonian system to verse in "Creation, a Philosophical Poem in Seven Books" (1712). After Newton's death in 1727, poems were composed in his honour for decades. James Thomson (1700–1748) penned his "Poem to the Memory of Newton", which mourned the loss of Newton, but also praised his science and legacy.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed a "science of man", which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar, and William Robertson, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity. Modern sociology largely originated from this movement and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison (and thus the U.S. Constitution) and as popularised by Dugald Stewart, would be the basis of classical liberalism.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In 1776, Adam Smith published "The Wealth of Nations", often considered the first work on modern economics as it had an immediate impact on British economic policy that continues into the 21st century. It was immediately preceded and influenced by Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune drafts of "Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth" (Paris, 1766). Smith acknowledged indebtedness and possibly was the original English translator.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Cesare Beccaria, a jurist, criminologist, philosopher, and politician and one of the great Enlightenment writers, became famous for his masterpiece "Of Crimes and Punishments" (1764), later translated into 22 languages, which condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of penology and the classical school of criminology by promoting criminal justice. Another prominent intellectual was Francesco Mario Pagano, who wrote important studies such as "Saggi politici" (Political Essays, 1783), one of the major works of the Enlightenment in Naples; and "Considerazioni sul processo criminale" (Considerations on the Criminal Trial, 1787), which established him as an international authority on criminal law.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture. The Enlightenment brought political modernization to the West, in terms of introducing democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. This thesis has been widely accepted by Anglophone scholars and has been reinforced by the large-scale studies by Robert Darnton, Roy Porter, and, most recently, by Jonathan Israel.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Enlightenment thought was deeply influential in the political realm. European rulers such as Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria, and Frederick II of Prussia tried to apply Enlightenment thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism. Many of the major political and intellectual figures behind the American Revolution associated themselves closely with the Enlightenment: Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia; Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence; and James Madison incorporated these ideals into the United States Constitution during its framing in 1787.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, based his governance philosophy in social contract theory, a subject that permeated Enlightenment political thought. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes ushered in this new debate with his work "Leviathan" in 1651. Hobbes also developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual, the natural equality of all men, the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state), the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people, and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Both Locke and Rousseau developed social contract theories in "Two Treatises of Government" and "Discourse on Inequality", respectively. While quite different works, Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau agreed that a social contract, in which the government's authority lies in the consent of the governed, is necessary for man to live in civil society. Locke defines the state of nature as a condition in which humans are rational and follow natural law, in which all men are born equal and with the right to life, liberty, and property. However, when one citizen breaks the Law of Nature both the transgressor and the victim enter into a state of war, from which it is virtually impossible to break free. Therefore, Locke said that individuals enter into civil society to protect their natural rights via an "unbiased judge" or common authority, such as courts, to appeal to. In contrast, Rousseau's conception relies on the supposition that "civil man" is corrupted, while "natural man" has no want he cannot fulfill himself. Natural man is only taken out of the state of nature when the inequality associated with private property is established. Rousseau said that people join into civil society via the social contract to achieve unity while preserving individual freedom. This is embodied in the sovereignty of the general will, the moral and collective legislative body constituted by citizens.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Locke is known for his statement that individuals have a right to "Life, Liberty, and Property" and his belief that the natural right to property is derived from labor. Tutored by Locke, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in 1706: "There is a mighty Light which spreads its self over the world especially in those two free Nations of England and Holland; on whom the Affairs of Europe now turn." Locke's theory of natural rights has influenced many political documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence and the French National Constituent Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The "philosophes" argued that the establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and capitalism, the scientific method, religious tolerance, and the organization of states into self-governing republics through democratic means. In this view, the tendency of the "philosophes" in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the essential change.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Although much of Enlightenment political thought was dominated by social contract theorists, both David Hume and Adam Ferguson criticized this camp. Hume's essay "Of the Original Contract" argues that governments derived from consent are rarely seen and civil government is grounded in a ruler's habitual authority and force. It is precisely because of the ruler's authority over-and-against the subject, that the subject tacitly consents and Hume says that the subjects would "never imagine that their consent made him sovereign", rather the authority did so. Similarly, Ferguson did not believe citizens built the state, rather polities grew out of social development. In his 1767 "An Essay on the History of Civil Society", Ferguson uses the four stages of progress, a theory that was very popular in Scotland at the time, to explain how humans advance from a hunting and gathering society to a commercial and civil society without agreeing to a social contract.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Both Rousseau's and Locke's social contract theories rest on the presupposition of natural rights, which are not a result of law or custom, but are things that all men have in pre-political societies and are therefore universal and inalienable. The most famous natural right formulation comes from John Locke in his "Second Treatise", when he introduces the state of nature. For Locke, the law of nature is grounded on mutual security or the idea that one cannot infringe on another's natural rights, as every man is equal and has the same inalienable rights. These natural rights include perfect equality and freedom, as well as the right to preserve life and property. Locke also argued against slavery on the basis that enslaving oneself goes against the law of nature because one cannot surrender one's own rights: one's freedom is absolute and no-one can take it away. Additionally, Locke argues that one person cannot enslave another because it is morally reprehensible, although he introduces a caveat by saying that enslavement of a lawful captive in time of war would not go against one's natural rights.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: As a spill-over of the Enlightenment, nonsecular beliefs expressed first by Quakers and then by Protestant evangelicals in Britain and the United States emerged. To these groups, slavery became "repugnant to our religion" and a "crime in the sight of God". These ideas added to those expressed by Enlightenment thinkers, leading many in Britain to believe that slavery was "not only morally wrong and economically inefficient, but also politically unwise." This ideals eventually led to the abolition of slavery in Britain and the United States.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The leaders of the Enlightenment were not especially democratic, as they more often look to absolute monarchs as the key to imposing reforms designed by the intellectuals. Voltaire despised democracy and said the absolute monarch must be enlightened and must act as dictated by reason and justice – in other words, be a "philosopher-king".


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In several nations, rulers welcomed leaders of the Enlightenment at court and asked them to help design laws and programs to reform the system, typically to build stronger states. These rulers are called "enlightened despots" by historians. They included Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, Leopold II of Tuscany and Joseph II of Austria. Joseph was over-enthusiastic, announcing many reforms that had little support so that revolts broke out and his regime became a comedy of errors and nearly all his programs were reversed. Senior ministers Pombal in Portugal and Johann Friedrich Struensee in Denmark also governed according to Enlightenment ideals. In Poland, the model constitution of 1791 expressed Enlightenment ideals, but was in effect for only one year before the nation was partitioned among its neighbors. More enduring were the cultural achievements, which created a nationalist spirit in Poland.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, saw himself as a leader of the Enlightenment and patronized philosophers and scientists at his court in Berlin. Voltaire, who had been imprisoned and maltreated by the French government, was eager to accept Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. Frederick explained: "My principal occupation is to combat ignorance and prejudice... to enlighten minds, cultivate morality, and to make people as happy as it suits human nature, and as the means at my disposal permit."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Enlightenment has been frequently linked to the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789—both had some intellectual influence from Thomas Jefferson. One view of the political changes that occurred during the Enlightenment is that the "consent of the governed" philosophy as delineated by Locke in "Two Treatises of Government" (1689) represented a paradigm shift from the old governance paradigm under feudalism known as the "divine right of kings". In this view, the revolutions of the late 1700s and early 1800s were caused by the fact that this governance paradigm shift often could not be resolved peacefully and therefore violent revolution was the result. A governance philosophy where the king was never wrong would be in direct conflict with one whereby citizens by natural law had to consent to the acts and rulings of their government.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The ideas of the Enlightenment also played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Alexis de Tocqueville proposed the French Revolution as the inevitable result of the radical opposition created in the 18th century between the monarchy and the men of letters of the Enlightenment. These men of letters constituted a sort of "substitute aristocracy that was both all-powerful and without real power." This illusory power came from the rise of "public opinion", born when absolutist centralization removed the nobility and the bourgeoisie from the political sphere. The "literary politics" that resulted promoted a discourse of equality and was hence in fundamental opposition to the monarchical regime. De Tocqueville "clearly designates... the cultural effects of transformation in the forms of the exercise of power."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War. Theologians of the Enlightenment wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God. For moderate Christians, this meant a return to simple Scripture. John Locke abandoned the corpus of theological commentary in favor of an "unprejudiced examination" of the Word of God alone. He determined the essence of Christianity to be a belief in Christ the redeemer and recommended avoiding more detailed debate. Anthony Collins, one of the English freethinkers, published his "Essay concerning the Use of Reason in Propositions the Evidence whereof depends on Human Testimony" (1707), in which he rejected the distinction between "above reason" and "contrary to reason", and demanded that revelation should conform to man's natural ideas of God. In the "Jefferson Bible", Thomas Jefferson went further and dropped any passages dealing with miracles, visitations of angels, and the resurrection of Jesus after his death, as he tried to extract the practical Christian moral code of the New Testament.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Enlightenment scholars sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war. Spinoza determined to remove politics from contemporary and historical theology (e.g., disregarding Judaic law). Moses Mendelssohn advised affording no political weight to any organized religion, but instead recommended that each person follow what they found most convincing. They believed a good religion based in instinctive morals and a belief in God should not theoretically need force to maintain order in its believers, and both Mendelssohn and Spinoza judged religion on its moral fruits, not the logic of its theology.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: A number of novel ideas about religion developed with the Enlightenment, including deism and talk of atheism. According to Thomas Paine, deism is the simple belief in God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other miraculous source. Instead, the deist relies solely on personal reason to guide his creed, which was eminently agreeable to many thinkers of the time. Atheism was much discussed, but there were few proponents. Wilson and Reill note: "In fact, very few enlightened intellectuals, even when they were vocal critics of Christianity, were true atheists. Rather, they were critics of orthodox belief, wedded rather to skepticism, deism, vitalism, or perhaps pantheism." Some followed Pierre Bayle and argued that atheists could indeed be moral men. Many others like Voltaire held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined. That is, since atheists gave themselves to no Supreme Authority and no law and had no fear of eternal consequences, they were far more likely to disrupt society. Bayle (1647–1706) observed that, in his day, "prudent persons will always maintain an appearance of [religion]," and he believed that even atheists could hold concepts of honor and go beyond their own self-interest to create and interact in society. Locke said that if there were no God and no divine law, the result would be moral anarchy: every individual "could have no law but his own will, no end but himself. He would be a god to himself, and the satisfaction of his own will the sole measure and end of all his actions."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The "Radical Enlightenment" promoted the concept of separating church and state, an idea that is often credited to English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). According to his principle of the social contract, Locke said that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control. For Locke, this created a natural right in the liberty of conscience, which he said must therefore remain protected from any government authority.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: These views on religious tolerance and the importance of individual conscience, along with the social contract, became particularly influential in the American colonies and the drafting of the United States Constitution. Thomas Jefferson called for a "wall of separation between church and state" at the federal level. He previously had supported successful efforts to disestablish the Church of England in Virginia and authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Jefferson's political ideals were greatly influenced by the writings of John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton, whom he considered the three greatest men that ever lived.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries and influenced nations globally, often with a specific local emphasis. For example, in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism, while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes, where it expressed a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches. Government responses varied widely. In France, the government was hostile, and the "philosophes" fought against its censorship, sometimes being imprisoned or hounded into exile. The British government, for the most part, ignored the Enlightenment's leaders in England and Scotland, although it did give Isaac Newton a knighthood and a very lucrative government office. A common theme among most countries which derived Enlightenment ideas from Europe was the intentional non-inclusion of Enlightenment philosophies pertaining to slavery. Originally during the French Revolution, a revolution deeply inspired by Enlightenment philosophy, "France's revolutionary government had denounced slavery, but the property-holding 'revolutionaries' then remembered their bank accounts." Slavery frequently showed the limitations of the Enlightenment ideology as it pertained to European colonialism, since many colonies of Europe operated on a plantation economy fueled by slave labor. In 1791, the Haitian Revolution, a slave rebellion by emancipated slaves against French colonial rule in the colony of Saint-Domingue, broke out. European nations and the United States, despite the strong support for Enlightenment ideals, refused to "[give support] to Saint-Domingue's anti-colonial struggle."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been hotly debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks on British history make little or no mention of an English Enlightenment. Some surveys of the entire Enlightenment include England and others ignore it, although they do include coverage of such major intellectuals as Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, Joshua Reynolds, and Jonathan Swift. Freethinking, a term describing those who stood in opposition to the institution of the Church, and the literal belief in the Bible, can be said to have begun in England no later than 1713, when Anthony Collins wrote his "Discourse of Free-thinking", which gained substantial popularity. This essay attacked the clergy of all churches and was a plea for deism. Roy Porter argues that the reasons for this neglect were the assumptions that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and that it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order. Porter admits that, after the 1720s, England could claim thinkers to equal Diderot, Voltaire, or Rousseau. However, its leading intellectuals such as Edward Gibbon, Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson were all quite conservative and supportive of the standing order. Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment had come early to England and had succeeded so that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism, and religious toleration of the sort that intellectuals on the continent had to fight for against powerful odds. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In the Scottish Enlightenment, the principles of sociability, equality, and utility were disseminated in schools and universities, many of which used sophisticated teaching methods which blended philosophy with daily life. Scotland's major cities created an intellectual infrastructure of mutually supporting institutions such as schools, universities, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums, and masonic lodges. The Scottish network was "predominantly liberal Calvinist, Newtonian, and 'design' oriented in character which played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment". In France, Voltaire said that "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization". The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen, physician and chemist; James Anderson, an agronomist; Joseph Black, physicist and chemist; and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the New World and in influencing British and French thinkers. Franklin was influential for his political activism and for his advances in physics. The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran in both directions across the Atlantic. Thinkers such as Paine, Locke, and Rousseau all take Native American cultural practices as examples of natural freedom. The Americans closely followed English and Scottish political ideas, as well as some French thinkers such as Montesquieu. As deists, they were influenced by ideas of John Toland (1670–1722) and Matthew Tindal (1656–1733). During the Enlightenment there was a great emphasis upon liberty, republicanism, and religious tolerance. There was no respect for monarchy or inherited political power. Deists reconciled science and religion by rejecting prophecies, miracles, and biblical theology. Leading deists included Thomas Paine in "The Age of Reason" and by Thomas Jefferson in his short "Jefferson Bible" – from which he removed all supernatural aspects.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Prussia took the lead among the German states in sponsoring the political reforms that Enlightenment thinkers urged absolute rulers to adopt. There were important movements as well in the smaller states of Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and the Palatinate. In each case, Enlightenment values became accepted and led to significant political and administrative reforms that laid the groundwork for the creation of modern states. The princes of Saxony, for example, carried out an impressive series of fundamental fiscal, administrative, judicial, educational, cultural, and general economic reforms. The reforms were aided by the country's strong urban structure and influential commercial groups and modernized pre-1789 Saxony along the lines of classic Enlightenment principles.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Before 1750, the German upper classes looked to France for intellectual, cultural, and architectural leadership, as French was the language of high society. By the mid-18th century, the "Aufklärung" (The Enlightenment) had transformed German high culture in music, philosophy, science, and literature. Christian Wolff (1679–1754) was the pioneer as a writer who expounded the Enlightenment to German readers and legitimized German as a philosophic language.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) broke new ground in philosophy and poetry, as a leader of the Sturm und Drang movement of proto-Romanticism. Weimar Classicism ("Weimarer Klassik") was a cultural and literary movement based in Weimar that sought to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical, and Enlightenment ideas. The movement (from 1772 until 1805) involved Herder as well as polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), a poet and historian. Herder argued that every group of people had its own particular identity, which was expressed in its language and culture. This legitimized the promotion of German language and culture and helped shape the development of German nationalism. Schiller's plays expressed the restless spirit of his generation, depicting the hero's struggle against social pressures and the force of destiny.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: German music, sponsored by the upper classes, came of age under composers Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791).


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In remote Königsberg, philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom, and political authority. Kant's work contained basic tensions that would continue to shape German thought – and indeed all of European philosophy – well into the 20th century.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The German Enlightenment won the support of princes, aristocrats, and the middle classes and it permanently reshaped the culture. However, there was a conservatism among the elites that warned against going too far.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In the 1780s, Lutheran ministers Johann Heinrich Schulz and Karl Wilhelm Brumbey got in trouble with their preaching as they were attacked and ridiculed by Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm Abraham Teller and others. In 1788, Prussia issued an "Edict on Religion" that forbade preaching any sermon that undermined popular belief in the Holy Trinity and the Bible. The goal was to avoid skepticism, deism, and theological disputes that might impinge on domestic tranquility. Men who doubted the value of Enlightenment favoured the measure, but so too did many supporters. German universities had created a closed elite that could debate controversial issues among themselves, but spreading them to the public was seen as too risky. This intellectual elite was favoured by the state, but that might be reversed if the process of the Enlightenment proved politically or socially destabilizing.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In the Habsburg Empire, which controlled a large part of Europe at the time, chiefly around Austria, the rule of Maria Theresa was the first age considered influenced by the Enlightenment in some areas, while still remaining quite conservative in others. The subsequent brief reign of her son Joseph II was also marked by a conflict of these two paradigms, with Josephinism finding serious opposition. The brief and contentious rule of Leopold II, an early opponent of capital punishment, was still marked mostly by relations with France, likewise with Francis II.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In Italy the main centers of diffusion of the Enlightenment were Naples and Milan: in both cities the intellectuals took public office and collaborated with the Bourbon and Habsburg administrations. In Naples, Antonio Genovesi, Ferdinando Galiani, and Gaetano Filangieri were active under the tolerant King Charles of Bourbon. However, the Neapolitan Enlightenment, like Vico's philosophy, remained almost always in the theoretical field. Only later, many Enlighteners animated the unfortunate experience of the Parthenopean Republic.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In Milan, however, the movement strove to find concrete solutions to problems. The center of discussions was the magazine "Il Caffè" (1762–1764), founded by brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri (famous philosophers and writers, as well as their brother Giovanni), who also gave life to the Accademia dei Pugni, founded in 1761.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: From Naples, Antonio Genovesi (1713–1769) influenced a generation of southern Italian intellectuals and university students. His textbook "Della diceosina, o sia della Filosofia del Giusto e dell'Onesto" (1766) was a controversial attempt to mediate between the history of moral philosophy on the one hand and the specific problems encountered by 18th-century commercial society on the other. It contained the greater part of Genovesi's political, philosophical, and economic thought – guidebook for Neapolitan economic and social development.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Science flourished as Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani made break-through discoveries in electricity. Pietro Verri was a leading economist in Lombardy. Historian Joseph Schumpeter states he was "the most important pre-Smithian authority on Cheapness-and-Plenty". The most influential scholar on the Italian Enlightenment has been Franco Venturi. Italy also produced some of the Enlightenment's greatest legal theorists, including Cesare Beccaria, Giambattista Vico, and Francesco Mario Pagano. Beccaria in particular is now considered one of the fathers of classical criminal theory as well as modern penology. Beccaria is famous for his masterpiece "On Crimes and Punishments" (1764), a treatise (later translated into 22 languages) that served as one of the earliest prominent condemnations of torture and the death penalty and thus a landmark work in anti-death penalty philosophy.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: When Charles II the last Spanish Hapsburg monarch died in 1700, it touched out a major European conflict about succession and the fate of Spain and the Spanish Empire. The War of the Spanish Succession (1700–1715) brought Bourbon prince Philip, Duke of Anjou to the throne of Spain as Philip V. Under the 1715 Treaty of Utrecht, the French and the Spanish Bourbons could not unite, with Philip renouncing any rights to the French throne. The political restriction did not impede strong French influence of the Age of Enlightenment on Spain, the Spanish monarchs, the Spanish Empire. Philip did not come into effective power until 1715 and began implementing administrative reforms to try to stop the decline of the Spanish Empire. Under Charles III, the crown began to implement serious structural changes, generally known as the Bourbon Reforms. The crown curtailed the power of the Catholic Church and the clergy, established a standing military in Spanish America, established new viceroyalties and reorganized administrative districts into intendancies. Freer trade was promoted under "comercio libre" in which regions could trade with companies sailing from any other Spanish port, rather than the restrictive mercantile system limiting trade. The crown sent out scientific expeditions to assert Spanish sovereignty over territories it claimed but did not control, but also importantly to discover the economic potential of its far-flung empire. Botanical expeditions sought plants that could be of use to the empire. One of the best acts by Charles IV, a monarch not notable for his good judgment, was to give Prussian scientist, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, free rein to travel and gather information about the Spanish Empire during his five-year, self-funded expedition. Crown officials were to aid Humboldt in any way they could, so that he was able to get access to expert information. Given that Spain's empire was closed to foreigners, Humboldt's unfettered access is quite remarkable. His observations of New Spain, published as the "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain" remains an important scientific and historical text. When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, Ferdinand VII abdicated and Napoleon placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. To add legitimacy to this move, the Bayonne Constitution was promulgated, which included representation from Spain's overseas components, but most Spaniards rejected the whole Napoleonic project. A war of national resistance erupted. The Cortes de Cádiz (parliament) was convened to rule Spain in the absence of the legitimate monarch, Ferdinand. It created a new governing document, the Constitution of 1812, which laid out three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial, put limits on the king by creating a constitutional monarchy, defined citizens as those in the Spanish Empire without African ancestry, established universal manhood suffrage, and established public education starting with primary school through university as well as freedom of expression. The constitution was in effect from 1812 until 1814, when Napoleon was defeated and Ferdinand was restored to the throne of Spain. Upon his return, Ferdinand repudiated the constitution and reestablished absolutist rule. The French invasion of Spain sparked a crisis of legitimacy of rule in Spanish America, with many regions establishing juntas to rule in the name of Ferdinand VII. Most of Spanish America fought for independence, leaving only Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as the Philippines as overseas components of the Spanish Empire until 1898. All of newly independent and sovereign nations became republics by 1824, with written constitutions. Mexico's brief post-independence monarchy was overthrown and replaced by a federal republic under the Constitution of 1824, inspired by both the U.S. and Spanish constitutions.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 and ended in 1804 and shows how Enlightenment ideas "were part of complex transcultural flows." Radical ideas in Paris during and after the French Revolution were mobilized in Haiti, such as by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Toussaint had read the critique of European colonialism in Guillaume Thomas Raynal's book "Histoire des deux Indes" and "was particularly impressed by Raynal's prediction of the coming of a 'Black Spartacus.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The revolution combined Enlightenment ideas with the experiences of the slaves in Haiti, two-thirds of whom had been born in Africa and could "draw on specific notions of kingdom and just government from Western and Central Africa, and to employ religious practices such as voodoo for the formation of revolutionary communities." The revolution also affected France and "forced the French National Convention to abolish slavery in 1794."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Enlightenment in Portugal ("Iluminismo") was heavily marked by the rule of the Prime Minister Marquis of Pombal under King Joseph I of Portugal from 1756 to 1777. Following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake which destroyed a large part of Lisbon, the Marquis of Pombal implemented important economic policies to regulate commercial activity (in particular with Brazil and England), and to standardise quality throughout the country (for example by introducing the first integrated industries in Portugal). His reconstruction of Lisbon's riverside district in straight and perpendicular streets (the Lisbon Baixa), methodically organized to facilitate commerce and exchange (for example by assigning to each street a different product or service), can be seen as a direct application of the Enlightenment ideas to governance and urbanism. His urbanistic ideas, also being the first large-scale example of earthquake engineering, became collectively known as Pombaline style, and were implemented throughout the kingdom during his stay in office. His governance was as enlightened as ruthless, see for example the Távora affair.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In literature, the first Enlightenment ideas in Portugal can be traced back to the diplomat, philosopher, and writer António Vieira (1608–1697), who spent a considerable amount of his life in colonial Brazil denouncing discriminations against New Christians and the Indigenous peoples in Brazil. His works remain today as one of the best pieces of Portuguese literature. During the 18th century, enlightened literary movements such as the Arcádia Lusitana (lasting from 1756 until 1776, then replaced by the Nova Arcádia in 1790 until 1794) surfaced in the academic medium, in particular involving former students of the University of Coimbra. A distinct member of this group was the poet Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The physician António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches was also an important Enlightenment figure, contributing to the "Encyclopédie" and being part of the Russian court.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The ideas of the Enlightenment also influenced various economists and anti-colonial intellectuals throughout the Portuguese Empire, such as José de Azeredo Coutinho, José da Silva Lisboa, Cláudio Manoel da Costa, and Tomás Antônio Gonzaga.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Napoleonic invasion of Portugal had consequences for the Portuguese monarchy. With the aid of the British navy, the Portuguese royal family was evacuated to Brazil, its most important colony. Even though Napoleon had been defeated, the royal court remained in Brazil. The Liberal Revolution of 1820 forced the return of the royal family to Portugal. The terms by which the restored king was to rule was a constitutional monarchy under the Constitution of Portugal. Brazil declared its independence of Portugal in 1822, and became a monarchy.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In Russia, the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences in the mid-18th century. This era produced the first Russian university, library, theatre, public museum, and independent press. Like other enlightened despots, Catherine the Great played a key role in fostering the arts, sciences and education. She used her own interpretation of Enlightenment ideals, assisted by notable international experts such as Voltaire (by correspondence) and in residence world class scientists such as Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas. The national Enlightenment differed from its Western European counterpart in that it promoted further modernization of all aspects of Russian life and was concerned with attacking the institution of serfdom in Russia. The Russian Enlightenment centered on the individual instead of societal enlightenment and encouraged the living of an enlightened life. A powerful element was "prosveshchenie" which combined religious piety, erudition, and commitment to the spread of learning. However, it lacked the skeptical and critical spirit of the Western European Enlightenment.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Enlightenment ideas ("oświecenie") emerged late in Poland, as the Polish middle class was weaker and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Golden Liberty) were in deep crisis. The political system was built on aristocratic republicanism, but was unable to defend itself against powerful neighbors Russia, Prussia, and Austria as they repeatedly sliced off regions until nothing was left of independent Poland. The period of Polish Enlightenment began in the 1730s–1740s and especially in theatre and the arts peaked in the reign of King Stanisław August Poniatowski (second half of the 18th century). Warsaw was a main centre after 1750, with an expansion of schools and educational institutions and the arts patronage held at the Royal Castle. Leaders promoted tolerance and more education. They included King Stanislaw II Poniatowski and reformers Piotr Switkowski, Antoni Poplawski, Josef Niemcewicz, and Jósef Pawlinkowski, as well as Baudouin de Cortenay, a Polonized dramatist. Opponents included Florian Jaroszewicz, Gracjan Piotrowski, Karol Wyrwicz, and Wojciech Skarszewski.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The movement went into decline with the Third Partition of Poland (1795) – a national tragedy inspiring a short period of sentimental writing – and ended in 1822, replaced by Romanticism.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Eighteenth-century China experienced "a trend towards seeing fewer dragons and miracles, not unlike the disenchantment that began to spread across the Europe of the Enlightenment." Furthermore, "some of the developments that we associate with Europe's Enlightenment resemble events in China remarkably."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: During this time, ideals of Chinese society were reflected in "the reign of the Qing emperors Kangxi (1661–1722) and Qianlong (1736–1795); China was posited as the incarnation of an enlightened and meritocratic society—and instrumentalized for criticisms of absolutist rule in Europe."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: From 1641 to 1853, the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan enforced a policy called "kaikin". The policy prohibited foreign contact with most outside countries.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Robert Bellah found "origins of modern Japan in certain strands of Confucian thinking, a 'functional analogue to the Protestant Ethic' that Max Weber singled out as the driving force behind Western capitalism."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Japanese Confucian and Enlightenment ideas were brought together, for example, in the work of the Japanese reformer Tsuda Mamichi in the 1870s, who said, "Whenever we open our mouths...it is to speak of 'enlightenment.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In Japan and much of East Asia, Confucian ideas were not replaced but "ideas associated with the Enlightenment were instead fused with the existing cosmology—which in turn was refashioned under conditions of global interaction." In Japan in particular, the term "ri", which is the Confucian idea of "order and harmony on human society" also came to represent "the idea of laissez-faire and the rationality of market exchange."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: By the 1880s, the slogan "Civilization and Enlightenment" became potent throughout Japan, China, and Korea and was employed to address challenges of globalization.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: During this time, Korea "aimed at isolation" and was known as the "hermit kingdom", but became awakened to Enlightenment ideas by the 1890s such as with the activities of the Independence Club.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Korea was influenced by China and Japan but also found its own Enlightenment path with the Korean intellectual Yu Kilchun who popularized the term Enlightenment throughout Korea. The use of Enlightenment ideas was a "response to a specific situation in Korea in the 1890s, and not a belated answer to Voltaire."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In eighteenth-century India, Tipu Sultan was an enlightened monarch, who "was one of the founding members of the (French) Jacobin Club in Seringapatam, had planted a liberty tree, and asked to be addressed as 'Tipu Citoyen, which means Citizen Tipu.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: In parts of India, an important movement called the "Bengal Renaissance" led to Enlightenment reforms beginning in the 1820s. Rammohan Roy was a reformer who "fused different traditions in his project of social reform that made him a proponent of a 'religion of reason.


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: Eighteenth-century Egypt had "a form of 'cultural revival' in the making—specifically Islamic origins of modernization long before Napoleon's Egyptian campaign." Napoleon's expedition into Egypt further encouraged "social transformations that harked back to debates about inner-Islamic reform, but now were also legitimized by referring to the authority of the Enlightenment."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: A major intellectual influence on Islamic modernism and expanding the Enlightenment in Egypt, Rifa al-Tahtawi "oversaw the publication of hundreds of European works in the Arabic language."


title: Age of Enlightenment

text: The Enlightenment began to influence the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s and continued into the late nineteenth century. Namik Kemal, a political activist and member of the Young Ottomans, drew on major Enlightenment thinkers and "a variety of intellectual resources in his quest for social and political reform." In 1893, Kemal responded to Ernest Renan, who had indicted the Islamic religion, with his own version of the Enlightenment, which "was not a poor copy of French debates in the eighteenth century, but an original position responding to the exigencies of Ottoman society in the late nineteenth century."