What new ideas about society and human relations emerged in the Enlightenment, and what new practices and institutions enabled these ideas to take hold?

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Voltaire in ConversationThe French philosopher Voltaire is depicted here with his long-time companion, writer and mathematician Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet. (Château de Breteuil/Gianni Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY)

TTHE POLITICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND religious developments of the early modern period that gave rise to the Scientific Revolution further contributed to a series of debates about key issues in eighteenth-century Europe and the wider world that came to be known as the Enlightenment. Proponents of the Enlightenment came to believe that answers to all social, political, and economic questions could be found through observation and the use of reason. Progress was possible in human society as well as science.