18th century in philosophy

thumb|This plan of Jeremy Bentham's panopticon prison was drawn by Willey Reveley in 1791. The panopticon is a design of institutional building with an inbuilt system of control, originated by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single prison officer, without the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched.

philosophical theory of mind that the senses provide us with direct awareness of objects as they really are

realist school of philosophy

thumb|Divine Justice smites Jean-Baptiste Pigalle's statue of [[Voltaire. Anonymous, 1773]] The Counter-Enlightenment refers to a loose collection of intellectual stances that arose during the European Enlightenment in opposition to its mainstream attitudes and ideals. The Counter-Enlightenment is generally seen to have continued from the 18th century into the early 19th century, especially with the rise of Romanticism. Its thinkers did not necessarily agree to a set of counter-doctrines but instead each challenged specific elements of Enlightenment thinking, such as the belief in progress, th

thumb|Title page of Isaac Newton's Opticks

three philosophical dialogues by Denis Diderot

significant German cultural history event

Era of philosophy encompassing the years from 1700 to 1799