Salons during the Age of Enlightenment (by James and Jeremy

During the Enlightenment period, the idea of salons grew from just social gatherings with pleasures such as nude women, to informal meetings with philosophers sharing ideas with one another. Although some salons meetings occurred in upper middle class locations, the idea of the salon was mostly centered around the upper class. Even more importantly, some women were the leaders of salons, and were named hostesses. Previously, women had no real role in society and served just for the pleasures of men. While elements of previous views of women still reigned in the Enlightenment, women were able to gain fame and usefulness through leading salons. As philosophers and thinkers composed essays and critiques of society, women went home and began to develop questions of their own regarding their role in society. Men, understandingly, grew jealous and resentful of the growing importance of their wives.

Salons, however, did not only play a role in empowering women in society. In fact, most salons still represented the majority of both Enlightenment fundamentals and beliefs. For example, the Enlightenment showed a divergence from religiously explained phenomenons to logical and proven evidence for the same events. In salons, many of these new methods of explanation were shared and critiqued by other thinkers of the time period. Women would first gather a large amount of philosophers into a home where ideas could be freely discussed. Next, each philosopher would discuss his/her idea with the group before publication. Through discussing their thoughts with other philosophers before they presented their idea to the public, philosophers were able to change and elaborate on their own ideology according to society’s existing beliefs. Therefore, many logical explanations for natural occurrences were released as a result of salons during the Enlightenment.

Although the idea of this type of salon lasted during the Enlightenment, many of its effects still impact society today in the modern world. It can be argued now that women now have an almost to equal or equal importance in society as men do. The prospect of this would have been insane had men heard of it back during the age of Enlightenment. Also, the idea of philosophical questioning has been included in modern

universities and institutions. Back in the Enlightenment, universities were not allowed to teach logic and other methods that disproved religious and fundamental ideas. Universites were run by the church and anything questioning God’s involvement in the world was strictly prohibited.

Salons served a strong purpose during the Age of Enlightenment. Without set places where philosophes and other intellectuals could meet and express their ideas with one another, some of the newly found intellectual discoveries from the Age of Enlightenment may have taken years longer to become open to the public. The encyclopedia, for example could not have been created without a cultivation of ideas, most likely through the use of salons as meeting areas. The Encyclopedia sold out extremely fast, as it described all types of activities that were relevant and useful to the public. Salons played the important role of blending and cultivating intellectual discoveries during the Age of Enlightenment.