... Newton fulfils Kant's concept of enlightenment. The 'Age of Enlightenment' therefore can be thought of as a period when new concepts of enlightened thought were initiated. It is not an event, in that it cannot be pinpointed to an exact timescale, and "only existed to the extent that it appears meaningful to isolate certain beliefs and ways of thinking and believing... [and] the attitudes which one chooses to regard as typical of the Enlightenment therefore constitute a free subjective choice, which then, in turn, determines the shape of the synthesis one constructs for one's self" (Hampson, 1968). It is reasonable to say therefore, if one follows Hampson's reasoning, that the Enlightenment as a concept is largely subjective, in terms of which ways of thinking are considered 'enlightened', and any form of analysis of the time must recognise this. Recognising this, the extent to which Isaac Newton's work was part of ...

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