Enlightenment

In the period known as The Age of Enlightenment, Eighteenth-century Europe saw remarkable cultural changes characterized by a loss of faith in traditional religious sources of authority and a turn toward Human Rights, science (Natural Philosophy), and the replacement of theocracies and autocracies with democratic republics. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enlightenment

http://mars.wnec.edu/%7Egrempel/courses/wc2/lectures/enlightenment.html

Stephen Hicks flowchart: the chronology shows how the ideas played out as philosophy, then as an intellectual movement, then as activism, then as the working technology of culture.

Also, the general process of becoming Enlightened.