Before The Enlightenment : A Traditional Social Structure Of The Western Society

Without using reason in our everyday lives, society will collapse and turn into nothing but chaos. During the Enlightenment, a time when reason was beginning to be applied to the people’s thoughts, there were many great thinkers, but there were three in particular that attempted to change society’s unreasonable thinking. Voltaire, John Locke, and Mary Wollstonecraft all believed in freedom of choice; however, they believed in different branches of freedom of choice such as religion, government, and women’s education.

The Enlightenment was a period of mass introduction of new ideas, high in intellect, for the purpose of social growth. People’s views on issues were greatly influenced by the philosophes of that time. People started believing that all men were equal, and thus deserved equal treatment. Some of the philosophes who greatly influenced this period were Voltaire, Denis Diderot, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These men were critical thinkers who analyzed how society was run, and proposed better ways in which the world could operate. Though these men were high on intellect, they had similar world changing views, and all believed that man was free and this freedom should not be taken away. They still had some ideas that differed, but never diminished their

The Age of Enlightenment, a movement during the 17th and 18th century started from the Europeans, later moving into American colonies. The point of this movement was for the society to reform on a new base such as emphasizing reason and individualism over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, Locke, and Voltaire helped launched this project amongst Europeans. John Locke, for example, criticized absolute monarchy and favored self-government. Voltaire also believed that people should be able to speak their minds without the fear they may be punished. Through these philosophy influence, this eventually leads to European rulers ruling with a sense of equality, democratic governance, and abolition.

Humanism, exploration, and modern ideas of science all contributed to the beginning of the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, a time of perfecting society. In the 1600s and 1700s, some monarchs ruled as enlightened despots, which minorly influenced the society. Some philosophers wanted to make bigger chances as they began developing secular views, ultimately seeking democracy. When seeking this goal, they found the many flaws with society and government. As natural laws took shape in the 18th century, it revolutionized government and changed the nature of society.

Throughout the years of 1750-1914, an age of revolutions broke out, causing a global change in politics. The Enlightenment Ideals influenced this worldwide change, from the social contract, separation of power, and natural rights. The social contract influenced the revolutions when all middle/lower class people wanted equality in their country. Natural rights take place in the worldwide revolutions because everyone wants to live with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some documents that influence these revolutions are the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and The Saint-Domingue Constitution of 1801.

The time of the Enlightenment was a time of great change, reform, and the emergence of great minds such as Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and even Copernicus. These men cleared the path to thinking in a new way and brought about the change necessary for the Scientific Revolution. The Enlightenment allowed people to think more critically and even was the time in which the “Experimental Method” was consolidated by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642, Buckler, J., Crowston, p.592 para. 6). It allowed people to begin to think “out of the box” if you will. Monarchies and the power of the king before this time ruled over the general population unthreatened and very rarely did opposition come to stand. Quite often if opposition did stand

The Enlightenment is seen as a time period in which people began to pay more attention to the role of the government and the way individual rights were treated. New ideas were brought to the surface by people who would later become known as “Enlightenment Thinkers”. These ideas were spread seeing as revolutionaries used them as the overall idea of their statements. People began to actually realize the inequality and injustices of the government once they receded from the Age of Absolutism. The Age of Absolutism meant that all of the ruler's had sustained divine power against the citizens, during this time they had no ability to speak or think against the rulers orders. There were many aspects and ideas that pushed the French Revolution further,

The new concept during the Enlightenment was, actually, an idea that people who are more prosperous should support those who are less prosperous. People’s religious beliefs alleged people who was unsuccessful, it was God’s will to punish them. During the 1700s, Economic, Political, Religion, and Social, was mostly fought over within a country to declare who has the throne. Even though it was less security in the 1700s, monarchies

The Early Modern Western Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th centuries. The objective of the Enlightenment was to create authoritative ethics, and knowledge based on an “enlightened” rationality. The leaders’ that were part of this movement were directing the world towards progress and out of a long period of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny; which began during a historical period called the Dark Ages. Therefore, it provided a framework for the American and French Revolutions, as well as the rise of capitalism and the birth of socialism. Most of the ideas in the 18th century are common laws today; like freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the responsibilities of rulers to their people developed during this time. As well as a huge increase in scientific inquiry.

Hi Alana, I like how you touched on the fact that the Enlightenment was built on the foundation of accepting the new and abandoning the old. The world, especially Europe during the eighteenth century was certainly abandoning the once relgious aspects of ruling and were going towards a more secular and scientific way built on reasoning rather than religious tradition. I don’t necessarily think any ruler could be considered completely enlightened because many rulers may have claimed to be enlightened rulers, but in reality only wanted to appease their people and make it seem as if they were giving full rights. They did not give way to full democracy in which people could seek full happiness because in actuality they were really just looking

The Enlightenment period was a revolutionary time where scientific and rational thought became the chief values of society. Thinkers such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were signposts of this era, inspiring populations locally and abroad. This revolution of ideas led to political and societal upheaval throughout the Western world. This essay will argue that the Enlightenment principles of rationalism and universal rights shaped modern Europe and North America through the rejection of absolutist government and the movement towards an equal society. The effect of these Enlightenment ideas is evident throughout the ‘Declaration of Independence’, written by Thomas Jefferson and the Congressional Congress in 1776. These same ideas

The Enlightenment period in both Europe and the Americas was going at fast pace following the public death of King Louis XIV. Everyday life changed in both Europe and the Americas, from the way people thought, carried, and the way they expressed themselves, especially through literature. A lot of quarreling occurred between the “ancients” and the “moderns”; the ancients believed that the new ideas would lead to social alienation and the lack of moral responsibility. Opposed to the moderns however, that believed in the new commitment to individuality, and upholding the importance of autonomy, broad education for women, and geographical exploration.

In the 19th century, a period called Romanticism started in the European continent. This period consisted of art, literature, poetry, philosophy and scientific thought. It played a major role in historiography, education and natural sciences. It evolved from a partly reaction of the Industrial Revolution where the social norms of Age of Enlightenment and scientific rationalization of nature was created. This period tried to make a great effect on the political backgrounds as the impact of such things could make this sector better and less complicated.

Americans in the Enlightenment period strongly connected themselves with the classical age in terms of how they approached their art. The Enlightenment period lasted for about 150 years, from approximately 1700 -1850. Throughout this time period many artists took inspiration from the classical age which occurred in ancient Greece and Rome hundreds of years before. We can see examples of this in buildings like The White house and Monticello in America, and Kedleston Hall in England. These three buildings, though located in very different parts of the world, all have a number of aestheticly similar attributes.

After carefully examining both models traditional European social order and Enlightenment at first I came to the conclusion that both are quite a realistic model society. However, one model was indeed significantly a more realistic model for society. The traditional European social order was realistic model due to the three estates and Christendom. The Enlightenment social order was also a realistic model due to reason, freedom, and nature. But with that being said, I will discuss with evidence and reasoning which one at the end of the day is more realistic than the other. My choose will be decided by the model that has a better chance of functioning well for the long term and fits the best for the people and their needs.