Enlightenment Era Research Paper

The Enlightenment period in the eighteenth century is a significant time in history as it became the standard structure for democratic society. However, Enlightenment did not address slavery yet enlightened government rule leading to the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution. Both milestones in history are significant game changers in history.

The primary source being discussed is an excerpt from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was written by Benjamin Franklin discussing the philosophical developments of the Enlightenment, and its implication into his life. Being an autobiography, this selection was published in a book, and was written by its subject. Franklin was a very influential part of the Enlightenment in the colonies, which makes this selection very relevant. This article was written with the intent to further educate the colonists on the Enlightenment and Franklin’s belief.

brought these new ideas and changes to light. Enlightenment’s main goal was to seek out

The Enlightenment period, also known as The Age of Reason, was a period of social, religious, and political revolution throughout the 18th century which changed the thoughts of man during this “awakening” time. It was a liberation of ignorant thoughts, ideas, and actions that had broken away from the ignorant perception of how society was to be kept and obeyed thus giving little room for new ideas about the world. Puritan society found these new ideas of thought to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed which was a belief of strong rational religion and morality. Enlightened society believed that the use of reason would be a catalyst of social change and had a demand of political representation thus resulting in a time

The Enlightenment period was an extremely impactful revolution which caused changes in societies around the world. It began in 1651, people across the country took a stand against their unfair rights. In order to have a peaceful society, everyone must be treated with equality which can only occur if there is a fair government system in place. If people have to fight and kill to have their natural rights granted, something has to be done about it. The enlightenment period encouraged the people to share their ideas when before they felt they had no say. When the people come together to fight for something they believe in many good and bad outcomes can take place. This time period led to many changes that have drastic effects on history. As people joined multiple documents were created showing the impact of this time period. A couple of these influential documents was the English Bill of Rights, U.S constitution, and the Haitian Constitution.

The Enlightenment, which started in England, was more for the intellectual people of America. The Enlightenment had representatives that were not influential in the government, but also in religion, such as Baron Montesquieu, John Locke, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Adams stressed the importance of virtue, for it was the” Foundation of Republics” (A). Without the backing of virtuous and passionate society, the republican government would not be able to stand. As his colleague, John Adams, took on the importance of virtue, Benjamin Franklin spoke on the importance of reason, whilst taking jabs at religion. Franklin wrote that reason and good works is what save us, for faith was not “in their power” (E). Thomas Jefferson

This research paper was written for the Advanced Placement United States History class taught by Mr. Roger Brady. It focuses on the rise of the ideas of the Enlightenment and how these ideas were relevant in the American Revolution, and the creation of the modern American Society. It also provides a throughout explanation of what is the Enlightenment, who are its main exponents, and how the ideas of the Enlightenment spread. Lastly, it also depicts how the colonists were mistreated and mocked by the British Empire before the ideas of the

The Enlightenment was a period in the eighteenth century where change in philosophy and cultural life took place in Europe. The movement started in France, and spread to Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Germany at more or less around the same time, the ideas starting with the most renowned thinkers and philosophers of the time and eventually being shared with the common people. The Enlightenment was a way of thinking that focused on the betterment of humanity by using logic and reason rather than irrationality and superstition. It was a way of thinking that showed skepticism in the face of religion, challenged the inequality between the kings and their people, and tried to establish a sound system of ethics. The ideas behind the

The Enlightenment era was a new intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems. Even though different philosophers approached their goal differently, they achieved it none the less. They all approached their goal differently due to their different upbringings, their different backgrounds, and most importantly their different environments. A few among the many enlightened thinkers were Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron Do Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. While some of their idea’s are not used in modern society, they were all instrumental to the modern society we live in today.

During the Renaissance, people began to stray away from the Catholic Church, and began thinking for themselves. While doing so, people began to reconnect to old Roman traditions. Subsequently, the Enlightenment was born soon after. The Enlightenment was a new way of thinking also known as The Age Of Reason. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes are two famous philosophers of the Enlightenment that are known for having two different views on government.

Thomas Jefferson’s message he believed that all men are created equal. This meaning that every man should have the same right as another. Thomas Jefferson also believed that men’s rights included the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Both John Locke and Rousseau believed in one of those rights. In document I, article 1, the same belief of all men are created equal is stated again in relation to Thomas Jefferson’s belief. In order to keep these specific rights in tact, the governments are under the command of

The movement of the Enlightenment period and the Great Awakening period had a profound impact on American colonial society. As a result, the Enlightenment movement and the Great Awakening movement challenged and changed religious, secular, and education ideologies that ushered in a new era in American colonial society while giving birth to a social and religious renaissance in the American colonies. The Enlightenment movement was a social movement that placed a highly valuable emphasis on one’s capacity for reasoning, and regarded it as the pinnacle of human success. Significantly, the Enlightenment movement instigated both harmony and resistance amongst the religious community; thus, giving rise to prominent religious leaders and spiritual thinkers who espoused their views on the subject. Notably, the most famous Enlightenment thinkers were Benjamin franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.

If ever there were a mixtape to play behind American history, its tracks would be wrought with with the musings of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of what ought to be Happiness. Yet as the prospect of these unalienable rights propagates through time, it adopts a beckoning to its origin. It calls out for a thorough understanding of its context and composer. The proof of ink to paper, of signatures to epistles and dates to promissory notes, is efficient enough. However, the application of thoughts to people encroaches upon the impending examination of precisely whose thoughts have indeed founded and embodied the notion of a people, and what the people should represent. Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, the document to which the American philosophical score owes itself. Upon drafting the chorus of American history he sealed his own rationale into not only the task of harboring an infantile nation, but also of defining the very values inscribed. Interrogating Jefferson in his ideology unveils another corpus beyond the edited honesty of the Declaration –– a soil in which the implications of freedom and equality begin to proliferate further. Though as much as

The Enlightenment was a crucial period in modern history for the simple fact that it engendered some of the thoughts that are directly responsible for contemporary social, political, and religious institutions. This epoch, along with the Renaissance, helped to spur Western Civilization out of the Dark Ages and into contemporary conceptions of modernization. Not surprisingly, this time period is characterized by a number of different seditions and the revolutionary tenets that fueled them which were markedly at variance with social, political, and religious notions that preceded them. As these three spheres of life often intersect with one another, there is some degree of difficulty in isolating their specific causes in terms of respective Enlightenment principles. However, history has revealed that some of the most distinguishable characteristics of this historical era are its different ideas regarding the nature of politics and the role of government in ruling over the people, its new regard for and conception of traditional viewpoints of religion, and a philosophical divergence with the past in terms of ethics and psychology; a review of the Enlightenment's most notable thinkers (such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin) readily confirms this thesis.

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.