Examples Of Rational Decisions During The Enlightenment

A majority of those who lived during the Enlightenment era, or Age of Reason, may have followed René Descartes’ widely known philosophical statement of “I think; therefore, I am”(Sampaolo, par. 1). The Enlightenment era, having lasted from 1685 to 1815 was defined by the logic and rationale of those who lived during the

The empiricist following throughout Western philosophy was started by John Locke. In spreading this new idea of learning, he saw his mission as clearing away the metaphysical rubbish left by rationalists which was hindering the path to knowledge. Locke rejected many of the ideas which Descartes fought for. Rationalists claimed there to be two fundamental innate ideas, the logical principles of identity and non-contradiction. Locke argued that for any innate ideas to exist they must be approved by everyone. He decided that a test should be created, thus determining if these ideas reside in the minds of everyone regardless of age or education. In his study he found that these principles, as he suspected, failed to be universally assented.

Throughout the Enlightenment, philosophes have made discoveries as well as have ideas that have revolutionized society as we know it today. The Enlightenment took place during the 17th and 18th century in Europe. During this period, philospohes, or philosophers, would discuss different questions and brought new, intellecutal ideas that brought out the Age of Reason. There is many different points of view of what the philosophes main idea was during the enlightenment. The main idea of the philosophes was greater individual freedom. This idea was a key part of their thinking in three areas: government, religion and women's rights.

Enlightenment thinkers rejected assumptions such as accepting of ideas of the Church because the Church says they are correct and instead needed empirical and factual evidence to support their theories. Many theories and laws speculated during the Enlightenment proved to be true and became the basis for rational thinking. The Enlightenment was mainly composed of farmers, artisans, and well-educated colonists, who delved into subjects such as science and human intelligence in costly books and newspapers. Benjamin Franklin, a middle-class colonist, is widely considered as the essence of the Enlightenment, as he had a ravenous intellectual curiosity and believed in the use and application of science. This American movement strengthened colonists’ contempt towards English royalty, pushing for independence rather than being property of another country. Enlightenment thinkers presented many philosophies encompassing the rights of man and the duties of a government, such as John Locke, who contributed ideas of entitlement to life, liberty, and property and separation of powers were eventually incorporated into the current

As humans, there is a constant internal struggle as to whether we should guide our lives through reason or emotion. Another approach to this question would be to ask: should we follow our head or heart? Personally, I wish I could say that I listen to the more logical approaches in my head, but I tend to follow my emotions to solve situations.

First of all, the age of Enlightenment was a period that was heavily focused on matters of political equality. For example, according to History.com “European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the “long 18th century” (1685-1815) as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment” (Enlightenment, 2009). It was a very important period since many things were being discovered and produced. Especially, the most important event during the Enlightenment was the Birth of Economic Theory. This theory set forth the “laws” of labor, production, and trade which lead to the concept of free enterprise and laissez-faire. According to the textbook,

John Locke, an English philosophe, had an empiricist view on reasoning. He believed that everyone was born with a blank mind and as life went on, the learned things for themselves and interpreted situations with the knowledge and opinions they had produced over time. Locke believed that ‘our senses convey in our mind what produces our perceptions.’ “Perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing, and all the different actings of our own minds; which we being conscious of, and observing in ourselves, do from these receive into our understanding as distinct ideas, as we do from bodies affecting our senses.” Locke, J (1690) pp. 185 – 187. Locke’s theory was based on his thoughts around the scientific changes, specifically around the same time Isaac Newton discovered the universal law of gravity.

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.

Voltaire, among others was part of this movement. Enlightenment thinkers believed reason would “allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the whole of reality.” (New World Encyclopedia, “Age of Enlightenment”). They argued that reason could “free humankind from superstition and religious authoritarianism.” (New World Encyclopedia, “Age of Enlightenment”).

Rationalism champions, above all, reason; and advocates that “a class of truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly” (Blanshard, 2015). During 17th century or the “Age of Enlightenment”, key figures like Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza, sought through their own, distinct approaches, to examine “the relation between mind and body, the nature of substance, and the place of humanity in nature” (Cottingham, 1988). According to (Markie, 2013), rationalist philosophers’ work is in line with one or more of the following theses: the intuition/deduction thesis, the innate knowledge thesis, and the innate concept thesis. Pursuant to the intuition/deduction thesis, initial data or premises are linked with conclusions which are free of epistemic

On a more scientific level, in both the lectures pertaining to the “Emotion and Motivation” and the textbook readings pertaining to “Decision-Making”, we saw the numerous benefits of making decisions on the basis of emotions. Research suggested that we make less intransitive decisions when relying on emotions, and similarly we tend to make riskier decisions when not relying on our emotions as we become insensitive to future consequences. Keeping this in mind, what are we truly sacrificing when we decide to make decisions upon the reasoning advocated in the reading over our

In chapter 3 “Rational Emotions” of Martha Nussbaum’s book Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and the Public Life, Nussbaum begins with the charge that “emotions are in a normative sense irrational and thus inappropriate as guides in public deliberation” (p. 55), and then Nussbaum chiefly discusses four objections to emotions. The first objection is that the emotions are blind “animal” forces, which have nothing to do with reasoning and could be a threat to good judgment. The second objection is based on a more profound view of the relationship between emotion and judgment, however, antiemotion philosophers still believe that emotions are undesirable paradigms that produce bad desires in

One of the principal ideas of the Enlightenment is the value of reason. The value of reason is the ability for individuals to be able to think for themselves. This is shown through Martin Luther and his 95 theses where he challenged the ideas from the church. This was one of the startling moments in thinking for oneself in the Enlightenment era. According to Immanuel Kant, “Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! ‘Have courage to use your own reason!’ That is the motto of the enlightenment”

The Enlightenment was marked by the push for independent, individual thought, where each person strived to discover their own truth free from the influence of other thinkers. In a time where doubt began to whirlpool around the Catholic church that insisted on dictating all doctrines even outside of theology, thinking separate of the confines of the masses led people to question where they could find their truth. Immanuel Kant believed that the critique of every thought and reason, uninfluenced by prior knowledge or beliefs, laid a stable foundation for all other questions in fields like ethics, science, and theology, to be answered. Similarly, René Descartes sought to abolish all of his former beliefs by separating mind from body and reestablishing

In the 17th and 18th century, a revolution known as the Enlightenment was taking place. The Enlightenment wasn’t a revolt of power, but rather one of thought, and people began to question their traditional way of life. Those who joined this revolt were called philosophes. The philosophes believed that through reason, anything could be answered. Through the use of reason, philosophes believed that they could not only understand their society, but also change it for the better. Even though this was their main goal, the philosophes each had their own areas of expertise, and worked on improving their world through those categories. Philosophes such as John Locke and Voltaire believed that changes in government and religion could lead to an improvement in equality. Others such as Adam Smith and Mary Wollstonecraft believed that people should be free to do as they wish, whether it be in the economy or through education.