The 18th Century Enlightenment

-Did other cultures effect society back in Europe and the way they thought about their government?

The Age of Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age of Reason, refers to the time of the guiding intellectual movement, called The Enlightenment. It covers about a century and a half in Europe. From the perspective of socio-political phenomena, the period is considered to have begun with the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648) and ended with the French Revolution (1789). The intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment was spreading ideas about the equality and basic rights of man and the importance of reason and scientific objectivity. François-Marie Arouet ( 1694 – 1778), known by Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy

the claim to the Crown, and he believed that individuals held the right to revolt against a

The Enlightenment was the root of many of the ideas of the American Revolution. It was a movement that focused mostly on freedom of speech, equality, freedom of press, and religious tolerance. The American Revolution was the time period where America tried to gain its independence from England. They got influenced very much from many philosophers. That will be discussed throughout the essay. The Enlightenment ideas were the main influences for American Colonies to become their own nation.

The Enlightenment is said to have begun in the 1680’s, the same decade that the “Glorious Revolution” occurred, which crowned daughter of James II Mary and her husband Prince William of Orange Monarchs of England. This turning point in English history can be considered part of the Enlightenment due to the switch from an Absolute Monarchy to a Constitutional Monarchy and the passing of the English Bill of Rights in 1689 after William’s ascension to the throne.

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.

Everyone knows the story of how America came to be. It was similar to David versus Goliath, the American colonists against the potent England. England at the time of the Revolution, boasted the largest and most powerful fighting force in the history of the world. The Americans were rebellious country-cousins who wanted freedom from what they regarded as a capricious and tyrannical paternal England so they could govern themselves. The result was America.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, antisemitism made its mark on Europe. Many people had prejudices against Jews and Judaism. However, there were also people striving for an Enlightened environment. A lot of ideas were generated on this topic and several viewpoints emerged. Papers and and books were written laying out these viewpoints, including the texts of Richard Wagner and Christian Wilhelm von Dohm. Wagner’s work, Judaism in Music, shows his strong opinions on the Enlightenment process and what he thinks should occur. Dohm’s paper, On the Civic Improvement of the Jews, illustrates the ideas that he believes will be most beneficial. These two authors, Wagner and Dohm, both had specific thoughts on how and if the ideas of this Enlightenment process should be carried out.

During the 1700s, America and Europe was in the era of Enlightenment. When mankind was evolving from centuries of inexperience into a new age of development by reason, science, and reverence for civilization. What was influenced by human purpose, cultured the natural laws, and the natural rights of mankind that resulted into progress in knowledge, and actual success were people of the Enlightenment. What also led to the increase of new religious idea was Deism. Deism is a belief in God as a great creator or architect who had generated the universe then permitted it to function like a machine or clock without divine interference.

The Enlightenment and the French Revolution, two of the most enriched periods of history, probably never to be left out of the history books. The French Revolution was influenced greatly by the Age of Reason. The Enlightenment period took place over about three-hundred years, whereas the French Revolution took place for only ten years. The French Revolution was able to happen in such a short amount of time because it integrated the enlightened ideas from the Enlightenment and used them as its own. These enlightened ideas then took grasp of the people of France, the

The Age of Enlightenment was the gateway to more individualized theories and ways of contemplating. The way people used to reason and think was gone. A lot of people started to come across further developments in the science fields. They also began to separate from restricting groups. People were encouraged by Enlightenment thinkers to think beyond what restricted them. As soon as this idea was embedded in their minds people started separating from the church and the laws/principles they had conformed to prior to the enlightened thinkers. The principles or “dogma” were said to be detrimental to the thought process of people. It was said to be in place to restrict people from feeling things they truly felt. The same went with religion. Prior to the encouragement of the enlightened thinkers people blindly followed any religion they were told to. No one thought for themselves.

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.

The Enlightenment is an intellectual movement that occurred around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe. This movement placed emphasis on reason and individualism rather than tradition, creating an era where the people pushed themselves away from ancient authority. The Enlightenment caused many people to become skeptical of the teachings of the church, to begin to want to understand the physical world through reason alone and to discover the natural laws which governed the people. It pushed people to want to discover knowledge through experience rather than accepting the traditions and opinions they have acquired as they grew up prior to that era. The Enlightenment helped people to discover that they are able to form their own opinions without relying on religious or royal authority to shape how they

The Enlightenment was an extensive intellectual, philosophical, and cultural movement that spread throughout Europe, predominantly England, France and Germany during the 18th century. The Scientific Revolution, which began in the 16th century, gave way to a new and revolutionary way of thinking. It encouraged independent thought, the capacity to ask questions, and a progressive attitude. Additionally, the enlightenment arose during a time when there was absolute monarchy and an extremely powerful church. Political, philosophical, cultural, and religious ideas were in the need of reform. The French Revolution was arguably an effect of the growing ideas of the enlightenment. People within France finally had enough of absolute monarchy and wanted reform. Philosophers and thinkers were crucial to the progress of the enlightenment. Thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and Adam Smith were prominent figures of the enlightenment. They questioned religion, promoted secularism, and freedom. Most believed that the government was to be an extension of the people and should not be totalitarian. Locke and Rousseau were focused on protecting the people’s rights. Adam Smith focused on the economic aspects and promoted a free economy without restrictions from the all powerful monarchy. He is the founder of modern economics. Immanuel Kant focused on the problem with government and how the absolute monarchy had been detrimental to the people. He argued that the

The Age of Enlightenment is one of the turning points in the human history, which affected the economy, politics and social order throughout the world. Period of Enlightenment is vividly bounded in the late XVII century up to the end of XVIII century. Main purpose of the Enlightenment time’s intellectuals was to affect and transform the society in which they lived, by challenging traditions by the science and scientific methods. Indisputably, we could claim that period of the Enlightenment was an unrepeatable progress of the human thinking. Major reason is that, intellectuals in the period of the Enlightenment were neglecting and skeptical