The Age Of The Enlightenment

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

The ideals of the Enlightenment are the basis of our democracies and universities in the 21st century: belief in reason, science, skepticism, secularism, and equality. In fact, no other era compares with the Age of Enlightenment. Classical Antiquity is inspiring, but a world away from our modern societies. The Middle Ages was more reasonable than its reputation, but still medieval. The Renaissance was glorious, but largely because of its result: the Enlightenment. The Romantic era was a reaction to the Age of Reason – but the ideals of today’s modern states are seldom expressed in terms of romanticism and emotion. Immanuel Kant’s argument in the essay ‘Perpetual Peace’ (1795) that ‘the human race’ should work for ‘a cosmopolitan constitution’ can be seen as a precursor for the United Nations.

The Enlightenment happened during the 1700s when Europeans scientist and philosophers begin to question about everything and began to understand the world based on reason and at this time stood out several people like Galileo Galilei, Nicholas Copernicus, Issac Newton, Adam Smith and many others. They made great discoveries that changed the world and the form of government.

The ideas of the enlightenment during the eighteenth century was to promote reason, logic and freedom of thought over dogma, faith or religion, and especially the way government back then was running in Europe. It was revolutionary era because all the philosophers, and other smart thinkers at the time gathered their new opinion or ideas together to shift the way people, politicians or government, and religious figures thought about the rules of life in the universe.

In situations of unbalanced power, people will always revolt and work to change their nation’s order, so that equality will be made. Once revolutions have taken their toll, and brought devastation to the land, the ash becomes a perfect place to cultivate a new system of power. The American and French Revolutions were aided, and created, by the Age of Enlightenment’s ideas of personal rights and freedoms. The new knowledge of the era brought change to people who had constantly been forced to live under the rule of their wicked rulers. They harnessed the progressive concepts, and brought riots across the lands of the unjust states. After the fighting, almost all traces of both governments had vanished, and in it’s place, the people’s government

During the Enlightenment era, both elite culture and popular culture had influences, philosophers dominating the ideals of the time period. In the eighteenth century, philosophers such as Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean Jacques Rousseau empowered people to think upon their natural rights and suggested new ideologies to follow and/or support. Additionally, because of the Enlightenment, the Realist and Neoclassical Art Movement spurred and gathered momentum as artists changed the art scene with their masterpieces across Europe.

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.

The Age of Reason and The Enlightenment Period Within the course of Honors American Literature, there have been numerous units of writing from within history. In the class, there were a total of eight units covered. Everything from the Native Americans to Realism was studied in depth.

During the 18th century, a worldwide movement, more commonly recognized as the Age of Enlightenment, encouraged the spread of philosophical thinking, science, communications, and politics. This movement gradually branched out from Northern Europe and reached places such as the United States of America and France, encouraging the American and French Revolutions. The Enlightenment brought about a new age of philosophical and intellectual thinkers, such as John Locke, which helped shape and influence modern government and politics. John Locke is recognized as the father of classical liberalism, introducing the Two Treatises of Government, Social Contract, and private property, which formed the basis for the constitutions in westernized

The Enlightenment is known as the age of reasons because of its gradual changes or transitions from traditional to modern societies. It was a big change from faith or religion towards science and the intellectual reasoning. Also, many societies or people changed their styles of living and beliefs such as they went from rural to urban, agriculture to commerce, believe to reason, religion to science, and so on. During the Neo-Classical era, many world famous writers such as Jean-Baptiste Poquelin known by Moliere, Jonathan Swift, and Francois-Marie Arouet know by Voltaire wrote some incredible stories, poems, plays and articles about the age of reason. In literature, all of them are well known by the tactics and methods they used in their

Upon analyzing the contemporaries of the 18th century enlightenment period, it is important to note that the idea of “change” caused unease and anxiety to settle in. The enlightenment was a European philosophical movement led by philosophers, Kant, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hobbes, and Locke. These thinkers began to question the way of life in the contemporary world and discussed the potential of “man”. Immanuel Kant hypothesized that man is immature and has yet to find his true potential. Questioning the simplicity and purpose of life frightened some, as a result, the enlightenment polarized society, some of which were anxious towards change, others were excited to seek the potential of the human mind. The philosophy prior to the enlightenment dates back to Plato and Aristotle 's philosophy of the way states should function, a reflection of the concepts of Guardians, Auxiliaries, and Producers. However, as time passed the simplicity of life became irrelevant, as the man began to realize his potential. Conflict arose as many were very loyal to the church and enlightened thinking was in direct conflict with the edicts of religious dogma.

Born of two fathers, the American Revolution and the age of enlightenment, the French revolution was primarily a social upheaval that conspired to overthrow religious and privileged classes. The French Revolution changed the degree to which the people were willing to suffer and sacrifice in order to achieve their war aims through democratizing the Army and creating the necessity of larger political alliances than ever before. Guibert wrote in his Essai:

The Age of Enlightenment has historically been affiliated with drastic skepticism and revolution in politics, philosophy, science, and communications, amongst other disciplines. In the early eighteenth century, people began to challenge the idea that rulers, spirits, and Catholicism were dominant over other ways of life. Although the Enlightenment primarily prevailed in parts of Europe in countries such as England and France, it was also crucial in determining several aspects of colonial America. The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, two of the most fundamental documents of American law, are perhaps the crowning achievements of the Enlightenment. Specifically impacted by John Locke, Benedict Spinoza, and Gotthold Ephraim

As a conclusion, the Enlightenment was an intellectual movement, developed in France, Britain and Germany, which supported freedom, democracy and reason as the major values of society. The Enlightenment era brought about significant guarantees of natural and human rights, freedom of expression, and the right for citizens to have free choice and practice religions freely. The world became more sophisticated in terms of psychology, science, economics, education, technology, and art. The Enlightenment ultimately led to 19th-century Romanticism. Notions that are still used today, such as, freedom of pressure, natural rights, and governmental system, arose from the enlightenment philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich

In Europe in the early 17th century, Christianity was the dominant religion. Most countries believed that it was the only acceptable one, and that there should not be any toleration for other religions. In many countries, the monarchs (or the other rulers) would enforce Christianity and persecute people with other beliefs. Some of these beliefs, however, changed during the Age of Enlightenment from the late 1600’s to the mid-1700’s. The philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment influenced peoples’ way of thinking through their ideas of reason, empiricism, and the power of nature. The ideas that the philosophers had eliminated the stranglehold that religion had on the people and the government. Through the heavy influence of John Locke, Isaac Newton, and other philosophers, alternative religions, mainly deism, emerged, which changed how people viewed themselves and their relationship to government.