The Eighteenth Century : Age Of Enlightenment

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

All news was supplied by the government after a scrubbing of anything anti-government. Religion was looked upon as a means of hostile foreign infiltration. Marxist propaganda depicted Buddhism as superstition, and clergy members were arrested and sent to labor camps.

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 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 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 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

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.

The beginning of eighteenth century brought about the Pre-classical era and a need for freedom from the restrictions of the nobility. The age of Enlightenment came into force questioning the Catholic Church’s doctrine and the authorities. It was the age of reason where secular thought predominated over religious belief. French philosophes and the Enlightenment dominated the cultural life of Europe. (Damerow par 1)

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.

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 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.

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.

In Latin ‘censere’ means to ‘appraise or estimate, and to express an opinion’. Censor term is linked to the ancient Rome, where censors were some high ranking magistrates who were recruited for public morality. Historical reference of banning any literary piece can be traced back to China’s Qin dynasty 213. B.C. Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi destroyed all the books about Confucianism to maintain his political power. In 499, papal index was published on books to be read. In 13th century, Philosophers and theologians such as Marsilius of Padua and John Wiclef were stopped from writing. With the invention of printing press in 15th century censorship increased. Mogens Laerke in the book The Use of Censorship in the Enlightenment speaks “Indeed, as Rousseau would later complain, this ‘terrible art’ became the cause of ‘frightful disorders’ because it allowed for swift and efficient diffusion of ideas, including ideas dangerous to public order”. (Laerke

The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual and scientific movement which is characterized by its rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues. Enlightenment ideals challenged the way people were taught to think and let them express their criticism of the church, the monarchy or whatever system they saw as unjust. The impact of the enlightenment movement was first seen in 18th century Europe and soon spread to different parts of the world. People who believed in these ideals were called enlightenment thinkers. Enlightenment thinkers were a voice for the masses who felt they were being manipulated by people holding all the power. It also helped the masses realize that they did not need the church or monarchy, and enlightenment thinkers were able to assemble a following to stop people of power taking advantage of those who were not quite as powerful. Enlightenment thinkers gave an outlet to the common citizen who were seeing injustices in their government system.