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The Enlightenment Dbq

Decent Essays

Critics propose that just because something cannot be confirmed, does not mean that it is not acknowledged or that there is no reason in trusting it. Rene Descartes wanted certain knowledge to be absolute, although this is not the only option, and others would claim that justified knowledge is adequate. Other philosophers claim skepticism is imperious because a skeptic cannot know that skepticism is absolute.
Birth of model constitutional thought in the seventeenth century was popular among philosophers such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. These philosophers were against the divine rights of kings, allowing the kind to rule from the will of God, and not from the aristocracy, the will of his subjects, or from secular authority. Thomas …show more content…

This time period had three revolutions; The English Revolution in 1688, the French Revolution from 1789-1799, and the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, and these revolutions led to constitutional democracies. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. A new understanding of the natural world inspires the age of enlightenment to remodel the social world into accurate models we would find in our rationality. Philosophers of the Enlightenment find flaws in existing political and social authority. They find that the existing authority is masked with mystery and myth of religion, was founded on vague traditions. Philosophers criticized the institutions that were already in place and proposed ideas of new models that they thought would better society. Because of this, the basic structure of today’s government was formed in this time and along with ideas of liberalism and equal human rights. There was an increased toleration of differences among religions. There were also the ideas of checks and balances in government systems to equal out the power. There were many accomplishments of political philosophy during the Enlightenment that led to drastic change in government, the way that society functioned and various other elements. The theory of reason displays its power by …show more content…

It was an era of rebellion against authoritative figures and a time of high education. People valued knowledge and popular theories of reason, rational, skepticism, empiricism, and other theories that brought forth curiosity of concepts that were normally just accepted. The heightened knowledge gave new achievements in philosophy, sciences, and mathematics. Revolutionaries began to educate themselves and question leaders on their dictatorial rule. Many leaders were overthrown, or some leaders conformed to the Enlightenment, and had become enlightened despots. This age of learning had an everlasting impact on society’s perspective on government power and the new scholarly processes of

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