The impacts of the Enlightenment on the European Society

The French Enlightenment caused many people to ditch the “old” government ideas. This allowed natural rights to be used as propaganda against the Church and Monarch.

The Age of Enlightenment saw many great changes in Western Europe. It was an age of reason and philosophes. During this age, changes the likes of which had not been seen since ancient times took place. Such change affected evert pore of Western European society. Many might argue that the Enlightenment really did not bring any real change, however, there exists and overwhelming amount of facts which prove, without question, that the spirit of the Enlightenment was one of change-specifically change which went against the previous teachings of the Catholic Church. Such change is apparent in the ideas, questions, and philosophies of the time, in the study of science, and throughout the monarchial system.

The Enlightenment period, also known as The Age of Reason, was a period of social, religious, and political revolution throughout the 18th century which changed the thoughts of man during this “awakening” time. It was a liberation of ignorant thoughts, ideas, and actions that had broken away from the ignorant perception of how society was to be kept and obeyed thus giving little room for new ideas about the world. Puritan society found these new ideas of thought to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed which was a belief of strong rational religion and morality. Enlightened society believed that the use of reason would be a catalyst of social change and had a demand of political representation thus resulting in a

No one could have imagined the impact that the Enlightenment would have and its long-lasting effect. The Enlightenment and its ideas became so widespread that they did not only affect France, but many other countries also. The French Revolution was directly inspired and influenced by the Enlightenment. Revolutionaries in France built their cause around the ideals of the Age of Reason.

The Enlightenment was a philosophical time period that was placed in the eighteenth century. It was also known as the “Age of Reason”. Most thinkers argued that the things of nature could be understood by using human reason. This time period is when people began to question certain authorities. People began to notice that the sake of humanity could be fixed or saved by using reason to think and improve society. Although they sometimes differed in favoring inductive or deductive reasoning, Enlightenment thinkers often worked towards the same general goal which was changing society for the better by using science, logic, and education.

The Enlightenment was a period characterized by the idea that people’s use of reason could unlock the mysteries of the world around them. Thinkers of the Enlightenment saw all aspects of the world—religion, wealth, and the earth itself—as being understandable through natural laws. The reliance on and application of reason on the different aspects of the world used by Enlightenment thinkers was directly informed by the Scientific Revolution. In essence the presentation of and descriptive power of Enlightenment theories and ideas would not have been possible without the strengthened exploratory and explanatory rigor established in the Scientific Revolution.

The Enlightenment Era was a period during the eighteenth century. Its philosophers, often called “the philosophs” attempted to refute the previously held religion-based system by creating arguments based solely on reason, and thus create a completely rational system of thought. But, the question of whether they were as reason-based in their thinking as they attempted to be, given the 11 documents, is unanswerable. While some of the documents are useful to judge this, they are by no means a complete and comprehensive overview of the period’s style of thinking, and some of the documents are entirely unhelpful.

The Enlightenment thinkers helped impact on US government and the people today by creating the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The Declaration gave the right to all men to life ,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Also stating that all men are born equal. The Bill of rights is made up of the first 10 amendments, and was designed to give people the right to individual freedoms. Both of these historic files have made a large impact on our lives as americans today.

Towards the end of the 17th century, people across Europe were looking for more rational or scientific explanations for the workings of the world around them. The old superstitions that had seen the witch trials and the persecution of heretics seemed to be less relevant in the Age of Newton. A growing understanding of mathematics and science was known as the Age of Reason. It saw the start of what would become known as the ‘Enlightenment'. What was the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment, which spanned over the length of an entire century, has had a significant impact on Western society and ideology. The change was brought about by many great philosophers and scientists of the era when they began to question many long-standing beliefs such as the rights of the individual and the structure of power. Instead of solely relying on authority or religion to answer questions about humanity, they turned toward logic and reason as their guides. In doing so, many arrived at conclusions that radically changed thinking across Europe. Their findings emphasized the rights of the individual, equality of all, feminism, and new perspectives political, social, and economic aspects of society. Some of the most notable

The European Enlightenment marks an important turning point in scientific discovery and political philosophy. Galileo, Kepler, and Brahe all made discoveries supporting Copernicus’s heliocentric universe; Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau championed separation of powers, tolerance, and the social contract respectively. The enlightenment, however, was only able to shape European intellectual society; European society as a whole was unaffected. The lack of the Enlightenment’s influence on European society is demonstrated through the persistence of gender-based discrimination, convoluted conclusions about race, and the meager, ephemeral political accomplishments of the various “enlightened” despots.

The Age of Reason, or also known as the Age of Enlightenment, was a time period from the 1620’s to the 1780’s that began in France that focused on scientific methods. It was called the Age of Reason because most of the people had believed the world to be rational and in reason. There were many books, essays, and inventions that had sparked during and because of this time period that changed the world in a good way. Francis Hutcheson had written some significant works and is understood to be one of the main founders of the Enlightenment. David Hume is also an important person during this period because he inspired much of the Enlightenment by writing “History of England”. The French and American revolutions ideals mostly had come from this time period. The Age of Reason had begun in the 19th century Romanticism because of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote The Social Contract in 1762, by emphasizing on feelings instead of reason. Along with Romanticism, there was also Skepticism which questioned whether we are able to see

The age of Enlightenment was a progression of the cultural and intellectual changes in Europe that had resulted from the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scientific revolution and the discoveries made about the natural world would ultimately challenge the way people perceived the world around them. Scientist found real answers, by questioning flawed ancient beliefs that were widely held and maintained by the church. Ultimately, these discoveries and scientific advancements would evolve and effect social, cultural, and political developments in Europe over the course of time. The scientific revolution had provided certainty about the natural world that had long been questioned. With these new

The way the world works now is all based off the Enlightenment. By furthering development in the arts, philosophy, religion, and politics the Enlightenment has furthered our research and ideals. It produced a set of basic principles about human affairs. Humans beings “are naturally good and can be educated to be better,” (The Age Of The Enlightenment). Enlightenment thinkers attacked the Catholic church with particular vigor. Progress was possible, even inevitable, if people could be set free. Society's goals should center on improvements in material and social life. In culture, the aftermath of the scientific revolution spilled over into a new movement known as the Enlightenment, centered particularly in France but with adherents throughout the Western world. Enlightenment thinkers continued to support scientific advance. While there were no “Newton-like breakthroughs, chemists gained new understanding of major elements and biologists developed a vital new classification system for the natural species” (The Enlightenment P.1). Enlightenment thinkers showed great interest in technological change, for greater prosperity was a valid and achievable goal. Coercion and cruelty could be corrected, for the Enlightenment encouraged a humanitarian outlook that was applied in condemnations of slavery and war. The Enlightenment, “summing up and extending earlier intellectual changes, became an important force for political and social reform. It did not rule unchallenged. Important popular religious movements, such as Methodism in England, showed the continued power of spiritual faith. Many writers, particularly those experimenting with the novel as a new literary form in the West, rebelled against Enlightenment rationality to urge the importance of sentimentality and emotion. These approaches,

Although the movement of enlightenment brought most countries wealth and the growth of economic, these benefits weren’t favored those peasants. In other words, peasants had nothing. Moreover, under the pressure of the monarchy government, peasants were been deprived any food they had or any coins they earned. Again and again, they literally couldn’t survive the minimum wages that they earned. Totalitarianism is the word that narratives the society back in the 17th and 18th centuries, “governments that try to control every aspect of life, including daily activities, while limiting all forms of political dissent” (textbook 4th Ed, pg 620). All of these reasons of being beleaguered, therefore, they started a series of strikes and uprisings, and this was just the beginning because later on they became rebellions and started their first revolution that occurred in 1789 in French.