Thinkers of the Enlightenment Essay

The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that took place in mainly Europe, and mainly in North America during the late 17th century and early 18th century. In my opinion, Benjamin Franklin, Baron de Montesquieu, and John Locke were the most important philosophers.

Enlightenment: The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. It was an age of optimism; the movement was the idea that believed reason and knowledge could lead to progress and advancements in a society. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals as well as questioning government especially the monarch. The significance of the Enlightenment was that it became the idea and thought that we, the people have all right to question the government and have the right to overthrow the leader if the leader is corrupt. Many people of the Enlightenment were John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Thomas Paine all these men help construct the ideas the United States would construct onto their Constitution. The ideas

Enlightenment thinkers had a huge impact on how we view, and run our government today. They contributed greatly to the influences we have in our world and even the laws we abide by in our world today. These thinkers were extremely influential to our government and how they shaped the country. The reason being, they had amazing ideas that went for the better of the people, and that was exactly the dream that they had for the U.S. We follow what they said, and thought, and put our own twist on it to make sure that it fit exactly what we wanted for our country and what we want for our country now.

The enlightenment had some influential thinkers that started to get people to open their eyes and started to get them to think. Montesquieu, he believed in separation of powers which is the government should be split up with equal but different powers to protect the people. John Locke is an good example of an influential thinker that spirited the colonist because John Locke had the idea of natural rights(people had the right to life, liberty, and property). Mary Wollstonecraft, the first woman to call the rights of women. Mary believed that women should have equal opportunities for success, and civil existences. The enlightened thinkers have influenced many citizens in many ways, they began to start thinking and becoming more intelligent and independent for themselves. Those thinkers inspired the citizens to start questioning the british government and start to realize that they were being treated unfairly. They started to see the importance of separation of church and state, and also saw that the British didn’t have the right to rule over

The Enlightenment thinkers had many of the ideas in our government that is in use today. The Enlightenment thinkers had a huge impact on both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Both these documents impact America and me greatly.

During the Enlightenment, revolutionary thinkers called philosophes brought about new ideas as to how to better understand and improve their society. They were all modern thinkers and had the best interests of society in mind. Although each philosoph had his or her own ideas, they all centered around one main theme: equality and human freedom.

One of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment was Thomas Paine who is best known for his famous pamphlet, The Age of Reason. In his pamphlet, he advocated deism which promoted reason and free thought, and argued

While reading about the enlightenment it was brought to my attentions that many philosophers actually disagreed on many minor issues but all shared the fundamental principles. It was not just the philosophers that started to question the society that they lived but citizens too. With scientific breakthroughs, they started thinking empirically. Which caused a huge change the started to conclude their answers be observation and experience instead of logic. They challenged many of the churches practices. Each one of the philosophers assigned had a unique view on religion, and how it shaped the Enlightenment period. For example, Moses Mendelsohn was the “Jewish Socrates” he argued for religious toleration and religious distinction of Jewish communities. Whereas Voltaire, one of the prominent French Philosopher’s wanted answers to why Roman Catholic Church executed Huguenot Jean Calas. Voltaire questioned the Catholic Church, he did not consider himself to be and atheist but to be a deist. Lastly, Lessing called for religious tolerance of all religions not just Christianity.

Several individuals have been credited and blamed for leading and contributing to the Enlightenment. These thinkers not only changed their views, but also spread revolutionary ideas to others. These philosophes, Evangelists of science, felt that it was their duty to open peoples’ eyes to new thought. (wikipedia.com) They used every media available to them including word of mouth, pamphlets, letters, journals and books. Philosophes were

Every Enlightenment Philosopher in the 1600’s had different views on how a human being was structured and how it worked, they had different beliefs and opinions that may or may not be true.

The Enlightenment was the period in history following the scientific revolution. The Enlightenment was a time where views on ideal government, human nature, and overall rights of the people were reevaluated by many philosophers. People believed and wanted economic improvement and political reform and believed both were possible. Rulers who believed in enlightened absolutism wanted to centralize their authority to reform their countries. They put the wellbeing of their country above anything else. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau were all philosophers during the Enlightenment, and they had different but interesting ways of thinking about government, human nature, and rights. Rousseau’s views and ideas were the best and most intelligent of these three philosophers.

The Enlightenment is known as a period of time during the eighteenth century in which the most influential thinkers throughout Europe, Britain, and France expressed criticism and mistrust of traditional customs, morals, and institutions. These individuals were known as the Enlightenment Thinkers and consisted primarily of elite writers and intellectuals. The Enlightenment Thinkers, mostly through their writings, were able to spread their ideas of a new European outlook which would ultimately have a profound influence in the minds of the French revolutionaries.

The three most important philosophers in the “Enlightenment Age” are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Baron de Montesquieu. These three philosophers has impacted state, church, and the lives of people. Thomas Hobbes theorized that all humans are inherently selfish and evil. John Locke made a social contract for the rights and lives of every living person. Those naturals rights were (Life, Liberty, and Property). Baron de Montesquieu expanded John Locke’s theory on the natural rights.

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

The Enlightenment was a time of change in Europe. There were many new ideas, and various influential thinkers that inspired new invention and also inspired revolutions. All of these thinkers had different views on people and government and different views of people and how they act. Many of these authoritative individuals thoughts still influence us even today. Many of their ideas are used in government and also as guidelines for people to live their lives by.