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1. Enlightenment Essay example
Enlightenment
Do we at present live in enlightened age?
What is enlightenment? Immanuel Kant attempts to clarify the meaning of enlightenment while composing the essay, "What is Enlightenment?". The
goal of Kant's essay was to discuss what the nature of enlightenment was. It also taught one how enlightenment can be brought about in the general
public.
Kant explains that, "enlightenment is man's release from his self–incurred immaturity". Immaturity is man's incompetence to have direction for oneself.
In other words, enlightenment is the progress of a society through the free activity of rational thought and scholarly critique. Kant feels that if we are
going to liberate ourselves from immaturity then we must be able to use our...show more content...
Kant uses many examples of the difference between the public and private use of reasoning. If soldiers refused to follow commands then there would
be no military. So, one solider may follow commands in which he disagrees with, but will later critique what he believes. This means that he will
follow the commands as his private use of reasoning and then will speak out his complaints as his public use of reasoning.
In his essay Kant clearly explains the difference between and enlightened age and an age of enlightenment. In an enlightened age we would all be
religious without clergymen because we would know to which things we should be obedient or disobedient. In this age there would be elimination of
self–incurred immaturity. During the age of enlightenment we are making the progress towards using both kinds of reasoning. Incompetence is not
using pubic and private use of reason in balance with one another. Competence is the balance of both public and private use of reason. We must know
how to determine when it is right to obey and right to argue. In terms of government obedience it is often necessary, but any effort to hinder the
public's free use of reason should be forbidden. In Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment?," he shows the transition for the age of enlightenment to the
enlightened age. It enables the people to become more like the guardian and managers of their own freedom.
Do we at present live in enlightened age? No, Man still doesn't know to which
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2. Dbq: the Enlightenment Essay
Parmveer Ratth October 11, 2012 DBQ: The Enlightenment The Enlightenment known by many as the Age of Reason was a turning point in history.
Man people believe that without the Enlightenment, many of the laws, and rules would exist. For example the United States Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution were greatly influenced by the Enlightenment. For example, John Locke, an Enlightenment thinker highly
influenced the Declaration of Independence by stating that the natural rights of people include life, liberty and property except the founding fathers
changed it by stating life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The...show more content...
Another idea used to challenge an absolute monarchy was in Document # 2. Voltaire, who was a French author and philosopher, states "...I may
disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it... The best government seems to be that in which all ranks of men are
equally protected by the laws..." This statement challenged absolute monarchies because Voltaire believed that freedom of speech should be a right
for each person. He believed that people should be able to express their thoughts and feelings. Freedom of speech is a very important right today, and
it is used every day by people who express their thoughts. Also in Document # 3 Jean–Jacques Rousseau, who was a French philosopher states "Man is
born free; and everywhere he is in chains." Rousseau is saying that despite the fact that man is born free, he is still tortures, still abused and has all of
those free liberties taken away from him. For example, even though people in France prior to the revolution were all human, only the third estate had to
pay taxes. The Enlightenment also had a large impact on both government and society. For example in Document # 5 English philosopher Locke states
"Man being... by nature all free, equal, and independent no one can be... subjected to the political power of another without his own consent... To
protect natural rights governments are established... Since man hope to preserve their
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3. Essay On Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was a period of time when several ideas were spreading around Europe. And many of them made change to people's way of
thinking, some important ideas were: Natural Rights, the belief that people have the right to life, liberty, and to own property. The next one is the
Social Contract, the Social Contract was an unwritten agreement to follow the law of the country and in turn, get protection from the country. With the
introduction of the idea of Equal Rights, Enlightenment ideas were really starting to make sense. Some documents, such as the US Bill of Rights, The
Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Haitian Constitution will prove the importance of Natural Rights. The US Bill of Rights had mentioned the
rights of the...show more content...
There was a document that told the reader of the fundamental rights that the citizen had that was called The Declaration of the Rights of Man, and that
is one of the holders of the meaning of natural rights. Article 2 says that, "[the] aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and
[unalienable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression", which means that the rights given to man, that
can't be taken away, are the rights to liberty, the right to own property, national protection, and resistance to tyranny. Sometime during 1801, the Haitian
Constitution was made, and this document took an extraordinary amount of Enlightenment ideals into consideration, as it says in Art V, "no other
distinctions exist than those of virtues and talents, nor any other superiority than that granted by the law in the exercise of a public charge. The law is
the same for all, whether it punishes or protects", and that's what it is. So, law is equal for everyone. So, with the evidence from three great documents
/sources, I can conclude that the idea of Natural Rights is the most important. To clarify, the US Bill of Rights, the Declaration of the Rights of Man,
and the Haitian Constitution of 1801, three essential building blocks of several important governments, emphasize the importance of natural rights.
And that's why the Enlightenment is still important, especially
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4. The Enlightenment Essay
Newton's publication of Principia Mathematica in 1677, as well as the Glorious Revolution, paved the way for the beginning of the Age of
Enlightenment. Promoting critical thinking about the world and about humankind, the Enlightenment based itself primarily on scientific questioning
and empirical analysis. Scientists and philosophers of the eighteenth century questioned the traditional ideas about the universe, society, and culture,
and rejected the Aristotelian worldview, skeptical because of its lack of verifiable evidence. Denouncing God as the creator of the universe inspired the
thinkers of the time to apply the newly founded scientific method in discovering the origin of all existence, leading to the scientific achievements of
Copernicus,...show more content...
The Enlightenment's secularized emphasis on rationality, rather than religion, fueled artists' renewed interests in classical antiquity, as the geometric
harmony of classical art and architecture seemed to embody Enlightenment ideals (Gardner 847). At the same time, the excavations of Pompeii and
Herculaneum in the mid–eighteenth century turned men's thoughts to Antiquity (Praeger 382). In 1764, Winkelmann wrote his well–known History of
Ancient Art, in which he contrasted the "noble simplicity and calm grandeur" of Ancient Greece with the "irresponsibility, extravagance, and
impertinent fire" of the Baroque period (Cumming 250). During the French Revolution, even Napoleon Bonaparte took advantage of the stylistic
potentialities inherent in the Classical Revival, and enhanced the effect to produce the so–called Empirical style (Praeger 382). Thus the Greek Revival
became by infiltration the style of the Court (Praeger 382). Architects of the Neoclassical period turned away from the theatricality and ostentation of
Baroque and Rococo design and instead embraced a more streamlined classicism by incorporating Romanesque themes into works, such as blank walls
except for a repeated garland motif near the top, columns, and domes. One could say that the
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5. Essay about European Enlightenment
Enlightenment
The enlightenment was the growth of thought of European thinkers in the 1600's. The spread of enlightenment was a result of the Scientific
Revolution during the 1500's and 1600's. It resulted as a need to use reason to distribute human laws. It also came about from a need to solve social,
political and economic problems.
Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier built the framework for modern chemistry during the enlightenment. Edward Jenner built a vaccine against
smallpox, a deadly disease. These sort of scientific successes prompted European thinkers to use reason to find laws to govern the physical world,
which they called natural laws. Natural laws are laws that govern human nature.
Two prominent "thinkers" during...show more content...
A social contract is an agreement by which they gave up the state of nature for an organized society.
John Locke had more optimistic views that Thomas Hobbes. Locke said people were basically reasonable and moral. They had certain rights, called
natural rights, which belonged to a person at birth. These rights were life, liberty and property. In his writings, Two treatises of government, he argued
that people form government to protect their own natural rights. He believed the best type of government is that of which had limited authority. Thus,
he rejected Absolute Monarchy. Locke then said that if the government fails its' obligations or violates people's rights, people should be able to
overthrow the government.
Baron de Montesquieu studied governments of Europe. He published the spirit of the laws. He felt that the separation of the powers of the
government was the best way to protect liberty. He felt that each branch of government should be able to serve as a checks and balances.
In france the enlightenment thinkers were called philosophes, meaning lovers of wisdom. The most famous of the philosophes was Voltaire. He battled
inequality and injustices, with his pen. He is famous for saying "My trade is saying what I think."
Another philosophe was Denis Diderot. He produced a 28 volume encyclopedia. This encyclopedia helped spread Enlightenment ideas throughout
Europe and across the Atlantic to the Americas.
The most controversial philosophe was Jean–Jacques
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6. Essay on The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment Throughout Europe and the new American colonies in the 18th century there was a great movement in thought. This trend that
preceded the French Revolution is known as the Enlightenment. Revolutionary writers and thinkers thought that the past held only darkness and
ignorance, they began to question everything. Enlightened thought entered, or intruded, into all aspects of life in the 1700s. Governments were
drastically reformed, art and literature changed in scope, religion was threatened, the study of science spread, nature was seen in a new light, and
humanity evolved greatly. This new way of thinking was propelled by curiosity and observations of society and nature. The Enlightenment was a desire
for human...show more content...
Never the less, this time period sparked many important changes in thought. In countries such as France, where the Enlightenment thrived, the Catholic
Church felt very threatened by the philosophes and their new age thinking. Through the teachings of the Bible, religion has attempted to appease
people's natural curiosities. In Genesis 1:1–31, the Story of Creation is told to satisfy people's desire to know how they came to be. Throughout history,
the Church has explained tragedies such as the plague and miracles such as rain and harvests as divine intervention. When philosophes of the
Eighteenth Century began observing natural phenomena themselves and questioning long accepted ideas, the Church began to worry. A country built
around religion cannot survive if its subjects lose their faith. Prior to this era, people questioned nothing that was explained by their church. Farmers
accepted bad seasons because their minister told them that they were being punished. No one looked at nature as its own force. In fact, people feared
nature because God controlled it. People were inferior to God and the Church and had no confidence in free thought. During the Enlightenment, people
actually began looking to nature for answers; religion took a back seat. Through this revolution of thought and the study of nature, people for the first
time gained confidence in themselves
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