Preview

How Did The Enlightenment Shaped The Modern World?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
622 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did The Enlightenment Shaped The Modern World?
The Enlightenment was a movement between the 17th and 18th centuries marked by the introduction of new ideas that influenced the relationship between the people and their governments. The shift mainly occurred towards scientific thought and away from absolute faith in religion and ancient texts. The Enlightenment was influenced by its thinkers, such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbs. Even though the thinkers had different views on human nature and how government should be run, they shaped the modern world through their philosophy. Without the Enlightenment and its ideas, people would still be under tyranny and wouldn’t have a voice of their own. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, drastically changed the modern world as we know it. This can be seen in how people perceive natural phenomena. Before the Enlightenment, people associated natural …show more content…
There were two different thought processes on the relationship between people and their government, each by different people, namely Thomas Hobbs and John Locke, both of whom were influential figures in their time. Even though both men believed in the concept of the social contract, they had opposing views on human nature and, by extension, why it should be present. For example, Hobbes thought people were inherently flawed and needed a government to keep them in check. In contrast, Locke thought that people were a black state and had no characteristics besides those they learned from the people around them (Cook). The philosophers had different opinions about the importance of nature vs. nurture and its effect on governments. The work of Locke and Hobbs regarding the social contract provided a basis for revolutions even after the two philosophers died, most notably the American Revolution, which would only have happened with the ideas brought on by Locke and Hobbes (Amsco School

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The social contract theory is the belief that people are free and equal by natural right , and that this in turn requires that all people give their consent to be governed; espoused by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and influential in the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Hobbes believed that a monarchial type of government was necessary to restrain humanity’s bestial tendencies because life without government was a “state of nature.” Stating that people will live like animals without rules. On the other hand, John Locke argued that the government’s major responsibility was the preservation of private property. He also denied the right that no king should govern but also that individuals were born with equal and natural rights.…

    • 4775 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment refers to the seventeenth and eighteenth century in which a historical intellectual movement advocating reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of ethics, government, and logic swept through Europe and the Americas. The intellectual leaders regarded themselves as a courageous elite who would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny. The movement helped create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions and led to the rise of classical liberalism and modern capitalism.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a time in which thinkers believed they could better understand the world around them and one another through scientific reasoning. These thinkers wanted to apply the scientific method to society and its many problems. Some of the things they were questioning were the divine right of Kings, power of the nobles and the power of the Catholic Church. In response to studying these problems some important ideas were formulated. Ideas such as John Locke’s promoted the idea…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment was a reaction against the current political and social frameworks in Europe. The enlightenment attempted to suggest the standards of sound judgment and motivation to the workings of ordinary life and in government while questioning humankind in society. It dismissed the celestial privileges of rulers even though it was not as much as an arrangement of thoughts as it was an arrangement of states of mind. At its center was feedback, a scrutinizing of conventional foundations, traditions, and ethics. Enlightenment philosophers, including Voltaire, David Hume, and John Locke each contributed, liberty, opposition against established religion and tabula rasa to western society.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The enlightenment was a great time period for the U.S. It gave us a time to grow and a time to see everything in a different picture. We got many laws and freedoms because of this time period and the people that influenced the American government.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 18

    • 1729 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Locke agrees with Hobbes that the purpose of government is to create order in society but contends that people are reasonable and would cooperate with each other and could rebel if ruler were tyrant. Ruler stays in power only as long as he has consent of those governed. He said people had natural rights, including right to life,…

    • 1729 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    The Enlightenment, or the age of reason, started out as a cultural movement of intellectuals in Europe during the eighteenth century. The main purpose of this movement was to achieve knowledge and understanding of life through the use of science rather than the use of tradition and religion. The ideas of the Enlightenment opposed greatly superstition, intolerance, and abuse by the church and state subsequently placed a heavy emphasis on science, logic, and reason in order to understand the natural and human world and how to make government and society more fair, free, equitable, and humane. The Enlightenment came after the Dark Ages, so it literally means to bring light to the thinking and analysis of most intellectuals. At the time, intellectuals and philosophers did not see the magnate and the relevance the ideas of the Enlightenment would bring to the North American Colonies which resided a sea away.…

    • 2909 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Locke was an English philosopher and is believed to be one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. 17th-century Locke introduced the philosophy that humans agree to a social contract that allows the government to efficiently conduct society in harmony with natural law. He believes that without the control of the government, people would not behave in an acceptable manner and corrupt society. On contrary to the government, he felt the people should have the right to remove the government if they felt their natural rights were being threatened. Under natural law are natural rights. “Natural rights hold that because individuals are human beings capable of rational thinking and moral behavior, they are due all the rights one would have in the natural state.” Therefore Locke believed that all individuals are inherently good and created equally. This means individuals should innately be given natural rights which include: life, liberty, and property.…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution were two of the greatest movements in history. It allowed people to change their beliefs and seek knowledge. Before the 15th century, Europe was controlled by Church teachings and only lived by only morals. Scholars and philosophers were able to alter and challenge individuals views on how everything works. They discovered different ways on how to govern people and inspired revolution. These simple ideas which began in the Scientific Revolution would lead to the Enlightenment and later change the course of…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Influenced by the Scientific Revolution, an intellectual movement of the late 17th and early 18th centuries was formed; the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason’s primary thought was that natural law could be used to examine and understand all aspects of society. Enlightenment thinkers believed that there was a better way to improve society, people, and economic conditions.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment was a period of time which took place during the seventeenth and eighteenth century that saw a tremendous transformation in the thought process of western civilization and the advancement of several scholarly fields such as philosophy, medicine, and physics. Although commonly related to England, the Enlightenment played a huge role in the development of other societies, especially the colonies of North America. Some of the most important values of the Enlightenment included the emphasis on the physical world instead of the supernatural, the pursuit of knowledge, and the protection of basic human rights. Perhaps the biggest effect that the Enlightenment had on the American colonies was that it truly stoked the fire that would…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What is the Enlightenment? Why does it still affect American society today? The Enlightenment was an era when reasoning and using science to explain the once unexplainable during the sixteenth and the seventh century. In fact, some scholars have christened this era “the age of reason”. The Enlightenment proved to be fertile soil for the middle class to take root and flourish under the teachings of revolutionary thought, freedom of monarchies, and freedom of the people. This era of reasoning emphasized the thought of liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. Many colonists became part of this revolution of thought by creating philosophies, writings, and inventions to contribute to the era. The most famous colonists to make contributions to the Enlightenment era were people such as, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, and Thomas Paine. John Locke, though an Englishman, had a profound influence on all the colonial Enlightenment leaders. However, that still does not explain why American society was…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Age of Enlightenment was where people of Britain questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. The outcome of this was new inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over time, Enlightenment ideals have had an immense impact on contemporary and modern society. The Age of Enlightenment was a time during the 17th and 18th century in which scholars and philosophers began to question traditional ideas about society. Centuries of corruption and exploitation from numerous monarchies and the church, initiated intelligent people to speak out, and thus, the Enlightenment began. This Enlightenment changed the world by promoting new ideas concerning political, economic, and social values. These changes include equality for women, elimination of cruel and unusual punishment, and enforcement of religious toleration.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Age Of Enlightenment

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Age of Enlightenment is the period in the history of Western thought and culture that spanned from the mid-seventeenth century to the eighteenth century. It is commonly characterized by the dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics that swept away the medieval world-view and ushered in our modern western world. The driving force behind the Enlightenment was a comparatively small group of writers and thinkers from Europe and North America who became known as the ‘philosophes.’ In its early phase, commonly known as the Scientific Revolution, new scientists believed that rational, empirical observation…

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays