How Did The Philosophes Come From The Enlightenment?

Many of the ideas that we used in our world today, weather they are about, equality, government, religion or other things, have come from the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a period of history that took place in the 18th century in Europe. It was also sometimes known as the age of reason because of it was a time when people started to use their own reason to discover the world. There was a spread in scientific, rational and liberal ideas. The Enlightenment had many philosophes. Philosophes were the people who lead the learning of the Enlightenment, they started studies in science, economics, literature and many other subject. During the Enlightenment the philosophes created salons, this was when a group of philosophes and nobles gathered
Many of the Enlightenment ideas have influenced society today, but some of the ideas have only reached and influenced certain parts of our Modern world.

Gender Equality is a big idea that came out of the Enlightenment and is also a big idea in society today, as it has influenced our lives and continues to reach parts of our world that are not yet aware of this idea. One way that the Enlightenment helped gender equality was by introducing the idea that men and women should both be able to get a good equal education. There was one philosophe who particularly had strong ideas on this topic and that was Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft believed that women have just as much potential as men and that therefore they deserve an equal education. In many countries in our world today we can see great changes, but there are also many countries in which many girls don’t get to go to school. In 2013 there were still approximately 65 million girls who were not in school. Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas about an equal education have reached some countries but not others. In the country Yemen, less than 1% of women make it to college. There are also 9.9 million girls out of school in Nigeria,
During the Enlightenment there were very strong ideas brought up about religion and how it shouldn’t be integrated with government and education. There was one philosophe that had particularly strong feelings about this topic. His name was Voltaire. Voltaire believed that everyone should be allowed to think for him or herself and not have to believe what the church told them. He liked to criticize the French Monarchy and the Catholic Church for teaching people just what the government and church wanted to teach them. He is famous for saying, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. Voltaire believed that people should have the right to speak their mind and chose their beliefs based on thoughts that they had themselves and not what the church had taught them. Today we live in a country where we can chose our religion based on our own beliefs. We can choose what we believe and what we don’t and there is no one controlling what we can and can’t think. One exception for that might be Parents sending their children to catholic schools. Just like in a Traditional Society Catholic Schools teach through religion and the Children are taught what the church wants them to hear and learn. The situation with Catholic Schools is not as bad