Importance Of The Enlightenment

In 1784, the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant described the Enlightenment as the:
“man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) ‘Have the courage to use your own understanding,’ is therefore the motto of the Enlightenment” (Kant). Meanwhile, past periods had been restricted to use their own intelligence without the guide from another source, this motto made an invitation to mankind to draw themselves into knowledge and discovery, the expansion of knowledge was associated
The ideas from the Enlightenment influenced the actions of the Independence of United States and many other European colonies in the Americas, also the French Revolution, the widely spread ideas of rejection of the autocracy and the prevalence of human rights from the Enlightenment strongly influenced the leaders of this movement. The French Enlightenment was the one who had the major influence in the process of independence, its principles are based in the ideas of the human rights to have a peaceful life, liberty and property, in July 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence would be signed, being inspired by the ideas of Locke, as he “in his second treatise of government, Locke identified the basis of a legitimate government. According to Locke, a ruler gains authority through the consent of the governed. The duty of that government is to protect the natural rights of the people, which Locke believed to include life, liberty, and property. If the government should fail to protect these rights, its citizens would have the right to overthrow that government” (American