138,660 views
21 votes
21 votes
Summary of enlightenment

User SUMguy
by
2.7k points

2 Answers

10 votes
10 votes

Final answer:

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in 18th-century Europe that emphasized reason and rational thought, leading to a rejection of traditional laws and religious teachings. It had a significant impact on Western civilization.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement during the 18th century in Europe that emphasized reason, science, and rational thought over superstition and blind faith. It was a period of optimism and the belief that human beings and society could improve through the use of reason and knowledge.

Enlightenment thinkers advocated for ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. They rejected traditional laws, political systems, and religious teachings, and instead focused on critical thinking and questioning accepted knowledge. The Enlightenment had a profound impact on Western civilization and laid the foundation for political democratization and economic development.

Key figures of the Enlightenment include John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Voltaire, who spread new ideas about openness, investigation, and religious tolerance through their writings and discussions.

User Arseny
by
2.6k points
26 votes
26 votes

Step-by-step explanation:

Enlightenment, European intellectual movement of the 17th–18th century in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and man were blended into a worldview that inspired revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason. For Enlightenment thinkers, received authority, whether in science or religion, was to be subject to the investigation of unfettered minds. In the sciences and mathematics, the logics of induction and deduction made possible the creation of a sweeping new cosmology. The search for a rational religion led to Deism; the more radical products of the application of reason to religion were skepticism, atheism, and materialism. The Enlightenment produced modern secularized theories of psychology and ethics by men such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, and it also gave rise to radical political theories. Locke, Jeremy Bentham, J.-J. Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson all contributed to an evolving critique of the authoritarian state and to sketching the outline of a higher form of social organization based on natural rights. One of the Enlightenment’s enduring legacies is the belief that human history is a record of general progress.

hope it helps

User Elloalisboa
by
2.8k points