Enlightenment Synthesis p4.t9

The Enlightenment was an era of intellectual importance. It was during this period that intellectual thinking flourished as compared to previous periods and it was this large growth in people’s insight that led to an analysis of society and ultimately the criticism of society. Some of the thinkers of the era stressed the perverse nature of man like Moliere. Rousseau claimed materialism destroys friendships and bonds, leading to jealousy and suspicion. Bayle supported a separation church and science, faith and reason, under the pretext that God was incomprehensible. However, others took a more constructive stance and noted the somewhat flawed structures of their societies. Voltaire for example stressed the importance of civil rights, which he believed his society lacked. His ideas revolved around free practice of religion, free trade, and separation of church and state. Montesquieu criticized that his society lacked separation of powers, a more democratic government. Locke wrote that government and its people had a social contract and that government existed mainly for the people, quite contrary to the monarchies established in Europe. These thinker’s ideas of society, although radical at the time, established some sort of standard that future generations like the Founding Fathers used for their governments. Their ideas were spread by their writings. At some point during this era, the Industrial Revolution occurred, leading to mass production of books and other literary forms. Through the establishment of structures and places, like coffee houses, their ideas spread, making their criticism very powerful against the institutions they denounced.