During the Enlightenment era, great thinkers, writers, and artists ridiculed the values that were considered important during the Renaissance and Middle Ages. While during those times, shallow ideas such as superiority and wealth were of utmost importance. However, as times changed and advanced into the Enlightenment era, men such as Isaac Newton, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Voltaire contributed greatly to the knowledge of science and philosophy during this time. They showed that it isn’t things such as noble families that are important in life, but rather one’s advancement of knowledge. John Locke also changed the way we look at our government because he opposed a monarchy and rather favored having a separation of powers within government. This was because he believed in the individual’s rights and their ability to pursue their happiness. He emphasized the fact that people are entitled to their individual liberties, and ridiculed that the government at the time did not recognize that. Locke believed that such rights are given to man by God when they are born.
Voltaire changed the way the people looked at religion, mainly Christianity. He believed that a love for God should come from a true, genuine love for him instead of through religious patterns, rules, and routines. Voltaire found it important that a person find their true god by actually loving it without being told or forced to.
Literature was probably the most common form of expressing the values of the Enlightenment era. The ridicule of the wealthy, elite families were satirized in plays, magazines, and books. Because of this, people were able to share and learn from the great men of the Enlightenment era. Their beliefs about the value of an individual was spread and continues to effect our world today.
Jennifer Suh, Harry Yadav, Charles Negrini, Sid Vyas, Sophie Resnick
We really like your answer Team 1 as it contains real thought and not fluff that most other posts contain.
ReplyDeleteFirst of we would actually like to add to your definition of the Enlightenment Age. While it was an age of high level thought, with old values pushed aside, it was also an age of reason, logic, and philosophy which is supported by your very answer. We completely agree when you list great thinkers and scientists that contributed greatly to human knowledge. While most other eras had times when man kind learned, possibly the Enlightenment Era contributed the most notable changes to the intelligence of humans.
The second part of your post talks about government. John Locke did in fact believe in a separation of powers, which is what is used today in the United States. Although the Enlightenment may have seemed like a long time ago, some aspects remain with us today. The Enlightenment Era was not a smooth era as there were idea conflicts. People like Thomas Hobbes believed that people were born naturally evil and that only a monarchy would solve such a problem; quite the opposite of John Locke.
The third part of your response talks about religion. Voltaire believed that God should be sought out of genuine love. While some people believe this to be true, some say that God fates for people to love Him, creating a discrepancy.
The last part of your response talks about literature. We would have never known that the elite class was satirized in various media. Using inductive reasoning, we can conclude that the middle and lower classes were a large part of the population and thoroughly enjoyed the satire within the media.
Wylie.
Period 6.
Team 3.
Jenny Zhan, Caleb Ong, Dylan Mulcahy, and James Jin.