Danny Lin
Professor Brent
English 2850
Spring 2016 Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France
I learned that the European Enlightenment was an intellectual development period when numerous new ideas about life and people were being invented. The evolution of the American Thought throughout the Enlightenment and the Era of Romanticism was a continuous process that began way before the American Revolution. Personally, I see the enlightenment as being both a movement, as well as a state of mind. People were discussing multiple new thoughts and concepts about God, the earth, reason, and humanity. These ideas ignited some very revolutionary developments in politics, philosophy, and art. One of the ideas was that the earth was the center
Freud completely disapproved of the philosophy of reason. He decided to replace it with his personal philosophy of influence of non-rational drives and impulses in the human thought process and behavior. Freud thought that the conscious thoughts of humans are determined by something hidden. He called that the unconscious impulse. Freud understood the irrational as being a potential danger. He thought of irrationality as a “comprehensible object of
Besides his multiple famous inventions and discoveries, he contributed a great deal to American philosophy. Franklin believed to be true, that the most honorable thing to do was to be of use to society. He also conceived that the perfection of oneself was absolutely possible since the universe and therefore mankind was based entirely on reason and logic. The American Revolution caused a drastic increase in the desire of Americans to be cut loose from the English monarchy completely. They were tired of having 1 sole leader. Democracy came to be seen not just as a choice, but the sole feasible option in running a government fair, and free of corruption. However, multiple other people contributed to the enlightenment, all in their own way. Montesquieu was one of them. He was a famous French lawyer and political philosopher. He was known for his famous theory of the Separation of Powers. Which is essentially the concept that each state is separated into branches with their own independent powers, so there isn’t any conflict. After discussing him in class I noticed a painting of someone with his same last name, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun painted Eugène de Montesquiou-Fezensac
One of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers was John Locke, an English philosopher and physician. His work and ideas had a incomputable impact on modern day society. He was known as “Father of Liberalism” due to his opinions of freedoms and liberty. According to Locke, the people were entitled to have control over themselves as long as it adheres to the law. The Second Treatise on Civil Government by John Voltaire went to prison twice and spent multiple years in exile.
Gordon S. Wood delves into Benjamin Franklin’s philosophical, political, and personal legacies in the biography, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. The book travels through Franklin’s experiments, his travels in Europe, and his role in the American revolution. The book begins when Franklin retires from business and becomes a gentleman. It was when he became a gentleman, it allowed him to analyze the world around him. “Indeed, he could not drink a cup of tea without wondering why the tea leaves at the bottom gathered in way rather than another,” a quote from Edmund S. Morgan’s book, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin spent a great deal of time in Britain before returning to America. When he returned, he threw himself into the American revolution, which sent him to France. After he accomplished his duties in France, he returned back home to America where he ran for public office.
The Enlightenment was a great upheaval in the culture of the colonies- an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries which emphasized logic and reason over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers believed that men and women could move civilization to ever greater heights through the power of their own reason. The Enlightenment encouraged men and women to look to themselves, instead of God, for guidance as to how to live their lives and shape society. It also evoked a new appreciation and
The Enlightenment had the most immediate impact on the founding fathers who were framers of the United States Constitution. Europeans often called the Enlightenment century as the Age of Reason. The Enlightenment is a period of uproar in America’s thirteen colonies in the early eighteenth century. It provoked a cry for a new government with a Constitution to assure liberty. It influenced the founding fathers because we needed structure such as human rights, civil rights and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment thinker’s affected the new nation. During this period, the Enlightenment began the revolution of change in thinking.
Before the American Revolution there was the Enlightenment and Great Awakening period. The Enlightenment and Great Awakening period were different from each other but in similarities they both challenged the way society thoughts of situations in life. They both had a big impact leading towards the American Revolution and how the colonist were thinking differently from before. They were able to think outside the box and become more of a personality than a group. The Enlightenment was a philosophical, social movement that challenged the ideals of reality. They wanted reasons over faith, to establish an authoritative system. The Enlightenment gave a way for a new perspective into the world and take a scientific approach to questioning situations.
The Enlightenment was a major turning point in history. Multiple ideas that were established during the Enlightenment were eventually utilized in many government systems. Although some people known as “Enlightened Despots” did not accept the ideas developed by people such as John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Ultimately, the Enlightenment ideas showed that they were more powerful and were more significant than the power of the army.
The Enlightenment was the time period that followed the Scientific Revolution and was characterized as the "Age of Reason". This was the time when man began to use his reason to discover the world around him rather than blindly follow what the previous authority, such as the Church and Classical Philosophers, stated to be true. The Enlightenment was a tremendously broad movement that dominated much of the European thinking during the 18th century, however, several core themes that epitomized the movement were the idea of progress, skepticism against the Church, and individualism.
The Enlightenment itself ignited the changes in perspective that were needed to provoke improvement in society and set new standards for our future. These standards spread rather rapidly across Europe and eventually to America and challenged the old order. These ideas of rational thinking over religion and authority delivered a vast political change throughout the world which can still be felt today. These revolutionary thoughts of rationalism brought on freedom of speech and the demand for equality in society. This was not only the igniter to the French revolution but was also, how many governments including the United States based their modern
Napoleon and the Enlightenment The enlightenment was a time of great learning throughout Europe during the eighteenth century. Although the period is significant for scientific and other scholastic advancements, it is most important because it allowed for the opening of great minds—such as that of Napoleon Bonaparte. Shortly after this enlightenment made its way through Europe, revolution and civil war ripped through France between 1879 and 1899. The unrest of the time called for a strong ruler.
Enlightenment had an enormous impact on educated, well to do people in Europe and America. It supplied them with a common vocabulary and a unified view of the world, one that insisted that the enlightened 18th century was better, and wiser, than all previous ages. It joined them in a common endeavor, the effort to make sense of God's orderly creation. Thus
... It stated what was reasonably correct, not just what was traditionally taught to people. It allowed the French people to gain a surfeit of power and have a say in the government. However, their work was obliterated once Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself dictator of France in 1799 (French Revolution 13). Not only did the Enlightenment cause the French Revolution by allowing the people to see how inferior France really was, making them question divine right, and opening their eyes to the injustice occurring between states, but it also described the United States as the epitome of an ideal society.
The Enlightenment is held to be the source of many modern ideas, such as the primary values of freedom and reason. The views of philosophers such as Voltaire are considered to be the source of many essential changes in countries such as America and France. His views on religion, government, and freedom are what people remember most because they have not died out in today’s society.
During human history, there were two important time periods. There was the Romantic Period, that lasted 1750 - 1870 A.D, and the enlightenment period that lasted through the 18th century. The Enlightenment focused on science and knowing for certain through rational thinking. The Romantic period was focused on nature and human emotions and was a reaction to the enlightenment. Both periods have different ideals and values. I would consider myself to be a romantic because I agree with a lot of romantic values.
The epoch known as the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, was a secular intellectual movement that looked to reason as an explanation of the world. The Enlightenment began in 1687 with the publishing of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia and ended in 1789 with the French Revolution (Fiero 134). The epoch of Romanticism was a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. The movement of Romanticism began in 1760 and ended in 1871. Romanticism as a movement was a reaction to the Enlightenment as a cultural movement, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind (210).
The age of Enlightenment was a progression of the cultural and intellectual changes in Europe that had resulted from the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scientific revolution and the discoveries made about the natural world would ultimately challenge the way people perceived the world around them. Scientist found real answers, by questioning flawed ancient beliefs that were widely held and maintained by the church. Ultimately, these discoveries and scientific advancements would evolve and effect social, cultural, and political developments in Europe over the course of time. The scientific revolution had provided certainty about the natural world that had long been questioned. With these new developments came the progression and influence of thought, rationality, and individualism. These new ideas would be the hallmark for the Enlightenment movement that would shape most of Europe in the eighteenth century.