ENLIGHTENMENT QUESTIONS

1. Describe some of the major intellectual changes that led to the Enlightenment.
Countless major intellectual changes amounted to the Enlightenment. This includes the contributions of Newton, the period of stability in Great Britain, and the growth of print culture. Overall, the scientific revolution, and products of the Renaissance, also led to the Enlightenment. Newtonian science displayed the nature world as an infallible pattern of mathematical and mechanical activity, thus inspiring others to believe that both the natural world and society should be controlled rationally. Newton also insisted that empirical experience be used, contributing to John Locke’s views. Other scientific advancements, whether contributed by Newton or his contemporaries, brought people to view the world less religious, bringing people into a more secular viewpoint. In Great Britain, a period of stability, from a political, economical, and societal standpoint, showed how almost everyone benefitted from enlightened views in one way or another. Religiously, the British were tolerant of almost everyone; the only exceptions were Unitarians and Roman Catholics, but even they were not actively persecuted. Politically, there was a relative extent to freedom of speech, and the monarchy was limited in power by the Parliament. There was also more economic freedom, with fewer regulations than in other European countries, including France. Ultimately, from this constancy arose a prominent example of a flourishing society under enlightened reforms. Print culture, a result of the printing press’ establishment during the Renaissance, was how written material, such as books and pamphlets, began to become commoditized, gaining significance, and becoming a formative ...

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...as that civilization and the process of Enlightenment thinking, with rationality, had corrupted human nature. He did not trust reason, and believed it had brought corruption and misery to his society. Furthermore, he blamed the evils of the world to the unequal distribution of wealth and property, and culturally, he questioned what constitutes a good, successful life. As far as government went, his perspective was that the government should be controlled by the people and society, and that society is more influential than the importance of an individual. Rousseau, overall, was frightened by the prospect of a strong central government and rationalism, both of which he scorned. He claimed that the movement of civilization forward had caused all the problems in the world, through the involvement of the government, differential in property, and corruption of society.