The Foundation Of The Age Of Enlightenment

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True: Rational thinking was heavily promoted and such thinking was the foundation of the Age of Enlightenment. b. False: The work of scientists during that time was highly promoted and accepted by other thinkers by applying it to everyday life problems and depicting it art forms. c. True: These intellectuals wanted to rid the Western culture of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny. d. False: Enlightenment thinkers sought to define clear rules and laws through rational thought. e. True: The Age of Enlightenment was defined by seeking truth by reason and logical thinking which is utilizing the empirical formula. f. False: Absolutism can be traced back to the Middle Ages in Europe and even further back in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The …show more content…

During the Age of Enlightenment, many forms of literature were produced not just for the educated but for the literate by using the vernacular. Although, the price of text was still too expensive for many, so sharing of reading materials was utilized. With the introduction of new literary forms, the newspaper, memoirs, and especially the novel, literature was undergoing a vast change and finding its way into the hands of many that didn’t have access before. In John Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding and Second Treatise of Government, he conveyed idea that humans are born free and have a blank slate, tabula rasa, and are shaped by their environment. Also, he felt that the government was there to protect the society and not for surrendering one’s own personal self or identity. These ideas are some of the values represented during the Age of Enlightenment and were now available to the public. The French philosophes introduced the Encyclopedie. This was a 35-volume text with more than 180 writers and was banned twice during printing by Louis XV due to its scientific nature and rejection of irrationality in religion. This text echoes Enlightenment thinking and the many achievements it procured. By having these and many other texts made available to the public Enlightenment values were able to reach many others and doing so could change their way of thinking, spreading the Enlightenment thinking

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