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Rationalism: A Common Notion During The Enlightenment

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3. The Enlightenment, 299-317 A common notion during the Enlightenment was the idea of “opposition to authority” (Gaarder, 1994). They held that notion because many of the philosophers from this time visited England which was more broadminded when in comparison to their original place of origin, France. Many of these philosophers felt that it was important to question all truths and find answers to every question. Rationalism was also a core idea of the Enlightenment. The philosophers of the Enlightenment believed that the new natural sciences were subject to reason. This reason eventually led to them to focus on morals, religion, and ethics, which led these philosophers to inform the masses of reason and knowledge. During this time, attention was focused on acquiring knowledge which led to schools and encyclopedias being made. Some enlightenment philosophers criticized civilization and proposed that humans go back to nature because it was believed that non-civilized individuals are …show more content…

Albert goes on to say “that life is one big lottery” (Gaarder, 1994, p.416) and that winning numbers are apparent. To actually win the lottery takes a really long time. Albert makes the comparison to the selection of a species. Every species has many different combinations of numbers which creates a struggle for existence, but only one could win by having the winning numbers. This process takes a long time to occur, but when a species gets selected, it’s like winning the lottery. Only the best species have survived in what Albert called the “great lottery of life” (Gaarder, 1994). I found this example to be very interesting because I have never really thought of Natural Selection as a lottery. It makes more sense that way because Natural Selection is like that. It does take a one in million chance to be a winner of the lottery or to get

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