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Enlightenment Thinkers: Government Reformation

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Enlightenment Thinkers: Government Reformation
The Enlightenment Era was a time of social reformation where the ideas of social issues were refurbished and the ways of life began to modernize. While many different categories were brought up, many of the ideas centered around the way the government should treat people according to their gender, businesses, well-being, and religion. Although they all may not have agreed with one another on all of the issues, they all crafted their ideas and shared them with the world.
Among the great Enlightenment thinkers was Voltaire, who believed that the government should let the people decide what religion they wanted to follow. In one of his publishings Voltaire argued that, “If one religion only were …show more content…

One of her main ideas was the that the government should “enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render [her] independent. In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose [skills] do not result from the exercise of [her] own reason.” (Wollstonecraft) With equality between all genders, along with equal schooling opportunities, women can become as independent as men and live up to their full potential. Although Mary believed that a woman's first duty was to her raising her children, she also wished that all genders could have an equal opportunity and not be “made so inferior by ignorance and low desires, as not to be deserved to be ranked with them” …show more content…

Every man.. Is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way… The [ruler] is completely discharged from a duty [ for which] no human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient- the duty of superintending [guiding] the industry of private people, and of directing it towards… the interest of the society…” (Smith). Smith believed that the people should be motivated by their own gains, and not the government's. Therefore he thought that the government should try to be less involved with people's personal business. The people would then be “led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.” (Smith) to increase their own wealth, and with the economy going up, the government would flourish as

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