Thinking changed in response to the Enlightenment politically,economically, and socially. The Enlightenment was a broad international intellectual movement that occurred in the 18th century. Heavy influencers of this period of reason and individualism rather than tradition were Rene Descartes, John Locke, and Sir Isaac Newton.These Influencers were known as the Philosophes whom were critics of the Old Regime and developed new ideas about government,economics and religion to help reform society.Emmanuel Kant described the Enlightenment as “A man leaving his self-cause immaturity”. The Enlightenment opened people to redefining themselves as a person in society. The point of the Enlightenment was to bring society to believe thinking in a different perspective about politics, economics, and being social than others is good.
Politically the Enlightenment changed how people saw the
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The Philosophes’ search to discover laws of nature and society led a few of them to establish laws that explain the working economy. This search led away from mercantilism but to the emergence of classical economic liberalism. The theory of mercantilist believed that states should protect their economies with restrictions that allow for a favorable balance of trade.”Physiocrats” thought that land was the source of all wealth, not gold and silver.A French economist,Francois Quesnay called on the monarchy to free grain trade and end arbitrary controls on prices that the states had to preserve public order. Like Quesnay other physiocrats insisted that higher prices will encourage production and bringing more money to the economy. Author of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith opposed guild restrictions,monopolies, trade barriers and any type of protectionism. Everyone in the states had roaring opinions and beliefs about mercantilism and how it should be used to help the economy