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People's Rights During The Enlightenment

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During the Enlightenment, it was a time of change and when philosophers expressed their ideas to discover new ways to understand and improve the society they are in. Many of the beliefs expressed by philosophers affected the government, religion, and the people´s rights in the society. The philosophers Locke, Voltaire, Smith, and Wollstonecraft stress the importance of the people´s rights in the society. The new ideas proposed by the philosophers wanted to see how it would affect the people in the society and how other things in the society affect the people . These specific philosophers believed that people should have individualism and be able to take control of the things that was part of their life. The philosophers specify if the people in the society have the right to take control of important aspects of their lives, like the government, will make the society a better place. John Locke was a philosopher that acknowledged the ability of the people of the society to take control of the government like a democracy. He also says that people have the right to be able to leave a government that is doomed to fail …show more content…

She informs the readers that many women in the society do not have a voice, it makes them not ranked and made inferior by ignorance and low desires. In A Vindication of the Rights of Women, by Mary Wollstonecraft, stresses the importance of the rights of women and be free from their restraints. Wollstonecraft writes, “Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous”(Wollstonecraft,1792) Wollstonecraft describes the outcome of making women independent and free will make them wise and moral, enabling them to be able to provide for themselves. Women being granted the equality of all sexes will make them more moral and become educated to enable them to make their own decisions in their life and have

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The Enlightenment was a period in history throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century when the philosophes brought new ideas of science, philosophy, society, and politics. Philosophes were the intellectuals of the Enlightenment who gave reason to the study of many areas of learning. John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Mary Wollstonecraft all focused on one key concept, though - and that is freedom. More distinctly, these philosophes believed that society would change for the better if they reformed the government, religious toleration, and equality for all. Born in the United Kingdom and in France, both John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu believed that the government restricted the citizens from doing what they wanted.

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The Enlightenment was a European movement that emphasized reason and respect for humanity. Enlightenment thinkers thought reason could solve humanity’s problems and the literature created by these Europeans greatly influenced educated Americans, including founding fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Much of Enlightenment thought surrounded politics and how a proper political system should be structured. John Locke was an Englishman would argued that the state was obligated to grant natural, human rights to the people it governed. He wrote in his Two Treatises on Government that these rights included “life, liberty, and property.”

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In the time of the Enlightenment Period many changes were happening in society. In the late 17th and 18th century people called The Philosophers, met in French salons and English drawing rooms to discuss what they believed in. They made many great things happen and strived their best to make what they believed in something possible. The Enlightenment Philosophers imagined they could change the ways of society in many ways. They concluded that they could improve the laws, rights of women, religious rights, and also economic rights.

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Our society would not be what it is today if it wasn't for the three French philosophers for the individual freedom, freedom in government, religion, economy, and gender equality. John Locke, Voltaire, and Adam Smith were four of the many great philosophers, who changed our society and the shaped the capitalistic democratic world that we live in today. These philosophers lived in a time of bright and amazing new ideas, known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. Here are the main ideas of Enlightenment. John Locke (1632-1704) was one of the three main French philosophers.

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The Enlightenment period gave way to many great thinkers, known in this era as philosophes, who fought to improve society through reason and their influential statuses. The main idea of Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Mary Wollstonecraft, was to change perspectives on topics of interest, that were previously discredited, in society. John Locke, who wrote the Second Treatise on Civil Government of 1690, founded the ethical idea that all men were entitled to their natural rights. Natural rights, from John Locke’s point of view, could be defined as fundamental principles possessed by each man that is set forth by nature itself. The idea of all men being equal in “what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose [manage] of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of nature…

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John Locke, also known as the Father of the Enlightenment, believed that everyone had natural rights: life, liberty, and property. These principles were adopted in the Declaration of Independence and is the foundation of the government today. Through the Enlightenment, new and improved ideas were founded, but one major part of Europe’s society took a major hit. Through logical reasoning, people began to question the teachings of the church. Despite these questionings, many religious figures reminded the people of who God is.

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The great thinkers of the time period brought some very radical changes into the world. They based all of their ideals on the principle that are men are equal. As a result of the freedoms they wanted, people would be able to do as they pleased and further the sciences, as long as it did not hurt the common good. They led the world into several revolutions that brought about great change. The people of the Enlightenment wanted to break down the barriers that separated the classes and shift the balance of power to the people.

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Through the era of the Enlightenment, there lived many great philosophers who influenced new ways of thinking. These new ways of thinking made philosophers question government, natural rights, and human society. However, only one philosopher stood above the rest for his enlightened ideas. John Locke’s contributions to philosophical thought were the most critical during the Enlightenment because of the way he defined natural rights and influenced other philosophers to come. John Locke’s philosophical ideas mostly revolved around people’s natural rights.

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During the 18th century a group of highly educated European philosophers thought of ways to better their society. In order to come up with their ideas, they depended upon nature and observation. One of their main ideas was that greater individual freedom could help to improve many areas of socitey such as economy, government, religion, and equalit for women. One philosopher that thought of ways to improve government was John Locke. He believed that allmen were born free and had the natural right to remain free.

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When Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of The Rights of Woman, she was stating the fact that not all women were happy with their place in the society at that day and time. One of the main reasons that she initially wrote the book was because of the teachings of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau believed that women only existed to serve men because they were much weaker. Back then, many people believed that men and women were two completely different species which, in turn, that meant that they should be treated differently. Mary believed that a women should be educated the same way that a man was, as well as being able to work the same way a man could.

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The Enlightenment began with the English philosopher John Locke. It was an era of spreading faith in reason, in reason, and in universal rights and laws (The Enlightenment in Europe). The ideas that were embodied by Enlightenment were life, liberty, and property. It also led to the idea of natural right. The Enlightenment influenced the way people finally realized that divine right wasn’t right and start to doubt it.

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In the book of vindication of the right of a woman, Wollstonecraft brings out clearly the roles of a woman in her society and how it has led to oppression of women (Wollstonecraft 22). Wollstonecraft believes that men and women are equal given the same environment and empowerment, women can do anything a man can do. In her society, education for women is only aimed at making her look pleasing to men. Women are treated as inferior being and used by men as sex objects. Wollstonecraft believed that the quality of mind of women is the same with that of men, and therefore women should not be denied a chance for formal education that will empower them to be equal with men.

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Throughout this text, Wollstonecraft discusses how close-minded society was about women and equality. She describes society as being under the impression that women and men were two different animals. Society also believed that men were free and logical thinkers that could rule and change society while women were seen as pretty objects that could bear children. Wollstonecraft’s feminist view discusses that the problem was not only men inhibiting women, but women themselves were also not pushing against the ideology that men were superior. She continues to explain her new feminist ideology that discusses changes in society that would create equality.

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Wollstonecraft argues for the rights of women in her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. She opposes that only men can receive education. Women are taught by their mother the knowledge of human weakness, “cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety” (2.2). They should be beautiful, then men will protect them. Wollstonecraft argues that women focus on being beautiful and stay indoors, they can’t really run reason because they depend on men.

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Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in response to a report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive a domestic education (Johnson Lewis). She believed that women needed to be educated in order to find their way to equality with men. Wollstonecraft writes in the introduction: “The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve

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