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Rationalism During The Enlightenment

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During the Enlightenment, an intellectual and philosophical movement took place in Europe. Many theories of knowledge were born during that period including rationalism and empiricism. They opened up the gateway to the history of psychology through their different ideas on how knowledge is acquired. Rationalism was a philosophical theory that considered reason, rather than experience, to be the most significant in acquiring knowledge. Three types of knowledge could be argued by rationalists which included: innate knowledge, innate concepts, and intuition/deduction. Rationalists held true that individuals were born with some innate knowledge. Individuals also possessed innate concepts/ideas, such as the capability to learn language or having
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The Era of Enlightenment was a cultural movement in Europe that favored reason in place of belief. It challenged the accepted views of the time which, in turn, endangered the power of absolute rulers and their system of government. This era influenced a majority of the European population, however, the monarchs of the time did not exemplify those same ideals. Catherine II of Russia’s views on serfs and peasants are a great example of a ruler defying the enlightenment movement. In her “Decree on Serfs” she states that “serfs and peasants...owe their landlords proper submission and absolute obedience in all matters” , essentially saying that serfs of the time should be completely obedient to their masters (Doc. 6).

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Yaakov Kessler Mrs.Legum AP World History Enlightenment LEQ After a dark period of time a new age of philosophers committed to bettering the citizens were born. The Enlightenment Period consisted of philosophers that advocated for political, social, and economic changes. The enlightenment thinkers motivated the revolutions of the 18 and 19th century by promoting Equal rights of Man and by preaching that governments should be managed by branches instead of a monarch. One of the most influential revolutions was the American revolution whereas the American colonists were fed up with the British and declared independence from them.

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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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European politics, philosophy, and science were radically changed during the 17th and 18th centuries during a period called the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers throughout Europe questioned cultural norms and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. Science had been mostly a male field of study during this age. It was extremely rare for women to enter this field, but during the Enlightenment, the idea that the minds of women can equal that of men became more popular. Many people believed that women did not have the intelligence to be involved in science, while some others believed that even if women could be held on the same intellectual level as men, it was socially unacceptable; on the other hand,

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The Enlightenment brought many new ideas to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and lead to changes in society. The people of this time started to question everything that was in their lives and they looked to the philosophers. Many scientists began to discover new things and they learned about how things really worked. The people started to focus more on secular ideas and not spiritual ideas. Mostly everyone started thinking about why they wanted and focusing more on making the world better.

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The Enlightenment was created in France in the 1700’s. It was a movement in Europe that was about applying reason to all aspects of life. During this movement, Philosophers used five concepts that they built upon to create the Enlightenment; reason, nature, happiness, progress, and an envy for England's glorious revolution and their bill of rights. The Enlightenment was a European movement that sparked and challenged new ideas about the relationship of common people to their governments. Over a period of time Enlightenment ideas spread outside of Europe and created a change of governments around the globe.

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The American Revolution was between the Americans and England’s King, and the French Revolution was between the French’s king ad the third estate. The Declaration of Independence was created, because the Americans thought that all men should have the same rights and the King of England has done the opposite of what they wanted. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was created, because the French third estate wasn’t being treated like the 1st and 2nd estate and they wanted have rights that was justified. These Revolutions started from Enlightenment ideas. Enlightenment ideas were ideas that would help with individualism.

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To those living in British America in the 1700’s, religion was a central fixture of everyday life. One’s denomination was intrinsically tied up in one’s ethnic and social identity, and local churches in the mid-Atlantic depended upon the participation and donations of their parishioners to survive. However, as the 18th century progressed, poorer farmers and ministers across the diverse sects of colonial America came to resent the domination of church life by the upper class. In a parallel development, a split had grown between the rationalists, who were typically wealthy, educated and influential men who represented the status quo, and the evangelicals, who disdained the impersonal pretention of the rationalists and promoted a spiritual and

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In conclusion, the Enlightenment was vital to the American Revolution and the creation of American Government. The Enlightenment beliefs that influenced the American Revolution were natural rights, the social contract, and the right to overthrow the government if the social contract was violated. The Enlightenment beliefs that aided to the creation of the American government were separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government. As stated before, without the Enlightenment there would not have been a revolution, resulting in no American Government. The Enlightenment’s influence on the creation of America is irrefutable.

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He assumed that all knowledge was derived from our experiences and not belonged to our natural capacity (Sparknotes.com, 2005). The rationalism can only link ideas while empiricism based on the facts to test ideas. The hypothesis were given grounded on logic, it may or may not be true. By empiricism, any idea could be tested, uncovered and proved in fact. Without the empiricism, it was hard to be determined any conceptions were true or false.

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In philosophic inquiry, people have long disputed the way in which human beings acquire knowledge and come to know the world around us. According to Aristotle, “Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses.” This quote mirrors concept empiricist philosophy which holds the belief that all of our ideas, thoughts, or concepts about the external world come from experience. David Hume, one of the most influential empiricists and skeptics, highlights his approach to philosophy in his “Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.” A central theme of Hume’s philosophical approach involves the investigation of how humans understand the world given their perspective limits.

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“According to the text “rationalism” is based on deductive logic reasoning from the general to particular or applying theory to a particular case; however, “empiricism” is based on inductive logic reasoning from particular to general or moving from specific facts to theory” (Bohm & Vogel, 2011, p. 14). I believe people who commit crime consider the consequences of their actions; however, I think they base it on the punishment rendered, or they just don’t care. Crime is not the result of a criminal personality; nevertheless, it’s a poorly integrated psyche because in my opinion people are not born criminals. People are of freewill and responsible for the actions. The Enlightenment thinkers believe that human behaviors were considered to be motived

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The Enlightenment was a pattern of thought that started during the 1600s and 1700s “that critically examined traditional ideas and institutions, privileged reason, and championed progress” according to The Bedford Glossary of Critical Terms (Murfin and Ray, “Enlightenment”). Romanticism was the era that immediately followed in the 1800s, and it was characterized by an emphasis on emotion, nature, and fantastical writing (Murfin and Ray, “Romanticism”). Many of the ideals of the Romantic era were almost opposite to the ideals of the Enlightenment. Because of this, Romanticism is the Hegelian antithesis to the ideals of the Enlightenment because it emphasized emotion over reason, nature’s beauty over its danger, and personal stories over general

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