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The Age Of Enlightenment: Balance Between People And Government

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The Age of Enlightenment; a time of reasoning and decisions that forms the balance between people and government seen today. From the 1600s to the late 1700s, philosophers began to ponder as to why government was such a structural piece in civilizations. Some believed that it was a necessity; to keep order, peace, and safety but this could only occur if freedoms were taken in exchange, thus becoming known as social contract. Yet others claimed that government was only there to protect the rights of the people, that it should not hold much sway in the life of citizens. However, it was a universal opinion that if a government violated the rights of a citizen then they breached the social contract. People feared when this happened that they
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Two Philosophers had similar ideas that the government should protect citizens’ rights. John Locke believed that governments only duty

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During this time period, the influence of Enlightenment had overpower some of the most important values of the church and absolute monarch. Thomas’s Paine’s Common Sense document illustrates many keys that Enlightenment thinkers were influenced by. In the document, one of the idea that he wrote about was the government system and how everything was structured in an unfair approach. The key example of how Enlightenment thinking influenced the unfairness of the government is the freedom and the rights of individuals by God’s desires. Like it was mentioned in the text, “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government …is but a necessary evil” (Paine, pg 69).

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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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Enlightenment The enlightenment was a time in which leaders and philosophers promoted ideas during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that influenced people's thoughts concerning politics, social justice, human progress and religion forever. As said by Philosopher Immanuel Kant, “Enlightenment is defined as the upset of the established order/the awakening of one’s mind/forsaking society’s imposed mindset and establishing one for yourself.” (Document 12) These scientists like Issac Newton and writers like John Locke were challenging the old ways and because of that people became socially aware.

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In 1492, exploration of what is now North America began. Colonization began, and it was a tough road. The colonists in the new western world were run by an oppressive government. The British government was being unfair, and the colonists wanted to get out of that relationship. This lit the path for the United States.

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The Age of Enlightenment or Age of reason was a developmental philosopher movement in the 17th –century. The movement highlighted reason and individualism rather than tradition. Its purpose was to challenge the traditional rituals and open minds to a new way of thinking and rationalizing. Contrary to what some people may think these ideas, theories and new way of thinking are still relevant in today’s society. These men had a profound impact on government and their ideas helped shape the government into what it is today.

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The Enlightenment took place during the 17th and 18th Century in Europe. It was a time in which philosophes questioned social norms and found their voice. These three philosophes argued that all individuals both men and women should have more freedom. The Enlightenment was a time period in which people questioned the government, religion, and gender. John Locke, one of the four philosophes was a huge figure in the Enlightenment as he questioned the ways of the government and how it run.

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Enlightenment The time of intellectual change and societal improvement. The late 17th century and 18th century was a time of enlightenment in Europe caused by philosophers. During the age of reason what were the great thinkers ideas? The philosophes, great thinkers of their time, were the people who bought this enlightenment, a time of change due to new ways of thinking.

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The Enlightenment rearranged politics and government in earthshaking ways. This cultural movement embraced several types of philosophies to thinking and exploring the world. Generally, Enlightened thinkers thought objectively and without prejudice. One of these ideologies were that the people should run their government the way they see fit. One of the other primary philosophies is that the people were to incompetent and self-biased to run a government.

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The Enlightenment was a period of time that stressed the importance of reason and individual ideas. Many philosophers published works criticizing a country’s monarch or divulging the flaws they saw in a system within the government, such as the justice system. The Enlightenment also stressed the importance of education, and as a result of this, literacy rates experienced a major upward trend. Now able to read the philosopher’s works, a larger sum of people now were educated on the corruptions within their government. This caused a questioning of traditional practices, and people began to believe they could revise their government.

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Government involvement is crucial in society. For a nation and its citizens to prosper, government intervention must be imposed. The source which is presented is a quote said by Jean Chretien, who was the former prime minister of Canada, claiming that an influential leader is aware of political systems and as well as, economical operations. Jean Chretien possesses a liberal ideology. He is a communist and his views are left-wing on the spectrum, as in, he claims a prominent leader should acknowledge and well understand businesses, unions and education in universities.

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That is an interesting question. In reading more about the 'Rationalist Option ' from our text, gave me more understanding of its principal aspects, or a distinct feature of the Enlightenment age. This Enlightenment Age consists of the use of reasoning by using their minds more than technology; example, using calculators instead of using our mind to figure math problems. Many Philosophers believe in the power of the mind to think, understand and form judgments by process of logic which learned and engaged in philosophy or as an academic discipline (Oxford Dictionary, 2017). Philosophy is the act of studying of how to understand our existence and how to come to know what is good, true and real.

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The Age of Absolutism is defined as a time period in Europe in which monarchs gained all of the power and wealth over the state for themselves, expanding the idea of single rule. The Enlightenment, on the other hand, is defined as a movement during the 18th century that rejected traditional social, religious, and political ideas, and introduced a desire to construct governments free of tyranny (or single rule). Document 3, a primary source written by King Louis XIV of France in 1660, is describing the idea of monarchy stating,“ The more you grant . . . [to the assembled people], the more it claims . . . The interest of the state must come first” (Document 3).

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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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The Enlightenment gave people power to make the changes they wanted for independence and politics using intellect and reason, their natural right. The norm of a society that is modelled today became reason over

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