The Enlightenment Dbq Essay

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the scientific revolution built a foundation that allowed Europe to expand its thoughts about math, science, astronomy, and physics; this movement was called the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was a consequential point in history because this was when society shifted away from the Church’s authority and began to rely on scientific reason. Philosophes focused on the idea of religious tolerance and how it would create a positive change in society while also concentrating on the concept that people are capable of achieving perfection on earth. Religious tolerance, education, and the perfectibility of man were all significant themes that emerged during the Enlightenment.
The idea that all

In A Treatise on Toleration (Document 6), Voltaire stated that people should regard all men as their brothers no matter ethnicity, race, or religion. Voltaire, although he may not agree with a certain man’s beliefs, felt that everyone had a right to choose their own religion due to that fact that all men are children under the same same father and creations of the same God. Later in 1764, in Philosophical Dictionary (Document 1), Voltaire concluded that the English constitution had been written in the best form that it could, saying that every man had the to right to blazon what religion he chooses without consequences. Lester G. Crocker reiterated, in The Age of Enlightenment 1969 (Document 4), that the philosophes were commonly at odds with one another on answers to many questions however, a common goal of religious tolerance laid in their ideas. From his information, Crocker claimed, regardless of their individual religions, that all the philosophes concurred the only role for the church was the salvation of souls.

As Roy Porter reiterated in The Enlightenment 2001 (Document 5), many of Europe’s great minds concluded that questioning faith in the Bible and relying on other thinkers was not the answer to understanding man’s history and destiny. Man’s nature was not properly known by the latter part of the seventeenth century and it was unanimously decided that using the scientific method was the only way to gain full knowledge of it. In Progress of the Human Minds 1793 (Document 2), Nicolas de Condorcet believed that if the citizen was taught everything he needed to know to be able to employ his labors, acknowledge his rights and be able to exert them, and to no longer be the dupe of the church, then the result would be greater progress as a society. Adam Ferguson, in The Progressive Character of Human Nature 1792 (Document 12), believed that for society to continue to improve and grow, the older generation must continue to pass on their knowledge for the generations to come. Education was thought to be a necessary tool during the Enlightenment in order for the progression