The Enlightenment Movement: The Enlightened Ideas Of The French Revolution

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The Enlightenment movement changed the way that people thought. Not only what they thought of themselves but also what they thought society should be. Prior to the movement people didn’t get much education and they didn’t have rights. However after the movement people felt that they had rights. They felt the need to improve their society. It is often said that the social activist of the French Revolution were enlightened thinkers. These social activists that tried to reform France did use enlightened assumptions however they did twist some of the principles to get what they wanted. To understand how they based their ideas on Enlightened thinking one has to know what the principles were: that reason allows man to understand the world and society, the belief in freedom that allows you to use reason and the belief that education is needed to get to a better society. …show more content…

When the National Assembly of France said “…believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of calamities”. (298) After looking at their problems they came to a conclusion of why the problems they faced were the way they were. Reason was definitely used by the social activists and it’s Enlightened thinking because they used that reason to create a better