How long did it take for the human race to start realizing things around them? The Enlightenment was a time period where people began to question absolute monarchy and that’s where reason and scientific methods were applied to all aspects of life during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment thinkers called philosophes were scholars who flaunted the ideas of the Enlightenment. The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1815) were direct causes of the Enlightenment. The ideas of John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft all played important roles in the revolutions. Locke's idea of natural rights and of the Two Treatises of Government, Voltaire’s idea of religious freedom that infringed on the people's rights and freedoms and set the basis for modern democracy. Along with Smith’s idea of freedom of economics and Wollstonecraft’s ideas on gender equality.
John Locke was an Enlightenment philosopher and he
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In his letter “Letters Concerning the English Nation”, he gives a satire example of a trade exchange at the Royal Exchange. If there were traders of all different religions ready to trade their good, it won’t really matter how they worship their god, it only matters about the money at the moment. Voltaire believed that if there was only one religion in all of England, “the government would very possibly become arbitrary”. (Doc B) This means that if there was only one religion everything would be under only one person’s control, all the laws would only please their personal whim. However if there would be two religions, “the people would cut one another’s throat”. This would just mean that England would turn into a blood bath. Nevertheless, if there was a multitude of religions, everyone would be too busy with themselves to loath on another’s beliefs. Everyone would live happy and in