The Importance Of Concepts During The Age Of Enlightenment

Much of the world today has been greatly influenced by concepts that originated and thrived during the Age of Enlightenment. What was considered important in historical times may no longer be major priorities of today. Much of what people consider to be important depends on their culture and their society. Is personal freedom more important than government? Is rational thought more valuable than religious rights? It is all relative and depends entirely upon the person contemplating these values and concepts, however, applying rational thought, one should be able to come up with a ranking of values and defend their position logically. Here we are to examine three pairs of values, namely rationalism with empiricism, human rights with religious tolerance, and social contract with individualism and equality, and decide which is to be ranked most important and which to be least relative to the others. As these are all concepts that are important to society, culture, and the world as a whole, it would be difficult to say which is more important without examining the evidence and reviewing the consequences of the absence of these characteristics. Human rights seems like so basic a concept, and yet it was denied to many people throughout history. “Human rights are the articulation of the need for justice, tolerance, …show more content…
Without them we would still be operating under ignorance, which is a very dangerous way to live. Countless lives have been saved by technology, science, and medicine. Without rational thought and scientific discovery made via observation and experimentation, we wouldn’t have cured small pox or found ways to treat cancer or even developed surgeries to fix deformities. Our world would be vastly different without these ideals, and many lives would have been lost due to our lack of