Examples Of The Trends In The Enlightenment

Reason, Individualism, and religious tolerance are three trends that are found when observing the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a time where the traditions and status quo were being changed. The higher educated people were starting to use scientific method and reasoning to solve issues and rethink some of the old traditions and status quos that they had in the past. Some of the main philosophers that had an impact on the Enlightenment was John Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Pierre Bayle. Each of these philosophers started to make new traditions and status quo in the social, political, intellectual, military, and religious aspects of the eighteenth century. The book The Enlightenment written by Margaret C. Jacob, helps show the philosophers views on the three trends that are presented in the Enlightenment.
One of the trends during the Enlightenment was being able to reason. There was a new understanding …show more content…
Voltaire and Pierre Bayle both state valid points when it comes to religious tolerance. Voltaire states “Nevertheless, though everyone is permitted to serve God in whatever mode of fashion he thinks prosper, yet their true religion, that in which a man makes his fortune…” (Jacob 101). This is religion tolerance because it is saying that everyone can support their own religion and their own beliefs. As long as they are happy, then it should not matter. Pierre Bayle states "That the most wicked men not being Atheists, and that the greatest part of Atheists, whose names are come down to us, having been virtuous men in a worldly sense, is a proof of the infinite wisdom of God…” (Jacob 78). This is religious tolerance because it is saying that the wicked people are worse than the Atheists. They are saying that Atheists are not bad. This is allowing people to open up to other religions besides just only agreeing with their one