American Enlightenment

In the words of Steve Marboli, “Religious dogma creates a perfect fertilizer for the weeds of hypocrisy” (Marboli). During the 1700s, religious intuitions and the oppressive government systems held power. The most influential of all was the Catholic Church, which was considered to be sacred and above in the state authority and importance. However, in Voltaire’s novel, Candide, he uses characters to exploit and depict the prejudice, hypocrisy, and corruption in the religious leaders and…

understanding that the French Revolution was an affair that altered Europe forever, very similar to the American Revolution, and that happen just ten years prior. The reasons for the French Revolution are not easy to specifically state an exact cause. Overseas, quite a few major wars had occurred in the 30 plus years preceding the French Revolution, also France was involved somewhat, in most of them. The American Revolution and the Seven Years’ War in Europe had a large impact on the mindset of…

Edmund burke Adam Smith, John Locke, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx helped with the creation and improvement of the political system in the today’s world. Their revolutionary ideas gave birth to the most common political systems. Conservatism, Democracy, Socialism, and Liberalism are the most common political system in the world, and Burke, Adam Smith, John Locke, john Stuart and Karl Marx were some of the political thinkers that made those political theories arise. Edmund Burke was a British…

The Enlightenment thinkers deserve due credit for creating the foundational building blocks of American government. Though the philosophers wrote their documents in different times, locations, and periods, their main ideas unify together as a masterpiece. Their issues of balancing power, handling the army, ensuring basic freedoms, and guaranteeing democracy are specifically addressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Were it not for these wise, intelligent, and brilliant…

civilizations, 2015, p.684). There is no political system like this system and often westerners will try to compare it with the Catholic church in Europe but with little avail. Republicanism is a term for the beliefs that have well defined the American political system. Republicanism stems from the idea of government that the people should be sovereign. In a system such as this, it is based on the assertion that liberty and power are constantly at odds with each other. Therefore, it is the…

doesn’t condemn the entire abstract notion of revolution; his call for prudence doesn’t mean that he’s anti-revolution, as he supported the Glorious Revolution on the basis that it was more “evolution” than revolution, and would later support the American revolution as the inevitable destiny of Englishmen exercising their rights. Perhaps…

Russian Renaissance painting, the feelings it expresses through lighting and positioning depict a realistic and depressing contemporary approach to an antiquated tradition. During the period of social change and scientific enlightenment in the late 19th century, European and American artists attempted to and succeeded at creating art that depicted realistic settings and true, contemporary feelings of the era. Makovsky’s The Russian Bride’s Attire is an excellent example due to the manner in…

The Enlightenment may have brought us the ideas of democracy, and the Industrial Revolution may have eventually led to the technological marvel that is the cell phone, but equally important is the movement sparked in their opposition. Through the minds of Locke, Montesquieu, Whitney and Watt, the modern ages of government and technology were born, but not all at the time were completely in favor of these ideas. In fact, there was an artistic movement that began as a response to these glorious…

and optimism in France, but at the same time it also created a lot of fear and uneasiness. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem France: An Ode describes his emotions during the time leading up to, and the beginning of, the revolution. The ideas of the American Revolution influenced the French Revolution because it helped the French citizens realize that change is possible. In 1789 the French overthrew their government in order to create a nation with more equality amongst its people. Before the…

Immanuel, Kant - (1724-1804) Most influential philosopher in the history of Western philosophy. One of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment, he focused on rationalism and works of Francis Bacon. Kant wanted to structure ethics as consisting of a set of rules that one never shall break, he claimed that humanity has a dignity or worth that elevates humanity above all else in nature. In 1775, he wrote the “General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens,” a theory of the origins of the…