Enlightenment Movement Research Paper

The Enlightenment movement rose from the ideas provided from the Scientific Revolution and gave birth to many of the reforms during the Industrial Revolution. The nature of the Enlightenment movement was that the movement “signified knowledge, specifically self-knowledge. . . knowledge implied an understanding of human nature as well as the uses to which that knowledge can be put.” (Kreis, par. 3) The Enlightenment emphasized rationalism, liberalism, individualism and equality, along with the ideas of human reason.
The men and women of the Enlightenment movement aimed for social reforms in their European societies. Thinkers of this movement wanted to build a new society that wasn’t based on the ideas of religion or the Church, but rather a

This informal movement of literary men and women agreed on the knowledge of Reason and agreed that Christianity was a religion of supernatural bases and was there for unreasonable. They believed that science was the only way to find the truth, moral improvements, and to happiness. Science was the way, they thought, because it gave results that could be predicted. The Enlightenment gave way to the Age of Reason. A new form of science, the Science of Man, was key in the Enlightenment movement. The Science of Man studied how humans learned, human motivations, their social relationships, and the foundations for political and economical institutions. The great thinkers of this movement were called Philosophers, they applied the same components of critical thinking from the scientific method and used it towards social and political problems. The people of the Enlightenment “ preferred to see humanity as capable of creating its own moral code for its own benefit and in accord with the

The Elightenment pushed the ideals of rights for individuals and for rights of equality, and that became a major factor during the revolts in France. Many other causes that set fire to the French Revolution was their closed social structure system. Frances social structure was divided into three tiers called Estates, the first Estate on top was composed of clerical members of the Church, the second Estate was composed of the nobility, and the third Estate was composed of everyone else in society including bourgeoisie, peasants, and artisans. Revolts began from this closed social structure when the third Estate became infuriated with the raise of more taxes that only they were instructed to pay, while the top two tiers continued to be exempted from paying these taxes. Frances bankruptcy and the administrations inefficiency to run the nation also held a place in the causes that led up to the French Revolutions. When the Revolution came under control and finally ended, France was left with a much weakened political influence and aristocratic leadership. The bourgeois rose up the social structure and France become a state that gave into the needs of the middle class. The effects of the French Revolution created the new modern state of France, which emphasized rationalism, liberalism, naturalism, and