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Influence of enlightenment thinkers
Impact of the enlightenment philosophers
Impact of the enlightenment philosophers
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Today, as historians look at the enlightenment they look at it through the eyes of the great thinkers.“The philosophic spirit itself took refuge in the writings of some great men”(D’Alembert,7).They helped create knowledge in how it is viewed today. However, the question remians what is the category that these men fall into. There are many different names and definitions of what these men can be called and who qualifies to fit in this group. It is said that many of the men that were classified in the category were not actual philosopher thinkers that expanded the mind and challenged thought. In the essay “The High Enlightenment and the Low-Life of Literature” by Robert Darnton he discuses the status of these philosophes that were being produced during the High Enlightenment. He argues that “the summit view of eighteenth-century intellectual history has been described so often and so well that it might be useful to strike out in a new direction, to try to get to the bottom of the Enlightenment, and try to penetrate into its underworld...from below”(Darnton,57). He decides to look at the status of the enlightenment thinkers during this time to see the social standing that they had and the influence upon the world around them, not from the overall philosophes. Not from their works that were produced or the social responses to them; from the actual men of letters themselves.Darnton criticizes other historians for having looked at the Enlightenment “only through the eyes of this elite and proposes that, instead, we examine it from the perspective of those who failed to break into this closed elite of ‘literary aristocrates’”(Who were the Philosophes, 44).
Darnton discusses, in his essay, the stance of the men of letters during the ...
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... impoverished. The members of Grub Street now needed the change that was happening in thought during the Early Enlightenment. “It would seem to be necessary, therefore, in looking for the connection between the Enlightenment and the Revolution, to examine the structure of the cultural world under the Old Regime, to descend from the heights of metaphysics and to enter Grub Street”(Darnton, 65). These ideas of the old Enlightenment were seeping down into the lower classes because of what was happening to the Men of Letters. These members needed a change. “[W]hile they grew fat in Voltaire’s church, the revolutionary spirit passed to the lean and hungry men of Grub Street, to the cultural pariahs who, through poverty and humiliation”(Darnton, 66). This is what was happening in France during the High Enlightenment that led down into the Revolution for further change.
I must state at this point that much of this book’s content disturbed me, and I experienced great relief at its conclusion. Specifically, his pessimistic views on the Enlightenment,
Unlike previous centuries, the eighteenth century was the dawn of a new age in Western Europe where intellectuals thrived, science was honored, and curiosity was encouraged; and the framework of how civil society was changed as a whole. From the dawn of the Enlightenment, Western European culture was changing due to the revolutionary new ideas that were changing. With the social change going on, political change was as evident as time went on. With these changes rooted in social change, the effects of the Enlightenment can be seen over 18th century Western Europe and beyond. Towards the late 1780s the late German Philosopher Immanuel Kant described the Enlightenment as, “Man leaving his self caused immaturity” ( Spiel Vogel 503).
Before the presence of equality came into play, some laws favored the rich over all others, and some only affected the poor; however, the growing middle class ended up being caught in the crosshairs of the two. During the Revolution, leaders went to protest this inequality, and in doing so went on to draw inspiration from the very ideas brought upon by Enlightenment thinkers, which in turn were the very building blocks of France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of
Mini-Q Essay A time period known as The Age of Reason or The Enlightenment was when philosophy, politics, science and social communications changed drastically. It helped shape the ideas of capitalism and democracy, which is the world we live in today. People joined together to discuss areas of high intellect and creative thoughts. The Enlightenment was a time period in which people discussed new ideas, and educated people, known as philosophers, all had a central idea of freedom of choice and the natural right of individuals. These philosophers include John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
The Enlightenment is a unique time in European history characterized by revolutions in science, philosophy, society, and politics. These revolutions put Europe in a transition from the medieval world-view to the modern western world. The traditional hierarchical political and social orders from the French monarchy and Catholic Church were destroyed and replaced by a political and social order from the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality(Bristow, 1). Many historians, such as Henry Steele Commager, Peter Gay, have studied the Enlightenment over the years and created their own views and opinions.
The Enlightenment began or could be said to have been propelled by the scientific revolution of the earlier centuries, particularly the Newtonian universe, as modernizing science gradually undermined the ancient Western geocentric idea of the universe as well as accompanying set of presuppositions that had been constraining and influencing philosophical inquiry (Bristow; Lewis; Mattey). This has led to the promotion of philosophy that of natural science included, emerging from the shadows of theology to become an independent, powerful force that challenged the old and the status quo. This has led to the great progress at the intellectual and scientific levels, with the society so enthusiastic about said progress amidst expectations that philosophy in general would lead to huge improvement in human conditions (Bristow). During this time, philosophers in the narrow sense of the root world considered the Church as fomenting ignorance, superstition and subservience. They also believed in the inherent equality of human beings even as they held that the best form of gov...
Ferguson, Carol. "LECTURE: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE ROMANTIC ERA." The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Web. 18 Aug. 2010. .
The preceding Enlightenment period had depended upon reason, logic and science to give us knowledge, success, and a better society. The Romantics contested that idea and changed the formula...
The Enlightenment was a period of increased literacy and public interest in literature and arts that promoted learning through reason and logic (134). Romantic wr...
Advancement from Enlightenment As the 1900's rolled around, many changes were to come. New leaders, government styles, and new ideas were just the start. The main focus of the Enlightenment era was based on reason, rationalism, and the idea of "Inevitable Progress. " Enlightenment was pushed forward by great people such as Kant, Bulgaria, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Newton, Francois-Marie Ardouet de Voltaire, Thomas Hobbes, to name a few.
Bodrogean, Adina. "Enlightenment Ideas Reflected In The English Literature Of The Time." Scientific Journal Of Humanistic Studies 5.9 (2013): 64-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
To what extent can literature have an affect on the way we judge society? Humans are naturally able to make a first impression on countries, religions, and people based upon their own beliefs. Writers are grown up in different societies and express their own beliefs on countries, religion and people through their own life experiences. Writers have enough power to change the reader’s preconceived ideas by the writers sharing of their own perspective on their beliefs. Through analyzing different forms of literature such as White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Joseph Brodsky’s “A commencement Address,” and watching Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” I have realized that reading literature has the ability to change our thinking which in return affects the we judge different society. There have been controversies that media is a huge factor in altering the mind of humans. Literature can be also viewed as a type of media because literature helps the readers understand the conditions of certain societies.
The bad living conditions of France and its depressed economy was one of the primary drivers for the French Revolution. The people of France were so poor that they had no shoes to wear and no food to eat. The poverty of France breaks its economy at its root. The economy got so bad that “By December 1788, there was a nationwide revolt against food shortages and rising prices, which continued to spread till the summer of 1789, when there was another bad harvest”(Todd 528). One ...
At the start of the revolution, in 1789, France’s class system changed dramatically (Giddens, 2014). Aristocrats lost wealth and status, while those who were at the bottom of the social ladder, rose in positions. The rise of sociology involved the unorthodox views regarding society and man which were once relevant during the Enlightenment (Nisbet, 2014). Medievalism in France during the eighteenth century was still prevalent in its “legal structures, powerful guilds, in its communes, in the Church, in universities, and in the patriarchal family” (Nisbet, 2014). Philosophers of that time’s had an objective to attempt to eliminate the natural law theory of society (Nisbet, 2014). The preferred outcome was a coherent order in which the mobility of individuals would be unrestricted by the autonomous state (French Revolution). According to Karl Marx, economic status is extremely important for social change. The peasants felt the excess decadence of the ancient regime was at the expense of their basic standards of living, thus fuelling Marx’s idea of class based revolutions and the transition of society (Katz, 2014). This can be observed, for example, in novels such as Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a novel that had a role for mobilizing the attitudes of the