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Questions and Answers
What was the defining characteristic of the Enlightenment movement?
What was the defining characteristic of the Enlightenment movement?
What was the primary focus of Enlightenment theories?
What was the primary focus of Enlightenment theories?
Which of the following was a consequence of Enlightenment theories?
Which of the following was a consequence of Enlightenment theories?
Which country was the largest center of the Enlightenment movement?
Which country was the largest center of the Enlightenment movement?
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Which Enlightenment thinker was known for his scathing criticisms of religion?
Which Enlightenment thinker was known for his scathing criticisms of religion?
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What was John Locke's view on human nature?
What was John Locke's view on human nature?
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What was the main difference between rationalists and empiricists?
What was the main difference between rationalists and empiricists?
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What was the Enlightenment thinkers' view on the source of political authority?
What was the Enlightenment thinkers' view on the source of political authority?
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What was the Enlightenment's influence on the study of knowledge?
What was the Enlightenment's influence on the study of knowledge?
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What was the outcome of the Enlightenment's influence on government?
What was the outcome of the Enlightenment's influence on government?
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Study Notes
The Enlightenment
- Lasted from the late 17th century to the early 19th century
- Characterized by the power and authority of human reason and the rejection of superstition
- Encouraged people to use their own reason to discover truth and question traditional authority, especially the church
Key Thinkers
- Voltaire: criticized religion, especially the Christian church and its priests
- John Locke: believed in the tabula rasa, that people are born without innate ideas and that experience provides the raw materials for knowledge
- Adam Smith and David Hume: Scottish Enlightenment thinkers
- Immanuel Kant: German Enlightenment thinker
- Montesquieu and Diderot: French Enlightenment thinkers
- James Madison and Thomas Jefferson: American Enlightenment thinkers and Founding Fathers
Impact on Government
- Undermined the traditional authority of European monarchies
- Led to the idea of a social contract, where political authority is derived from the people
- Inspired democracy and the concept of popular consent
- Rejected the idea of divine right of kings
Enlightenment Philosophers' Beliefs
- Believe in the power of individual reason and the authority of every individual to attain knowledge and make decisions
- Rationalists believed reason could discover the laws of the universe with little observation
- Empiricists believed all knowledge comes from the senses and reason serves observation and desire
Influence of the Enlightenment
- Led to revolutions in America and France, establishing democratic governments
- Changed the way people think about authority, making absolute monarchy untenable
- Influenced epistemology, focusing methodological debates on how to gain knowledge
- Contributed to the development of natural sciences, calculus, and Newtonian physics
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Description
Test your knowledge on the intellectual movement that emphasized the power of human reason and individualism in the 17th-19th centuries. Focus on the characteristics, theories, and thinkers of the Enlightenment.
