The Enlightenment was a movement of reason, whose ideas were the rejection of absolutism, dogma, in all social spheres, but both in politics and in religion. Some of the representatives of the Enlightenment were Voltaire, Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They advocated religious tolerance, and a reign in which there will not be an absolute ruler. They argued that excessive concentration of power in the hands of the government led to usurpation, and that such a government should be ousted by the citizens. Such ideas have led to many civil revolutions, which were aimed at freedom and independence from dogmatic rule. In essence, the Enlightenment Thinkers have questioned the traditional absolutist mode of government.
The enlightenment thinkers questioned many of the traditional values that dominated Europe for centuries, for example the government and religion.
The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason is an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century.
In many ways, European society in the 18th century looked the same as it did three centuries earlier. The Catholic Church along with various monarchies ruled almost every facet of life. On the 1700s, there came a revolutionary movement called the Enlightenment whose repercussions are still felt today.
The major idea of the Enlightenment is that the world and human life should be governed by rational rules. The thinkers of the Enlightenment believed that things could be understood through reason, not through reliance on supernatural factors
The Enlightenment was a late 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement that emphasizing reason, individualism, skepticism, and science.
The enlightenment thinkers questioned many of the traditional values that dominated Europe for centuries, for example the government and religion.
Grade: 9
Subject: history
Chapter: The Age of Enlightenment
Keywords: enlightenment thinkers, government, religion, the traditional values, revolutionary movement
