112 Enlightenment Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on enlightenment, ✍️ enlightenment essay topics for college, 🎓 most interesting enlightenment research titles, 💡 simple enlightenment essay ideas, ❓ enlightenment essay questions.

  • English Enlightenment Through the Perspectives of Defoe and Swift
  • What Is Enlightenment? By Immanuel Kant: Analysis
  • Plato’s Work “Allegory of the Cave” vs. Kant’s “What Is Enlightenment?”
  • The Impact of Enlightenment Ideas on Education
  • Puritanism and Enlightenment Writers
  • Women’s Status During the Enlightenment and Victorian Periods
  • Kant’s Ideas About Enlightenment
  • Religion in Enlightenment Literature: Moliere’s Tartuffe The paper aims to explore religion, holiness, and hypocrisy that were used as currency in a power struggle at the time of reform and renewal in the context of Tartuffe.
  • The Scottish Enlightenment: Stadial History and Early Anthropology The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment considered the stages of community through theoretical means known as “stadial theory” or “stadial history.”
  • The Death of Enkidu and the Enlightenment of Gilgamesh The great epic poem of Gilgamesh explores a vast number of themes, but the one that sets the epic into motion is the subject of friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
  • The Enlightenment Era Thought Enlightenment thinkers influenced the history of European countries and, consequently, affected the United States’ politics.
  • Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment Analysis In the essay “What Is Enlightenment?”, Immanuel Kant provides readers with the definition of enlightenment as well as the path towards it.
  • “What Is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant One interpretation of the Kantian text – enlightenment can be read either as a historical document, or one can see in it an appeal to everyone and all outside of time and space.
  • Adam Smith and The Age of Enlightenment As for the historic figure of Adam Smith, he is recognized as the Father of political economy and he is an outstanding moral philosopher as well.
  • Enlightenment and Founder Father Ideology The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the eighteenth century. The principles of Enlightenment had an impact on social and political development.
  • The Enlightenment According to Kant Among the many philosophers, Kant was one of the main contributors to the enlightenment, being a German philosopher and one of the enlightenment thinkers.
  • Analysis of the Enlightenment Century The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 18th century and emphasized principles like tolerance, liberty and progress.
  • Impact of Enlightenment on the Society This work aims to examine how the Enlightenment influenced the society of the eighteenth century and still finds echoes in the modern world.
  • Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment The scientific revolution introduced individualism to a society that was largely conformist and communal at the time, with little regard for the accomplishments of select people.
  • Enlightenment-Inspired Documents This paper discusses enlightenment-inspired documents, namely the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
  • The Great Awakening and American Enlightenment The history of Christianity includes the Protestant branch most represented in America and the most influential in America.
  • Media Influences: Art of Enlightenment and Selling The media industry is a powerful weapon that allows influencing the masses of people and a means that can both strengthen the state system and disrupt it.
  • Enlightenment and Its Impact on the French Population and the Industrial Revolution The work examines the connections between the Enlightenment and the French people’s academic achievements, and its relation to the Industrial Revolution.
  • Influence of Enlightenment and the Great Awakening on the American Revolution The Revolution depicted a period of political and ideological transformation in North America between 1765 and 1783.
  • Enlightenment Ways of Thinking This paper tells about classical liberalism views human nature from a skeptical perspective. This perception is similar to that of conservative liberalism.
  • The Age of Enlightenment and Its Issues The Age of Enlightenment is a controversial period in history, and its evaluation should include both advantages and drawbacks of the time.
  • The Ideas of the Enlightenment One of the key ideas of the Enlightenment having a profound effect on the modern west world is the idea of popular government.
  • The Period of Enlightenment During the period of Enlightenment, there existed considerable dissonance between the philosophers and the people they animadverted, in particular, religious and political reactionaries.
  • Candide and the Context of Enlightenment Enlightenment is an imperative term of political philosophy that urges the application of intellect and logic to discover truth and reality from natural and social phenomena.
  • Theology in the Enlightenment Age The enlightenment age started gaining momentum in the 13th when Thomas Aquinas recovered the Aristotelian logic that was primarily used in defending Christianity.
  • Enlightenment Culture and 18-th Century Revolutions The essay outlines principles of XVIII-century enlightenment culture, analyzes Scientific, French, Industrial Revolutions, and studies Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.
  • Voltaire’s Vision of Religion and Enlightenment Voltaire`s vision of religion, society, and the main moving forces of its development resulted in the formation of the modern mentality.
  • Absolutism During the Period of the Enlightenment
  • John Locke’s Teachings during the Enlightenment Period about the American Revolution
  • Candide, the Enlightenment, and the Birth of Tolerance
  • Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment
  • Economists and the Enlightenment in Spain, 1750-1800
  • Darwin and Freud’s Opposition to Enlightenment Thought
  • Enlightenment Against the Old Order in European Societies
  • Changes During the Enlightenment Period of the Eighteenth Century
  • Enlightenment Arguments for and Against Separation of Church and State
  • Medical Sciences During the Age of Enlightenment
  • Developmental Trends, Thought, and Thinkers in the New Enlightenment
  • Enlightenment and Scientific Discovery of the 17th Century
  • America’s Constant Quest for Freedom was Evident in the Enlightenment Era
  • Reformation and Enlightenment Europe: Absolutism or Democracy
  • Comparing and Contrasting the Enlightenment, Transcendentalism, and Puritan Theology
  • Inferno: Dante’s Journey Toward Enlightenment
  • How Enlightenment Shaped the Birth of the American Republic Between 1775 and 1787?
  • Enlightenment: Can Mankind Live a Moral and Ethical Life Without Religion?
  • Anti-Semitism: Before and After the Enlightenment
  • The Advancements and Restructuring That Dominated the Renaissance or Age of Enlightenment
  • Despotism During the Age of Enlightenment
  • Enlightenment Ideas Inspired the American and French Revolutions
  • Continuity and Change From the Dark Ages Through the Enlightenment and Beyond
  • Debates During the Eighteenth-Century Age of Enlightenment
  • Benjamin Franklin’s Ideas and Attitudes in the Spirit of the Enlightenment Movement in America
  • Enlightenment Philosophy and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
  • Benjamin Franklin: The Enlightenment Figure
  • Carbon Emission Trading System of New Zealand and Its Enlightenment for China
  • Enlightenment and Implicitness: Devine and Gender Images
  • Deep Ecology, the Holistic Critique of Enlightenment Dualism, and the Irony of History
  • How Marx and Durkheim’s Theories Expanded on Enlightenment Thinking?
  • Enlightenment Through the History of Economic Thought
  • Comparing and Contrasting Philosophers of the Enlightenment: Locke and Rousseau
  • Kant’s Enlightenment and the Evolutionary Model of Progress
  • Enlightenment and Environmental Creation by the Scientific Revolution
  • Comparing the Pope’s and Voltaire’s Perspectives on Enlightenment Being the Vanity Age
  • How the Enlightenment Philosophers Impacted the Progress of Society?
  • Democracy Wall and China’s Enlightenment
  • Metaphysical Thoughts During the Enlightenment Period
  • Enlightenment and Romantic Views on Nature
  • Contemporary Thinking and the Influence of Existentialism, Romanticism, and the Enlightenment
  • Into the Abyss: Marquis de Sade and the Enlightenment
  • Frankenstein: Enlightenment After Wretch’s Struggle
  • Reasons Why Benjamin Franklin Represents the American Enlightenment
  • How did the Enlightenment affect Christianity?
  • Dangers That Might Result From Being So Optimistic About Human Progress and Enlightenment
  • Science Fiction Influenced Teachings of Enlightenment
  • Enlightenment and Political Transformations in Europe
  • Doubting the Enlightenment and the Future of Western Civilization
  • Economic Development, Enlightenment and Creative Transformation: Creative Industries in the New China
  • How Did the Age of Enlightenment Affect the French Revolution?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Change Relationships Between Citizens and Governments?
  • What Are the Terms for Enlightenment in Each Religion?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Challenge Traditional Order in Europe?
  • Did the Enlightenment Happen Before or After the Dark Ages?
  • Who Were the Leaders of the Enlightenment in America?
  • How Did Baruch Spinoza Contribute to the Enlightenment?
  • What Did the Enlightenment Encourage People to Do?
  • What Criticisms of the Enlightenment Did Sigmund Freud Make?
  • What Literary Form Became Prominent in the Enlightenment?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Challenge Social Norms?
  • What Is Enlightenment Rationalism?
  • When Was the Enlightenment in Europe?
  • Did Enlightenment Thinkers Promote Divine Right?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Influence the Glorious Revolution?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Affect Society?
  • What Did Enlightenment Thinkers Mean by the Term Social Contract?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Change World History?
  • In What Century Was the Enlightenment Most Influential?
  • What Was the Theology of the Enlightenment Period?
  • How Did the Enlightenment Affect the Arts and Literature?
  • What Is the Definition of the Enlightenment Period in American Literature?
  • How Did Enlightenment Ideas Influence the End of Serfdom?
  • Why Might Some Women Have Been Critical of the Enlightenment?
  • How Did Benjamin Franklin Contribute to the Enlightenment?
  • What Enlightenment Thinkers Influenced the Declaration of Independence?
  • Why Is the Enlightenment Known as the Age of Reason?
  • What Did the Philosophers of the Enlightenment Seek to Understand?
  • How Did Enlightenment Ideas Spread?
  • How Did the Scientific Revolution Contribute to the Enlightenment?

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World History Project - Origins to the Present

Course: world history project - origins to the present   >   unit 6.

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  • How did the Dutch and British influence Enlightenment thought?
  • What opinion did Enlightenment thinkers have about slavery?
  • What views did Enlightenment thinkers have about progress? How did that affect their views of different societies?
  • How did Enlightenment thought impact production and distribution?
  • How did the Enlightenment help or hurt working-class people?

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The Enlightenment

What was so enlightening about the enlightenment, the enlightenment and historical "progress", so was the enlightenment really that revolutionary.

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What Is Enlightenment?

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Kant suggests that enlightenment might be too difficult for individuals, at least when the public at large remains unenlightened. This is why he focuses on the prerequisites for the enlightenment of the public as a whole. Is he correct about this, or could it be possible for some individuals in an unenlightened society to become enlightened in Kant’s sense? If so, how?

Kant does not think that the enlightenment of the public requires much in the way of political rights and freedoms, as long as people have Freedom of the Pen . In fact, he thinks too much “civil freedom” might actually get in the way of enlightenment. More democratically minded contemporary readers may disagree. Why does he believe this, and should we reject this view now? Why or why not?

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Enlightenment

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 21, 2020 | Original: December 16, 2009

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USAMen of Progress: group portrait of the great American inventors of the Victorian Age, 1862 (Photo by Art Images via Getty Images)

European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the “long 18th century” (1685-1815) as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. 

The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. The Enlightenment ultimately gave way to 19th-century Romanticism.

The Early Enlightenment: 1685-1730

The Enlightenment’s important 17th-century precursors included the Englishmen Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes, the Frenchman René Descartes and the key natural philosophers of the Scientific Revolution, including Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Its roots are usually traced to 1680s England, where in the span of three years Isaac Newton published his “Principia Mathematica” (1686) and John Locke his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (1689)—two works that provided the scientific, mathematical and philosophical toolkit for the Enlightenment’s major advances.

Did you know? In his essay 'What Is Enlightenment?' (1784), the German philosopher Immanuel Kant summed up the era's motto in the following terms: 'Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!'

Locke argued that human nature was mutable and that knowledge was gained through accumulated experience rather than by accessing some sort of outside truth. Newton’s calculus and optical theories provided the powerful Enlightenment metaphors for precisely measured change and illumination.

There was no single, unified Enlightenment. Instead, it is possible to speak of the French Enlightenment, the Scottish Enlightenment and the English, German, Swiss or American Enlightenment. Individual Enlightenment thinkers often had very different approaches. Locke differed from David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau from Voltaire , Thomas Jefferson from Frederick the Great . Their differences and disagreements, though, emerged out of the common Enlightenment themes of rational questioning and belief in progress through dialogue.

The High Enlightenment: 1730-1780

Centered on the dialogues and publications of the French “philosophes” (Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Buffon and Denis Diderot), the High Enlightenment might best be summed up by one historian’s summary of Voltaire’s “Philosophical Dictionary”: “a chaos of clear ideas.” Foremost among these was the notion that everything in the universe could be rationally demystified and cataloged. The signature publication of the period was Diderot’s “Encyclopédie” (1751-77), which brought together leading authors to produce an ambitious compilation of human knowledge.

It was an age of enlightened despots like Frederick the Great, who unified, rationalized and modernized Prussia in between brutal multi-year wars with Austria, and of enlightened would-be revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, whose “Declaration of Independence” (1776) framed the American Revolution in terms taken from of Locke’s essays.

It was also a time of religious (and anti-religious) innovation, as Christians sought to reposition their faith along rational lines and deists and materialists argued that the universe seemed to determine its own course without God’s intervention. Locke, along with French philosopher Pierre Bayle, began to champion the idea of the separation of Church and State. Secret societies—like the Freemasons, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Rosicrucians—flourished, offering European men (and a few women) new modes of fellowship, esoteric ritual and mutual assistance. Coffeehouses, newspapers and literary salons emerged as new venues for ideas to circulate.

The Late Enlightenment and Beyond: 1780-1815

The French Revolution of 1789 was the culmination of the High Enlightenment vision of throwing out the old authorities to remake society along rational lines, but it devolved into bloody terror that showed the limits of its own ideas and led, a decade later, to the rise of Napoleon . Still, its goal of egalitarianism attracted the admiration of the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley) and inspired both the Haitian war of independence and the radical racial inclusivism of Paraguay’s first post-independence government.

Enlightened rationality gave way to the wildness of Romanticism, but 19th-century Liberalism and Classicism—not to mention 20th-century Modernism —all owe a heavy debt to the thinkers of the Enlightenment.

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The Age of Enlightenment: Overview and Analysis Essay

The Enlightenment is the broad term applied to the intellectual developments of the eighteenth century, as articulated by a relatively small number of thinkers and writers primarily in Western Europe. The Age of Enlightenment centered on France and two of the major philosophers who contributed to this age of Enlightenment were Voltaire and Montesquieu. The others were Diderot, Rousseau, Hume, and Kant. Voltaire and Montesquieu were confident that the reforms they suggested were both reasonable and practically feasible (Kagan et al, chapter 18). The concept of deism, for example, allowed thinkers to accept new rationalism without having to deny the existence of God in an outright manner. Voltaire and Montesquieu opposed and rejected the views of the Roman Church which they believed was irrational and oppressive (Fitzpatrick, 83). But these philosophes sought religious toleration concerning all European faiths. The philosophes also affected the areas of justice, economics, and political thought.

The philosophes believed that by obeying rational laws society and human relationships could be improved. This belief was the foundation stone for the subject called ‘social science’. During the Age of Enlightenment, Beccaria proposed reforms in the areas of criminal justice and punishment. In the realm of Economics, Adam Smith’s works questioned the trade practices of the time and laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution. His 1776 Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is commonly described as the founding document for laissez-faire (hands-off) economic policy. This work was instrumental in raising a debate over economic progress versus individual well-being in Western society. Many French economic reformers advocated agricultural reform. In the realm of politics, the government was the focus of a lot of investigation and criticism. Enlightenment thinkers did not stop with mere criticism of corruption in the government and church. Montesquieu provided the outline of a system that would create a new balance in governing the state. Montesquieu admired the British constitution and the concept of the aristocracy. He tried to incorporate it in his presentation of the ideal government. Rousseau was a radical, who believed society was more important than the individual because only within a properly functioning society could an individual life a moral life. Overall, many philosophes were fundamentally monarchists, though of course, they believed monarchies should be reformed.

Many revolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment reached Eastern Europe in the form of “Enlightened Absolutism.” The rulers of Prussia, Austria, and Russia tried to follow certain Enlightenment principles. But these rulers could not accept the philosophes’ rejection of war as irrational. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia, Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II of Austria, and Catherine II (the Great) of Russia implemented some Enlightenment measures but did not create any change to their existing political and social frameworks. Ultimately, the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian empires rejected the Enlightenment ideals towards the end of the century (Kagan et al, chapter 18).

The Age of Enlightenment in England took place through coffeehouses and the newly flourishing press. In Germany, the universities became centers of the Enlightenment. Italian representatives of the age included Cesare Beccaria and Giambattista Vico. From America, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin exerted vast international influence (Columbia Encyclopedia, 15622).

Voltaire’s satire, Candide was the most influential work of the period and reflected the philosophe’s concerns and general attitudes. The major works that influenced the Age of Enlightenment were the Newtonian worldview, Locke’s psychology, Britain’s wealth and stability, French reform, and the emerging print culture in Europe. The Encyclopedia compiled by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert and completed in 1772 contained the views of most of France’s leading philosophes on various subjects. The Encyclopedia helped in spreading Enlightenment ideas throughout Europe.

There were many weak points in the philosophes as well. The four-stage theory of social development proved detrimental to the relationships between the West and other cultures. The philosophes failed to address reforms to help women and had a strong tendency to equate “human” with “male” (Kagan et al, chapter 18). Many philosophes including the radical Rousseau held traditional ideas about gender roles and believed that women were physiologically inferior to men and that women should be restricted only within the domestic sphere. However, late in the 18th century, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women placed women’s rights within the Enlightenment agenda (Johnston, page 1).

Bibliography

Kagan, Donald; Ozment, Steven and Turner, M. Frank (1979). The Western Heritage, Eighth Edition. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey.

Johnston, Ian (2000). Lecture on Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman .

The Columbia Encyclopedia (2004). Enlightenment. Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. New York.

Fitzpatrick, Martin; Jones, Peter; Knellwolf, Christa; Mccalman, Iain (2004). The Enlightenment World. Routledge Publishers. New York.

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IvyPanda. (2021, September 9). The Age of Enlightenment: Overview and Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-age-of-enlightenment-overview-and-analysis/

"The Age of Enlightenment: Overview and Analysis." IvyPanda , 9 Sept. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-age-of-enlightenment-overview-and-analysis/.

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1. IvyPanda . "The Age of Enlightenment: Overview and Analysis." September 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-age-of-enlightenment-overview-and-analysis/.

IvyPanda . "The Age of Enlightenment: Overview and Analysis." September 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-age-of-enlightenment-overview-and-analysis/.

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A Summary and Analysis of Immanuel Kant’s ‘What is Enlightenment?’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘What is Enlightenment?’, full title ‘Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?’, is a 1784 essay by the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). As the longer title suggests, Kant’s essay is a response to a question (posed by a clergyman, Reverend Johann Friedrich Zöllner) concerning the nature of philosophical enlightenment .

What is enlightenment, and how best might it be achieved in a civilised society? These are the key questions Kant addresses, and poses answers to, in his essay, which can be read in full here . Below, we summarise the main points of his argument and offer an analysis of Kant’s position.

‘What is Enlightenment?’: summary

Kant begins ‘What is Enlightenment?’ by asserting that enlightenment is man’s emergence from self-imposed immaturity. He defines ‘immaturity’ here as the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. Kant’s message to his readers is that they should have the courage to use their own understanding, rather than relying on another person’s guidance. That is the ‘motto’ of enlightenment.

Kant acknowledges that remaining ‘immature’ is the easy option for most people, because it’s the lazy option. People can turn to a priest to be their moral conscience for them, or a doctor to determine their diet. Women have been rendered perpetually immature by men in order to keep them meek and ignorant.

The key to enlightenment, Kant asserts, is freedom. If people are granted that, enlightenment will follow. The problem is that most people aren’t free. Even those ‘guardians’ and authority figures who keep others enslaved are themselves victim of this system, which they inherit from those who have gone before them.

Kant distinguishes between what he considers a public freedom to exercise one’s reason (and to question the way things are) and the civic duty we have to obey orders without questioning them. For instance, a soldier engaged in military action cannot afford to question the order his superior gives him: he needs to obey the order without question, because that is his ‘civic’ duty at that moment.

But off-duty, if that soldier wished to philosophise publicly (e.g., in the role of a scholar) about the flaws in the military system, he should be free to do so.

The same goes for paying taxes. One can argue in parliament, or write pamphlets and newspaper articles about whether high taxation is a good thing (i.e., exercising one’s public duty to question things), but when the taxman sends you a bill, you’d better pay up (i.e., observe your civic duty).

Kant invites us to consider whether a society of priests could set down some rules which would be binding for generations to come. He says this would be wrong, because it denies future generations the chance to question such rules, and social development would be impeded as a result. He also argues that an enlightened monarch would allow his subjects true freedom to think and do as they wish in religious matters, and the monarch should keep his nose out of such matters.

Next, Kant argues that, at the time of writing, people are not living in an ‘enlightened age’ but in an ‘age of enlightenment’: that is, we’ve not attained full enlightenment yet because the process is a long one, but progress is (gradually) being made, thanks largely to the enlightened monarch under whom Kant himself is living, Frederick the Great.

Kant concludes ‘What is Enlightenment?’ by considering the difference between civil and intellectual and spiritual freedom. Perhaps paradoxically, the less civil freedom people have, the more intellectual freedom they gain, and as their intellectual abilities grow, so the health of a particular society grows as governments can start treating people with dignity.

‘What is Enlightenment?’: analysis

‘What is Enlightenment?’ is concerned with every citizen’s public right to use their reason: everyone in a civilised society, Kant argues, should have the freedom to question the status quo and take part in a debate about how society should be governed and maintained. But such public rights and freedoms need to be balanced by the citizen’s private or civic responsibility to obey the law, and observe the status quo, when required to.

In other words, even while we discuss and philosophise about how to improve society, we have to live in the one we currently have, and civilisation would break down if people chose, for instance, to stop following laws they considered unjust or refused to pay their taxes because they disagreed with the levels of taxation.

‘What is Enlightenment?’ is fundamentally a clarion-call to people about the need to ‘dare to be wise’. What is required is not merely intellect but also a willingness to engage one’s reason and exercise that reason upon the everyday things that govern our lives: political systems, financial structures, education, trade, and much else.

Enlightenment is mankind’s coming-to-maturity, a willingness to think for oneself and emerge from an immature state where we hand over the power and responsibility to authority figures, whether they’re priests, doctors, teachers, or politicians.

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Enlightenment Essay

enlightenment period essay questions

The Enlightenment And The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a change in the hearts and minds of men. It left a significant impact on the world we know today and gave us great men to remember. The Enlightenment was a intellectual movement that brought change to the views of Christianity, the importance of reason, the understanding of nature and humanity, and the equality of man. Those of the later will be the focus of this paper. Curiosity for understanding the natural world led to new scientific exploration as well as new discoveries

Enlightenment And The Enlightenment

women throughout Europe, which continued into the Enlightenment. Attitudes towards women remained mostly dismissive throughout the reformation and enlightenment and doubt rose regarding their ability to complete tasks. Men felt that giving women roles concerning housekeeping and motherhood should be their main focus and they should excel at their simple tasks. Education for women was on the rise in both eras as well. As for changes, the Enlightenment led to a new focus on women and gave them a larger

the Enlightenment. The movement of people from blind belief in the church to being more reliant on science and the power of reason was one of the major changes during the renaissance. The Enlightenment took place from the mid of the seventeenth century and it defined the moment when philosophers tackled the challenge of explaining human behavior through reason and law of nature. Europe was the birthplace of the Enlightenment and all the countries in Europe were affected by the Enlightenment. The

The Power Of Enlightenment : The Enlightenment And The Enlightenment

through one of his pieces in order to further understand the Enlightenment movement. During the early European colonization, the Enlightenment was introduced to the public. The Enlightenment movement was represented as a source of gaining knowledge and was seen as an educating tool to many. During a time where religion and god were believed to be the answer to the world around us, the introduction of a different perspectives with the Enlightenment movement , was the start of many debates. Does a philosopher

The Age Of Enlightenment: The Enlightenment And The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment; age of reason, lasting throughout the 18th century was a period of intellectual growth in Europe. It introduced modernity; a period defined by the rejection of tradition and prioritization of equality and individualism. These beliefs were a direct influence of the actions and discoveries made during the scientific revolution that challenged core beliefs. Although, these newfound ideals were being popularized by Philosophes encouraging a focus on science and philosophy, preexisting

Enlightenment : The Age Of Enlightenment And The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment or The Age of Reason was an European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries. The ideas during this period were about God, reason, nature, and developments in art, philosophy, and politics. The “Enlightenment thinkers” affected the development of the United States Government. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution Bill of rights and The Federalist Papers were all influenced by important enlightenment ideas of freedom, unavailable rights, and government. Declaration

Enlightenment Impact On Enlightenment

Science and Culture, a Significant Impact on Enlightenment Era The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was a time when European politics, philosophy, science, and communications changed the way people embraced the fact that humanity could be improved through rational change. The Age of Enlightenment was a time of growth and change. It paved the way for major advancements in technology, as well as the way people viewed life. New ideas

The Enlightenment And Ideas Of The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a time of mathematical, scientific, and philosophical advancement. The thoughts of philosophers like Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Locke inspired many, such as the Americans. Their ideas about freedom of religion, civil liberties, free trade, and social reforms became the basis that the Americans built their new country upon and impacted politics and culture. Due to the advanced ideas that were emerging from Europe, religious views of the colonists started to alter. Before enlightenment

Enlightenment Vs Enlightenment

journey that anyone can go through is the never-ending search for enlightenment and self-knowledge. Our own personal journey starts with self-reflection and to become our own person. How do we do that when we have been molded since childhood to think, believe, and act how others have always told us to? In Kant’s “What is Enlightenment”, he breaks down how to achieve what he considers to be true enlightenment. Kant defines enlightenment as a release from self-incurred tutelage. By self-incurred tutelage

Enlightenment And The Enlightenment Movement

the uncooperativeness of the King created a sense of urgency for the general population of France (Lewis, pg. 51-52). Louis Gottschalk attributes this reform to the revolutionary ideas which were formulated by Rousseau during the Enlightenment movement. The Enlightenment movement in France was a product of the Scientific Revolution, a period in which there were new developments in politics, religion, and science which led to new governmental

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik 2018 square

David Folkenflik

enlightenment period essay questions

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Legendary editor Marty Baron describes his 'Collision of Power' with Trump and Bezos

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward

Journalists, researchers and the public often look at society through the lens of generation, using terms like Millennial or Gen Z to describe groups of similarly aged people. This approach can help readers see themselves in the data and assess where we are and where we’re headed as a country.

Pew Research Center has been at the forefront of generational research over the years, telling the story of Millennials as they came of age politically and as they moved more firmly into adult life . In recent years, we’ve also been eager to learn about Gen Z as the leading edge of this generation moves into adulthood.

But generational research has become a crowded arena. The field has been flooded with content that’s often sold as research but is more like clickbait or marketing mythology. There’s also been a growing chorus of criticism about generational research and generational labels in particular.

Recently, as we were preparing to embark on a major research project related to Gen Z, we decided to take a step back and consider how we can study generations in a way that aligns with our values of accuracy, rigor and providing a foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue.

A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations.

We set out on a yearlong process of assessing the landscape of generational research. We spoke with experts from outside Pew Research Center, including those who have been publicly critical of our generational analysis, to get their take on the pros and cons of this type of work. We invested in methodological testing to determine whether we could compare findings from our earlier telephone surveys to the online ones we’re conducting now. And we experimented with higher-level statistical analyses that would allow us to isolate the effect of generation.

What emerged from this process was a set of clear guidelines that will help frame our approach going forward. Many of these are principles we’ve always adhered to , but others will require us to change the way we’ve been doing things in recent years.

Here’s a short overview of how we’ll approach generational research in the future:

We’ll only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life. When comparing generations, it’s crucial to control for age. In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. (“Age cohort” is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.)

When doing this kind of research, the question isn’t whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults today. The question is whether young adults today are different from young adults at some specific point in the past.

To answer this question, it’s necessary to have data that’s been collected over a considerable amount of time – think decades. Standard surveys don’t allow for this type of analysis. We can look at differences across age groups, but we can’t compare age groups over time.

Another complication is that the surveys we conducted 20 or 30 years ago aren’t usually comparable enough to the surveys we’re doing today. Our earlier surveys were done over the phone, and we’ve since transitioned to our nationally representative online survey panel , the American Trends Panel . Our internal testing showed that on many topics, respondents answer questions differently depending on the way they’re being interviewed. So we can’t use most of our surveys from the late 1980s and early 2000s to compare Gen Z with Millennials and Gen Xers at a similar stage of life.

This means that most generational analysis we do will use datasets that have employed similar methodologies over a long period of time, such as surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau. A good example is our 2020 report on Millennial families , which used census data going back to the late 1960s. The report showed that Millennials are marrying and forming families at a much different pace than the generations that came before them.

Even when we have historical data, we will attempt to control for other factors beyond age in making generational comparisons. If we accept that there are real differences across generations, we’re basically saying that people who were born around the same time share certain attitudes or beliefs – and that their views have been influenced by external forces that uniquely shaped them during their formative years. Those forces may have been social changes, economic circumstances, technological advances or political movements.

When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

The tricky part is isolating those forces from events or circumstances that have affected all age groups, not just one generation. These are often called “period effects.” An example of a period effect is the Watergate scandal, which drove down trust in government among all age groups. Differences in trust across age groups in the wake of Watergate shouldn’t be attributed to the outsize impact that event had on one age group or another, because the change occurred across the board.

Changing demographics also may play a role in patterns that might at first seem like generational differences. We know that the United States has become more racially and ethnically diverse in recent decades, and that race and ethnicity are linked with certain key social and political views. When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

Controlling for these factors can involve complicated statistical analysis that helps determine whether the differences we see across age groups are indeed due to generation or not. This additional step adds rigor to the process. Unfortunately, it’s often absent from current discussions about Gen Z, Millennials and other generations.

When we can’t do generational analysis, we still see value in looking at differences by age and will do so where it makes sense. Age is one of the most common predictors of differences in attitudes and behaviors. And even if age gaps aren’t rooted in generational differences, they can still be illuminating. They help us understand how people across the age spectrum are responding to key trends, technological breakthroughs and historical events.

Each stage of life comes with a unique set of experiences. Young adults are often at the leading edge of changing attitudes on emerging social trends. Take views on same-sex marriage , for example, or attitudes about gender identity .

Many middle-aged adults, in turn, face the challenge of raising children while also providing care and support to their aging parents. And older adults have their own obstacles and opportunities. All of these stories – rooted in the life cycle, not in generations – are important and compelling, and we can tell them by analyzing our surveys at any given point in time.

When we do have the data to study groups of similarly aged people over time, we won’t always default to using the standard generational definitions and labels. While generational labels are simple and catchy, there are other ways to analyze age cohorts. For example, some observers have suggested grouping people by the decade in which they were born. This would create narrower cohorts in which the members may share more in common. People could also be grouped relative to their age during key historical events (such as the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic) or technological innovations (like the invention of the iPhone).

By choosing not to use the standard generational labels when they’re not appropriate, we can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or oversimplifying people’s complex lived experiences.

Existing generational definitions also may be too broad and arbitrary to capture differences that exist among narrower cohorts. A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations. The key is to pick a lens that’s most appropriate for the research question that’s being studied. If we’re looking at political views and how they’ve shifted over time, for example, we might group people together according to the first presidential election in which they were eligible to vote.

With these considerations in mind, our audiences should not expect to see a lot of new research coming out of Pew Research Center that uses the generational lens. We’ll only talk about generations when it adds value, advances important national debates and highlights meaningful societal trends.

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  1. The Enlightenment (1650-1800): Suggested Essay Topics

    Rationalism, skepticism, and romanticism were the three primary philosophical schools of thought during the Enlightenment. Choose one and explain why you feel it's a better approach to life than the others. 5 . Explain the impact that philosophers from countries other than England, France, and Germany had on the growth of the Enlightenment.

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    The Enlightenment Era and Social Inequalities. One of the recurring themes from the Enlightenment and the subsequent revolutions was the idea of equality. Following the success of the revolutions, the peasants were able to transform their social and economic experiences. The Path to Enlightenment in "Bhagavad-gita".

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    The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith.Using the power of the press, Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Voltaire questioned accepted knowledge and spread new ideas about openness, investigation, and religious tolerance ...

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    The essay outlines principles of XVIII-century enlightenment culture, analyzes Scientific, French, Industrial Revolutions, and studies Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. Voltaire's Vision of Religion and Enlightenment. Voltaire`s vision of religion, society, and the main moving forces of its development resulted in the formation of the ...

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  6. READ: The Enlightenment (article)

    Between the late seventeenth and late eighteenth centuries, there was a period of rapid intellectual change that came to be known as the Enlightenment. Thinkers, writers, artists, political leaders, and also new groups of "ordinary" people drove this major cultural and intellectual movement. They believed they were finally shining the "light ...

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    Essay Topics. 1. Kant suggests that enlightenment might be too difficult for individuals, at least when the public at large remains unenlightened. This is why he focuses on the prerequisites for the enlightenment of the public as a whole. Is he correct about this, or could it be possible for some individuals in an unenlightened society to ...

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    Write an essay in which you discuss why the Enlightenment is also referred to as the Age of Reason. Discuss the role Enlightenment ideals played in the formation of the United States.

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    Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and ...

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    The Enlightenment (Age of Reason) was a revolution in thought in Europe and North America from the late 17th century to the late 18th century. The Enlightenment involved new approaches in philosophy, science, and politics.Above all, the human capacity for reason was championed as the tool by which our knowledge could be extended, individual liberty maintained, and happiness secured.

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    Question 3: Long Essay Question, Enlightenment Political Thought 6 points General Scoring Notes • Except where otherwise noted, each point of these rubrics is earned independently; for example, a student could earn a point for evidence ... Enlightenment in the period from 1688 to 1815. The thesis or claim must either provide

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    The Age of Enlightenment centered on France and two of the major philosophers who contributed to this age of Enlightenment were Voltaire and Montesquieu. The others were Diderot, Rousseau, Hume, and Kant. Voltaire and Montesquieu were confident that the reforms they suggested were both reasonable and practically feasible (Kagan et al, chapter 18).

  14. Best Enlightenment Essay Topics for Students

    Enlightenment was the time of a philosophical and intellectual movement that dominated the world of new ideas. It prospered in Europe from the 17th to 19th centuries. The Enlightenment rises from a European scholar and intellectual signs of Renaissance humanism. Photo by EliFrancis on Pixabay.

  15. A Summary and Analysis of Immanuel Kant's 'What is Enlightenment?'

    By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) 'What is Enlightenment?', full title 'Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?', is a 1784 essay by the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). As the longer title suggests, Kant's essay is a response to a question (posed by a clergyman, Reverend Johann Friedrich Zöllner) concerning the nature of philosophical enlightenment.

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    The Enlightenment was marked by an increasing awareness of the relationship between the mind and the everyday media of the world, and by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by Kant's essay Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?, where the ...

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  22. How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward

    In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. ("Age cohort" is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.) When doing this kind of research, the question isn't whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults ...