The Enlightenment in America

Many of the intellectual leaders of the American colonies were drawn to the Enlightenment. Many of the leaders of the American Revolution such as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were powerfully influenced by the English and by the French enlightenment thought. Jefferson and Franklin both spent time in France learning and absorbing the influence of the French enlightenment. At the time, France was an ally naturally because it was a enemy of England. The language of natural law, inherent freedoms, and self-determination is pretty much why Americans should study the enlightenment. It describes our country and what we make it out to be.

-Benny Guzman

Rousseau vs. Voltaire

While Voltaire believed that science advancements and society's rational improvements were good for humanity, Rousseau believed arts, sciences, society, and civilization in general had corrupted "natural man". He believed that humanity had to return to its original condition the "Natural" landscape. People in the 18th century had developed a taste for landscape art. The growing opportunities for traveling increased the want for particular places and certain geographic settings. Rousseau and Voltaire were both philosophers but they had many differences. They disagreed on just about everything. I read that when Rousseau wrote his book he sent Voltaire a copy of his book The Social Contract, and Voltaire answered him with a letter in which he said, "I have received your new book against the human race, and thank you for it. Never was such a cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One longs, in reading your book, to walk on all fours. But as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel unhappily the impossibility of resuming it." They each tried to insult the other. Rousseau by sending Voltaire a copy of his book and Voltaire by sending back the letter.

-Benny Guzman

Natural Beliefs vs. Scientific Beliefs

Many people believed in the story of Adam and Eve being the first humans on earth. It was said that God put Adam on the earth to look after the world and to keep him company. God felt sorry for adam because he couldn't relate to any of the animals and needed someone to share life with. Therefore God created eve so adam can have someone who cares for him and someone who he can care for. This is what so called "started the human nation" and that's what I would call "Natural Beliefs". A belief that you are told and can not prove. However, in the formation of the enlightenment, people started to have different ideas on how life started. They started using the idea of reasoning to solve problems so they can have some type of proof to help prove their answers. So now instead of believing in the Adam and Eve story, they started to believe in evolution.

MAKEESHA HILL

Francis Bacon

Born: Jan. 22, 1561
Where: London, Eng.
Died: April 9, 1626
Where: London

Francis Bacon is an English lawyer, statesman, essayist, historian, author intellectual reformer, philosopher, and champion of modern science. His works established and popularized an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method or simply, the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today. Francis Bacon influenced all of science, once proclaiming, “I have taken all knowledge to be my province.”

http://www.shakespeareauthorship.org/Candidates/candidates.htm
http://mrkash.com/world.htm

Francis was a big influence on enlightenment because of his love for science and natural philosophy. His creation of the scientific method is a perfect example of enlightenment. It was a new approach for problem solving and the enlightenment is basically an new approach in beliefs.

MAKEESHA HILL

The philosophies of Hobbes and Locke

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were two philosophers who's ideas influenced the period the Enlightenment which is also known as the "Age of Reason". According to them, human beings are creatures that rely on logic and reason to solve any questions. "People rely on the theory of natural law, which states that the alignment and organization of the planets suggests that there are also logical laws for humanity. Observation of nature, in combination with reason, will reveal these laws and human beings can reform society accordingly." Although the two influenced the period of the enlightenment, i have learned that they both have different views on the natural law and mankind’s natural characteristics. Hobbes says that the first law of nature is to seek peace, and follow it, but if this advice does not prove successful for mankind, the second law of nature says that by any means necessary, mankind must defend ourselves from the rest of the population through violence. Locke, on the other hand, says that natural law says that all humans are created equal and independent, which means no one ought to harm another in his or her life, health, liberty, or possessions. Locke means that nobody should resort to violence unless a person's free will is at risk of being taken away. Another topic they have different views on is mankind's natural characteristics. Hobbes feels that mankind is only self interested and only does things for themselves while Locke feels that as long as mankind has a sense of freedom in society peace will take over. Hobbes and Locke have a lot of different views on all these ideas and more but these views and ideas are what began influencing the period we call the Enlightenment.
- Benny Guzman

Thales of Miletus

Thales of Miletus is a very well known philosopher during the enlightenment. He was known for his teachings and the followers that proclaimed his theories. In my philosophy class I learned that before the 18th century, many people perceived the actions of the world by myths. they believed that certain things in the world occurred because of the gods or different phenomenons. Thales basically wanted to prove that things happened because of natural cause. he wanted to prove that lightening or earthquakes were natural causes of the world, he didn't want people to continue thinking that it was a punishment from a god. one of his theories were that everything in this world was created by water. in order for something to continue living, it needed water to supply itself with. he taught that earthquakes happened because the earth was being rocked by the waves. in his time, many people believed that the earth was floating on water. this theories backed up most of his "sayings" in which everyone needed water to survive. thales believe water was the principle in life as he knew it.
-----Janize Maldonado-----

The Enlightenment

The first major thinker of the seventeenth century to apply new methods to the human sciences was Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) whose book Leviathan is one of the most revolutionary and influential works on political theory in European history. Hobbes was greatly interested in the new sciences; he spent some time in Italy with Galileo and eagerly read the work of William Harvey, who was applying the new physical science methods to human physiology. After the English Civil War, Hobbes determined that political philosophy had to be seriously revised. The old political philosophy, which relied on religion, ethics, and interpretation, had produced what he felt was a singular disaster in English history. He proposed that political philosophy should be based on the same methods of exposition and explanation as were being applied to the physical sciences. These were radical ideas. In the first, Hobbes believed that human beings were material, physical objects that were ruled by material, physical laws. Everything that human beings feel, think, and judge, are simply physical reactions to external stimuli. Sensation produces feeling, and feeling produces decision, and decision produces action. We are all, then, machines. The fundamental motivation that spurs human beings on is selfishness: all human beings wish to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain. As long as political philosophy is built on some other principle, such as morality, the human inclination to selfishness will always result in tragedy. Since all human beings are selfish, this means that no person is really safe from the predations of his or her fellow beings. In its natural state, humanity is at war with itself. Individuals battle other individuals in a perpetual struggle for advantage, power, and gain. Hobbes argued that the society was a group of selfish individuals that united into a single body in order to maximize their safety-- to protect themselves from one another. The primary purpose of society is to maximize the happiness of its individuals. At some early point, individuals gathered into a society and agreed to a "social contract" that stipulated the laws and rules they would all live by.

The Enlightenment

During the 17th and into the 18th century the European intellectuals expressed confidence in reason. Individuals such as Locke, Descartes, Bayle, Spinoza, Newton, Jefferson, Franklin, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau and many more developed new ideas about science, art, philosophy, politics, economics and religion. The cornerstone of their ideas lay in reason and the unfettered mind. Everything was subject to investigation. New theories and laws of science and math were developed using the scientific method. Deism, skepticism, agnosticism and materialism became the basis of religious thought. Psychology was developed and the idea of humanism ( the belief that we should live up to our human potential) became a new way of thinking. The social contract was developed and for the first time governmental powers were limited and subject to the rule of the people. They believed in universal order, natural law and human reason. A general sense of progress, predictability and perfectibility could be achieved by a scientific and rational approach. Their reasoning and investigations resulted in great leaps in mathematics, science, social sciences, laws and eventually culminated in the Reformation, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and our modern society.

the reality of life in the 18th century

According to http://www.helium.com/users/37387/show_articles "Enlightenment thinkers believed in a single, knowable, absolute reality guided by rational natural laws. Individuals, said Enlightenment thinkers, have the faculty of reason, which enables them to accurately understand the absolute reality. Using reason, individuals can understand not only the factual data of reality but a rational moral system which can instruct them on how they ought to behave."



Although many thinkers of the 18th century stated their ideas and gave their opinions, this didnt help many people at all. people during the enlightenment were confused, the enlightenment was a time of many ideas and new formations of rules were being created. this was a time where people believed in individualism. i believe that people during the 18th century were not that easy to be persuaded in to something. many theories were floating around, many of these philosphes (enlightenment thinkers) were teaching younger generations their findings and what they percieved of the world that they were living in but it was still confusing for them. people saw life as their own reality and the different appearances of their world their living in, didnt really matter to them.
-----Janize Maldonado-----

a mixture of thoughts

"The European Enlightenment developed in part due to an energetic group of French thinkers who thrived in the middle of the eighteenth century: the philosophes. This group was a heterogenous mix of people who pursued a variety of intellectual interests: scientific, mechanical, literary, philosophical, and sociological. They were united by a few common themes: an unwavering doubt in the perfectibility of human beings, a fierce desire to dispel erroneous systems of thought (such as religion) and a dedication to systematizing the various intellectual disciplines."





According to http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/PHIL.HTM, the european enlightenment was caused by a raudy crowd of philosophers. In my philosophy class many of these philosophers were know for what they said and argued with one another. They questioned the form of reality and appearances. many of their questions also involved what was needed to create life or how was life created. some philosophers of this time were great mathematicians because they were studying what other world exists outside of our own. they needed to be exactly correct in order to teach the followers that believed what they said.
This brought people to start riots and disagree with some of the things these philosophers stated. Although they had many followers and their data was correct on how they would present it, things just didnt make sense to a lot of people. it changed their perception on how to view things. it made sense to have someone lead their country and as time went by government was created.
-----Janize Maldonado-----