The Enlightenment- Attitudes of Society Essay -- Essays Papers

The Enlightenment- Attitudes of Society The Enlightenment brought slightly of import changes of thought in cabaret.1 Philosophes such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau sought changes in club for the good of humanity. In addition to basic changes in order, the enlightenment brought about changes in thought in the areas of religion and science, the government, and the view of women.During the enlightenment, basic changes occurred in society. The philosophes helped bring about freedom of thought and speech, two freedoms which we often pursue for granted today. People became more educated, as a gull civilisation emerged. Journals, newspapers and books were beginning to be widely available to the general public. This had both minus and positive impacts. The literate and illiterate became divided, and the illiterate poor only became poorer. However, the print culture did create the influential social force of public opinion. Writers wrote what their audiences wanted to hear, and that translated into a governmental awareness of public opinion. Governments tried to regulate and blackball books, but they could not ignore the publics criticisms of the government. The changes in society created a general sentiment of self-interest. People wanted to promote their joy and welfare, and they were confident and optimistic that they could discover natural law and perfect worlds. Sometimes, there was an exaggerated belief in the perfectibility of man, such as in the sciences, which were politic in early stages.2 The conflict between religion and science was angiotensin-converting enzyme of the major issues of the enlightenment. New theories were being developed (like Newtons honor of Universal Gravitation) which went against the teachings of the c... ... thought were developed, governments were changed, and even though the philosophes were not really feminists, societys views of women were changed, with the help of bloody shame Wollstonecraft. End notes 1. S nyder, Louis L. The Age of Reason. (NY VanNostrand Reinhold Co, 1955), 13. 2. Snyder, 8. 3. Snyder, 8-11. 4. Scheider, Isidor. The Enlightenment purification of the 18th Century, (NY George Braziller, Inc, 1965), 19. 5. Cody, David. Deism. The Victorian Web. http//landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/religion/deism.html. (10 April 00). 6. Susan Gubar, Feminist Misogyny Mary Wollstonecraft and the Paradox of It Takes One to Know One, Feminist Studies, 20 (Fall 94) 455. 7. D.R. Woolf, A effeminate Past? Gender, Genre and historical Knowledge in England, 1500- 1800. American Historical Review, 102 (June 97), 667-668.