Defend the proposition that the Enlightenment represents more than an intellectual phenomenon. Trace the roots of the Enlightenment, and explain why and how it manifested itself in a revolutionary tradition

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
Students should be able to analyze how political rhetoric and intellectual ideas furthered humanism, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution. In the same way that earlier intellectual "revolutionaries" such as Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, and Liebniz had dramatically changed the world's idea of the church as the center of life, the Enlightenment's focus on creating a better world for humankind was led by radical ideas that challenged the traditional autocratic and absolutist power of the state, the monarchy, and aristocratic society. Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau examined the relationship of people to the government. These ideas were first transformed into a political revolution when the United States challenged the autocracy of Britain. This example of a successful revolution and the establishment of a new republic with a democratic government served as a model for France thirteen years when revolutionaries tried to effect changes to the absolutist reign of Louis XVI. Instead, however, this revolution led to the Terror. Students should use this question as an opportunity to examine the ideas of the Enlightenment. As was discussed in previous chapters, the Enlightenment emerged out of the Scientific Revolution. Enlightenment thinkers began to use reason and rational inquiry to examine the nature of society and therefore began to question the efficacy of the leadership of the nobility, monarchy, and the church. Students should describe the ideas of John Locke and Rousseau: the notions of natural rights, government as an instrument of the people's will, and the right to rebellion. The high literacy rate of the West allowed these ideas to spread, and they became particularly familiar to the middle class through newspapers and essays by various thinkers. The popular protest of the eighteenth century was inspired in large part by these new ideas and the growing discontent of the population.