Ideas How far did big ideas change peoples
Ideas: How far did big ideas change people’s understanding and experiences of the world, 1500 -1800? Lesson 4: What was the Enlightenment?
Activity 1 a: Read the text. The Enlightenment followed on from the Scientific Revolution, lasting roughly 1715 -1789. It developed the principles of scientific method, observation and reasoning, and applied these to other areas than just science and maths. For example, they applied the principles of reason and evidence-based theory (empiricism) to challenge authority of government and religion if they were not logical and could not prove that they were the best model based on evidence. The Enlightenment therefore changed society more practically than the Scientific Revolution, which was more focused on theory, methodology and knowledge.
Activity 1 b: Now copy and complete the writing below in your book A similarity between the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment was that they both encouraged logical reasoning. For example, during the Scientific Revolution, Francis Bacon… Similarly, during the Enlightenment reasoning was also encouraged, such as in challenging… This was similar as the two movements happened consecutively and the work of the Enlightenment was based on… Challenge: Try to copy and complete the following example in your book. A difference between the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment was… For example, in Scientific Revolution focused on… Whereas the Enlightenment… This was different as the Enlightenment built and developed the ideas of the Scientific Revolution to…
Activity 1 b: Example! A similarity between the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment was that they both encouraged logical reasoning. For example, during the Scientific Revolution, Francis Bacon encouraged empiricism and experimentation to ensure that all theories were based on evidence. Similarly, during the Enlightenment reasoning was also encouraged, such as in challenging the authority of government and religion for not being logical. This was similar as the two movements happened consecutively and the work of the Enlightenment was based on the work of the Scientific Revolution.
Activity 2 a: What did some Enlightenment thinkers believe? Match up the quotation with its simpler meaning!
Activity 2 a: Answers! René Descartes: ‘I think, therefore I am. ’ Translation 3: I am able to think, therefore I exist. A philosophical proof of existence based on the fact that someone capable of any form of thought necessarily exists. Thomas Hobbes: Without strong government, there is ‘continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. ’ Translation 6: If you give people too much freedom, life becomes chaotic, and people will end up killing each other. John Locke: ‘All mankind. . . being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions. ’ Translation 1: Everyone should be equal and free, and everyone should have the right to own property, be safe and not be ruled over by unjust leaders. However, Locke owned stock in the Royal African Company, the largest slave trading company in the world. Baron de Montesquieu: ‘When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. ’ Translation 5: Building on an idea of John Locke’s – there should be a separation of powers to ensure that a bad leader can’t take over everything at once.
Voltaire: ‘What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly – that is the first law of nature. ’ Translation 8: We should tolerate religious differences. Voltaire believed in a God, but not necessarily a Christian one, and was critical of the Church. He also suggested toleration of different ethnicities and was anti-slavery, though he wrongly believed that people of different ethnicities came from different human species, not the same one. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: ‘We are all born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. ’ Translation 4: Education is very important. Rousseau believed that allowing free expression and curiosity produced well-balanced, freethinking children. Rousseau was not only remarkable because he believed that a child's education should be focused on his/her interests, but also because he believed that women need to learn more than simply domestic chores. Thomas Jefferson: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. ’ Translation 7: All people are created equal, and have the right to life, freedom and happiness. This was written into the US Declaration of Independence. However, whilst Jefferson gradually began to believe that slavery was wrong, he owned slaves all his life. Mary Wollstonecraft: ‘Make [women] free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of men will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet. ’ Translation 2: Give women freedom and education, and they will be as wise as men. If women are stopped from being educated, everyone suffers for not having the strength of half the population to help them.
Activity 2 b and 2 c: Which Enlightenment idea do you like best? b) Read through the ideas again and share ideas with a partner, and the class. c) Which Enlightenment idea do you like best? Write your answer in your book. I like _________’s idea that ‘…’ the best, because…
Final thoughts… Challenge questions to consider! 1. How does the information about John Locke and Thomas Jefferson clash with what they are saying? Does it change your perception of them? 2. Which idea do you think was the most radical for its time? Why? 3. Which modern concepts can you see in these ideas? Can you give an example of something we have today (in England or abroad) that is based on these principles?
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