You should respond to at least two of your classmates by Day 7. In your responses, analyze how Enlightenment principles encouraged the expansion of rights for specific groups (religious minorities, women, people of color, enslaved people) during the French Revolution. Choose two groups (religious minorities, women, people of color, enslaved people), and discuss one group in each of your responses to classmates. For example, you may discuss the rights of religious minorities in your first response to a classmate and the rights of enslaved people in your second response to a classmate. Each of your responses should contain at least 150 words. You should cite your sources in APA Style with both in-text citations and a reference list.a description of the principles of the EnlightenmentThe followers of the Enlightenment espoused the belief that society could be made better by reason and by applying the methodology the Scientific Revolution had brought with it (careful observation, deductive and inductive reasoning). The principles were founded on a movement to gain more freedom and autonomy for mankind (most often just men though) and progress away from a dark past mired in the supernatural, divine right, and traditional beliefs. It was a movement at odds with the frivolity of Rococo and led to works of wry satire, observation, and ones inspired by Classical works (Neoclassicism) in which mathematics played a role. Education, reason, rationality, and the pursuit of the betterment of society through the individual were central to its purpose.a list of three literary, political, or artistic works that demonstrate these principles and an assessment of how each of the three works reflects Enlightenment principlesEnglish philosopher John Locke’s book Of Political or Civil Society observed government at the end of the 17th century. It supported the widely given rights usually afforded to Englishmen to all adult men who owned property. English parliamentary rulings gave rights only to freeborn Englishmen before Lock’s push for more universal rights. The Enlightenment pushed free-thinking progressives like Locke to help shape a movement of more inclusive liberties in government that moved from Europe over to America where it helped inspire Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. His book supported the empirical method of guiding political reason and was “…a clearly reasoned basis for centuries of philosophic debate concerning the nature of knowledge” (Fiero, 2021, p. 301). The book and Locke’s writings reflected a call for more personal freedom, an end to absolute authority, and a call for reasonable discussion to end conflicts.The anti-traditional philosophes or French philosophers of this era who advocated for the advancement of mankind beyond dogmatic rituals put together an encyclopedia to hold their collected knowledge. Edited by Denis Diderot, The Analytical Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts was the biggest collection of “contemporary social, philosophic, artistic, scientific, and technological knowledge ever produced in the West” (Fiero, 2021, p. 304). It was an attempt to educate people and help society become more equipped to reason and use philosophy in their lives. As members of the Enlightenment and Age of Reason, the philosophes wanted to replace ignorance with empowering knowledge and spread literacy.Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 to fight against the ignorant attitudes of society and men in particular towards women. Instead of women being pushed to fit into the weak, docile, and under-educated roles of the past she advocated for their education and the strengthening of their minds and bodies so they would not merely be sexual objects but rational and competent partners who would better benefit society and be more rounded themselves. This reflects that the Enlightenment was about the push for reason and rationality, for wanting the eradication of ignorance and the progress of the individual. Wollstonecraft wanted those individuals to include women (Fiero, 2021, p. 305).ReferencesFiero, G. K. (2021). Landmarks in humanities (5th ed.). McGraw Hill.Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University & American Social History Project at City University of New York.(n.d.). The Enlightenment and human rights… Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: Exploring the French Revolution. The principles of Enlightenment were to,
apply the methods learned from the scientific revolution to the problems of society (The Enlightenment and human right, 2019). This meant taking real life situations into account and using techniques such as reasoning rather than religion or traditions that had existed previously (cite article).ReferencesFiero, G. K. (2021). Landmarks in humanities (5th ed.). McGraw HillRoy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University & American Social History Project at City University of New York. (n.d.). The Enlightenment and human rightsLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: Exploring the French Revolution.
