American Enlightenment

Examples of American Enlightenment in the following topics:

• The Political Revolution

  • The American Enlightenment promoted ideas of individual liberty, republican government, and religious toleration.
  • The American Enlightenment is the intellectual period in America in the mid-to-late 18th century (1715-1789), especially as it relates to the American Revolution and the European Enlightenment.
  • The most important leaders of the American Enlightenment include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson .
  • In his famous essay "What is Enlightenment?
  • Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were among the five, and their leadership was central to the American Enlightenment.

• The American Enlightenment

  • The American Enlightenment was an era of prolific discourse in which Anglo-American intellectuals studied human nature, society, and religion.
  • The American Enlightenment is used to describe a period of prolific intellectual writing and discussion during the mid- to late-18th century, 1715–1789, mirroring similar circumstances in Europe.
  • Employing common language rather than the more academic prose employed by other Enlightenment writers, Paine argued that the North American colonies had a sacred duty to violently overthrow corrupt, monarchical British rule.
  • Essentially, the Declaration of Independence, heavily inspired by Enlightenment political theory, proclaimed that the American people were fighting to maintain their essential freedoms and liberties by overthrowing despotic, irrational tyranny.
  • Summarize the central commitments of the Enlightenment, particularly as it appeared in the colonies

• Enlightenment Ideals

  • The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Enlightenment, was a philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century.
  • The Scottish Enlightenment, with its mostly liberal Calvinist and Newtonian focus, played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment.
  • Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the New World and in influencing British and French thinkers.
  • In their development of the ideas of natural freedom, Europeans and American thinkers drew from American Indian cultural practices and beliefs.
  • Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress.

• Philosophy and Science

  • The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a movement that began during the 18th century in Europe and the American colonies.
  • In 1784, Immanuel Kant wrote a well-known essay entitled "What Is Enlightenment?"
  • France was an important centre of the Enlightenment.
  • Across the ocean, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were also influenced significantly by Enlightenment thought and ideals, which in turn played a role in the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, and the United States Bill of Rights.
  • Print culture expanded during this time, popularizing and disseminating information to societies throughout Europe and the American colonies.

• The Concept of Civic Duty

  • The highly intellectual Enlightenment was dominated by philosophers who opposed the absolute rule of the monarchs of their day and instead emphasized the equality of all individuals and the idea that governments derived their existence from the consent of the governed.
  • For instance, in 1690, John Locke (one of the fathers of the English Enlightenment) wrote that all people have fundamental natural rights to "life, liberty, and property" and that governments were created in order to protect these rights.
  • While British intellectuals and leaders formulated a concept of "British identity" in the 17th and 18th centuries, Anglo-American colonists in North America also developed an identity that drew heavily on both British liberalism and the colonial American experience.
  • American colonial politics revolved around the notion of public civic life and responsibility, an ideology that included:
  • This markedly only applied to equality for white men and excluded slaves, American Indians, and women.

• Buddhism

  • After attaining Enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama became known as the Buddha and taught a Middle Way that became a major world religion.
  • Siddhartha, thereafter known as Buddha, or “awakened one,” was recognized by his followers, called Buddhists, as an enlightened teacher.
  • Bodhisattva, therefore, are those who have set themselves on the path toward enlightenment and hope to benefit others through their journey.
  • The United States is home to an estimated 1.2 million Buddhists, or 1.2% of the American population.
  • Buddha depicted in statue as practicing severe asceticism before his Enlightenment, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

• Introduction to the Enlightenment

  • The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Enlightenment, was a philosophical movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century.
  • While the Enlightenment cannot be pigeonholed into a specific doctrine or set of dogmas, science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and thought.
  • Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress.
  • As with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally.
  • These views on religious tolerance and the importance of individual conscience, along with the social contract, became particularly influential in the American colonies and the drafting of the United States Constitution.

• The Enlightenment

  • Neoclassicism was the dominant artistic style of the Enlightenment period and drew inspiration from the classical art and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome.
  • The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a movement that began during the 18th century in Europe and the American colonies.
  • The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture.
  • Previous to the Enlightenment, the dominant artistic style was Rococo.
  • Describe the shifts in thinking and artwork that characterized the Enlightenment.

• Deism

  • Deism played a major part in inspiring enlightenment philosophy and in the creation of the principle of religious freedom.
  • In the United States, Enlightenment philosophy (which itself was heavily inspired by Deist ideals) played a major role in creating the principle of religious freedom, which is expressed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  • American Founding Fathers, or Framers of the Constitution, who were influenced by such philosophy include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Harnett, Gouverneur Morris, and Hugh Williamson; their political speeches show distinct Deistic influence.
  • Another major contributor to Deism was Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), who wrote the "Bible" of American deism in his (1801) and attempted to organize Deism by forming the "Deistical Society of New York.
  • Another major contributor to Deism was Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), who wrote the "Bible" of American deism in his Principles of Nature (1801) and attempted to organize Deism by forming the "Deistical Society of New York. "

• The Spread of Liberal Democracy

  • Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to the European 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment.
  • These conventional views were first challenged by a relatively small group of Enlightenment intellectuals who believed that human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality.
  • Near the end of the 18th century, these ideas inspired the American Revolution and the French Revolution, the pair of which gave birth to the ideology of liberalism and instituted forms of government that attempted to apply the principles of Enlightenment philosophy in practice.
  • Defend the notion of liberal democracy using examples from its enlightenment origins