HIS 102 WEEK 3: ENLIGHTENMENT
Reading Assignment for the week:
Questions to
Consider while studying this week's material:
- Why was the era called the
"Enlightenment?"
- How was the American Revolution
influenced by the Enlightenment?
Key Terms to study
while reading the textbook:
- René Descartes
- Isaac Newton
- Voltaire
- Frederick the Great
- Baron de Montesquieu
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Suggested Websites for further study:
- The Declaration of Independence site
contains much background information about the Declaration.
- Richard Hooker, Washington State University, has some
extensive remarks on
the European Enlightenment.
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a
relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the url and a
brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to
the material being studied this week.
Submit the American Paragraph:
Read the Declaration
of Independence (along with the document background notes
and the questions to consider).
Answer the following
question in a paragraph: How was the Declaration of Independence (1776) similar
to the English Bill of Rights (1688)?
Your paragraph should be about
one-half page in length, double-spaced with one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12; it should
contain a concise topic sentence that directly responds to the assigned
question (no need to define terms or cite a dictionary) and use
direct, quoted material to support your points. Do not spend time repeating
what happened in the document; spend your time providing analysis to
answer the assigned question.
This assignment should be sent by e-mail according to the Electronic Submission
Information instructions.
Please remember to consult
Charlie's History Writing Center for
specific information on the writing requirements of this course.
You may also wish to post or respond in the
Blackboard online discussion forum
for this assignment. Please review the instructions for
Using the Blackboard
Discussion Forums, if necessary.
The American Paragraph is worth a maximum of
25 points.
Notes:
Much as the Renaissance centered on a rebirth
of interest in ancient Greek and Roman art and literature, the Enlightenment also turned back
to the classics for inspiration, focusing on the Greek (and Roman) use of rational thought (logic)
to understand the
natural world. The philosophes, the key Enlightenment figures, were
critics of the imperfections of the existing status-quo, and they launched
a wide-ranging assault on church, state and society, determined to identify the
illogicalities of the human world and its socio-political institutions. Thus, the philosophes believed that they could
improve human society and make the world a better place in which to live. What these
social critics accomplished was the laying of the intellectual foundations for the
American and French revolutions of the eighteenth century.
In many respects, Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727,
was the bridge between the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. His successful
attempt to discover and formulate laws of nature, such as
the laws of motion and the law of gravity, inspired many of the philosophes
and laid the basis for the Enlightenment. If nature was governed by natural
laws, then it could also be reasoned that man and society were governed
by natural laws. If those laws could be discovered, then nature, man and
society could be controlled and manipulated to allow society and mankind
to prosper and flourish. Thus, the general aim of the Enlightenment was
progress and the consequent improvement of the human condition.
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