The Enlightenment Webquest 2

Aim: How do the Enlightenment Philosophers' ideas impact different societies in the 17th and 18th centuries?

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Directions:

1. In pairs, you will be assigned one (1) Enlightenment Philosopher to investigate.
2. At your table the other pair will be assigned a different Enlightenment Philosopher to investigate.
3. When you are investigating you will be responsible for answer a series of questions in a Google Form.
4. At the end of the Google Form you will be asked to compare your Enlightenment Philosopher with the other team.
5. When all of the teams have completed their investigation, you will be responsible to complete a final investigate chart on all of the other Enlightenment Philosophers.

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Use this tool to complete your Webquest Investigation Worksheet - Online Worksheet

Introduction

The Enlightenment also known as the Age of Reason was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the late 17th and 18th century. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and came to advance ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. In short, it was an intellectual movement to use logic and reason to solve the political, economic, religious, and social problems of the day, and to make society progress further.

In France, the central doctrines were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed principles laid down by the Roman Catholic Church as incontrovertibly true. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method along with increased questioning of religious authority and doctrine.

French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. Some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes (French for 'the philosophers') of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses, and through printed books and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution. Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and John Locke. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant. Some European rulers, including Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia, tried to apply Enlightenment thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism. Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence (1776). Others like James Madison incorporated them into the United States Constitution in 1787.

The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie (Encyclopaedia). Published between 1751 and 1772 in thirty-five volumes, it was compiled by Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d'Alembert (until 1759), and a team of 150 scientists and philosophers and it helped spread the ideas of the Enlightenment across Europe and beyond

Other landmark publications were Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary; 1764) and Letters on the English (1733); Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality (1754) and The Social Contract (1762); Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776); and Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws (1748). The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. The purpose of this Webquest is to explore The Enlightenment. You will get to know the main people and the ideas that changed the thoughts of leaders, their populace, and their governments.