Optimistic ideas of the Enlightenment
1. To what extent did the Enlightenment express optimistic ideas in eighteenth century Europe? Illustrate your answer with references to specific individuals and their works. (1998, #5) During the eighteenth century, Europeans experienced the dawning of an age of knowledge, reasoning, and of great scientific achievements. Their views toward new discoveries and advancements were optimistic. People began to turn to science for a better understanding of their world and their society. Literature and essays were commonly used to express their hopes for further developments in society, politics, economy, and education. 1) Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)a) Regarded the human mind of a person as a blank slate. b) Did not believe in intuition or theories of innate conceptionsa) Attacked the theory of divine right of Kings.b) Argued that sovereignty did not reside in the state but with the people.3) Some thoughts concerning education.a) Recommended practical learning to prepare peopleb) Locke's curriculum included conversational learning of foreign languages, especially French, mathematics, history, physical education, and games.
Rene Descartes1) Descartes's philosophy, sometimes called Cartesianism. 3) La religieuse (The Nun, 1796), an attack on convent life. e) Invented the method of indices (as in x2) to express the powers of numbers. 4) Le neveu de Rameau (1805; translated as Rameau's Nephew)F. 4) Élements de la philosophie de Newton (Elements of the Philosophy of Newton)5) Poeme de Fontenoy (1745), describing a battle won by the French over the English during the War of the Austrian Succession. 8) Le desastre de Lisbonne (The Lisbon Disaster, 1756); a number of satirical and philosophical novels9) He rejected everything irrational and incomprehensible and called upon his contemporaries to act against intolerance, tyranny, and superstition. 6) Siecle de Louis XIV, a historical study of the period of Louis XIV. Sir Isaac Newton5) Mathematicsa) Calculus: Generalized methods being used to draw tangents to curves and to calculate the area swept by curves6) Opticsa) Opticks: Sunlight is a heterogeneous blend of different rays-each of which represents a different color -and that reflections and refractions cause colors to appear by separating the blend into its components. a) Elaborate explanations of a number of physical phenomena. d) First to use the last letters of the alphabet to designate unknown quantities and the first letters to designate known ones. Jean Jacques Rousseau 1) French philosopher, social and political theorist, musician, botanist, and one of the most eloquent writers of the Age of Enlightenment. c) Made contributions to the theory of equations.
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