...This essay seeks to define why the Scottish Enlightenment theorists rejected previous attempts at social theory and instead formulated their own social theory. It also seeks to define what was scientific about their approach compared to other theorists who formulated other social theories. Firstly the enlightenment will be defined and previous attempts at social theory outlined. Secondly the theorists social theory will be outlined and finally a discussion of why their approach could be considered scientific. This essay will argue that it was the theorists’ departure from conjecture and sermon which made their theory so radical for its time, and their application of the new framework of Newtonian science which allowed their application to be considered scientific. The enlightenment was a period of philosophical thought and intellectual development which began in the eighteenth century (Ritzer, 2010). The enlightenment theorists sought to combine empirical research with the developing model of Newtonian science. The theorists were convinced that the world around them could be understood using reason and research and that the institutions which governed social values and societal norms were rooted in irrationality and actually acted to inhibit human development (Ritzer, 2010). The theorist’s arguments clashed with the conjectural and traditionally espoused history of the social institutions such as the Church and the political regimes of the countries they operated in (Broadie...
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...If someone was to ask, who is the enemy, what or who comes to mind? To many people, the enemy is usually their rival or someone they despise. During the Age of Enlightenment, two critical philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, both mentioned this word, enemies, in their works. Most interestingly, their attitudes towards the enemy are not the same; the enemy is also not its definition. Both philosophers clearly utilizes this word to convey their messages or ideas toward human nature and the Enlightenment more clearly. Hobbes sees the enemies as a concrete concept, a physical referent, while Rousseau has a more abstract viewpoint on enemies, and both of their approaches enforce their personal beliefs toward their changing society....
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...The Age of Enlightenment The self-proclaimed Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a period notable for its substantial cultural and scientific developments, that took place mainly during the eighteenth century. It was a time when the scholarly class of Western Europe left behind Church dogma in the process of formulating philosophical ideas as well as scientific theories. It was substituted with reason. Notably, political ideas that were extremely radical for the time propagated throughout Europe and eventually led to the revolutions of France and the United States. Also, modern science further implanted itself into the mainstream. The roots of the entire movement date back to the time of the great Ancient Greek philosophers and scientists, specifically to such great thinkers as Aristotle and Plato. In Western Europe, from the time of the Middle Ages until then, Aristotelian science had remained the extent of scientific knowledge. It had long been lost due to the chaos of the Dark Ages, but it was “rediscovered” in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries through contact with Muslim influence and Byzantine scholars. During the late years of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, scholars set out to improve upon Aristotelian and Platonic ideas. [1] The Renaissance gave a basis for the Age of Enlightenment to continue on. The Humanist movement during the Renaissance started to slightly move away from the Church. Although most Humanists were...
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...What was the Enlightenment and how did it influence the politics of the 19th century? The Enlightenment was, in its simplest sense, a body of writers and writings of 18th century Europe which advocated reason and the belief in human rationality above all else and challenged long-standing values and institutions which were based on traditional and religious beliefs. The political ideas of the Enlightenment, which can be best understood against the backdrop of 18th century absolutism and the dominance of Christian world-views, denounced the ‘divine right of kings’ and called for reform in governance (Gieben and Hall, 1992:23). These were the ideas that influenced 19th century politics, and gradually led to the switch from all-powerful monarchies to the democracies of the modern world. In this essay I shall give a brief overview of the Enlightenment whilst focusing mainly on its political ideas and put these ideas in context by describing the political landscape of the time. I will then discuss how these political ideas shaped the politics of the 19th century. I will limit myself to looking at the influence of the Enlightenment on European politics as that is where its affect was most sharply felt and was the main location for the Enlightenment movement (Gieben and Hall,1992:72). The Enlightenment was the emergence of new ways of thinking which came about mainly in 18th century Europe, although Enlightenment ideas can also be seen in the 17th century, for example in the writings...
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...OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT (18th century) The 17th century was one of the most stormy periods of English history. The growing contradictions between the new class, the bourgeoisie, and the old forces of feudalism brought about the English Bourgeois Revolution in the 1640s. As a result of the revolution the king was dethroned and beheaded and England was proclaimed a republic. Though very soon monarchy was restored, the position of the bourgeoisie had changed. The 18th century saw Great Britain rapidly growing into a capitalist country. It was an age of intensive industrial development. New mills and manufactures appeared one after another. Small towns grew into large cities. The industrial revolution began: new machinery was invented that turned Britain into the first capitalist power of the world. While in France the bourgeoisie was just beginning its struggle against feudalism, the English bourgeoisie had already become one of the ruling classes. The 18th century was also remarkable for the development of science and culture. Isaac Newton’s discoveries in the field of physics, Adam Smith’s economic theories, the philosophical ideas of Hobbes, Locke and others enriched the materialistic thought and implanted in people’s minds belief in great powers of man’s intellect. It was in this period that English painting began to develop too: portraiture reached its peak in the works of William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds as well as Thomas Gainsborough, who was equally...
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...In the period before the Industrial Revolution, the narrowness of the recognition base of "useful knowledge" was not exceptional, it was normal. Most of the technology before 180 years was born as a result of accidental discovery, trial and error, sharp craftsmanship intuition, no one got a clue to the principle working there, and used it for production. In other words, it is the so-called "tacit knowledge". However, if the epistemological basis of technology is narrow, it is expanded, refined and new applications are rarely done. This became possible from about 180 years because the whole propositional knowledge has expanded and deepened, and the "scientific revolution" makes a great contribution to the movement through influencing the industrial...
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...be most fascinating is that of Buddhism. The Western philosophies of Immanuel Kant were also influential and fascinating to contemplate, though differed with reasoning for their development. These two philosophies have some undeniable similarities and differences. Buddhism is an Eastern philosophy that came to life in India by a prince named Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Buddha after he felt that he found enlightenment. In the beginning, Buddhism was the philosophical response to the problem of suffering. This made it easier to understand that there is more to suffering than one believes. Suffering does not only occur when one goes through physical pain and misery, it is also there and occurs when we go through things like disappointment, frustration, discontent and sorrow. I am almost certain that Buddha’s teachings stem from his own personal experience and the experiences of others that were around him. He was able to learn from the examples of others and himself. I feel this philosophy is very logical. When it comes to Western Philosophy, Immanuel Kant was a German Philosopher who contributed to the philosophical views of religion. He is known for inventing the most famous moral arguments on the existence of God. His criticism towards the traditional proof of God is something that is very important in literature. According to his philosophy, none of the three traditional ways of proving Gods existence works, although he still believed in God (Moore-Bruder, 2008). He...
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...Section 1 Question 9 IndoEuropeans were a group of semi nomadic peoples who at around 1700 b.c. started migrating from the Steppes, dry grasslands that stretched north of the Caucasus Mountains, to the Indian subcontinent, Europe, and Asia. There are many possible environmental reasons why the IndoEuropeans might have began this migration. The first possible reason is drought. Droughts are abnormally long periods of time in which little to no rain is seen. They can have devastating effects on communities and it probably wasn’t uncommon in a dry, grassy area such Steppes. During drought water is very limited, the less water available, the less people get to drink. This may result in dehydration, this in extreme cases can lead to death. Also, a lack of water would limit crop production and lower the survival rate of pasture animals, limiting food supply. Starvation in extreme cases may also lead to death. The next possible reason is the need for a better food supply. As we discussed in the last paragraph a lack of food supply can lead to starvation and then death. But it can also lead to things such as, malnutrition and the stunting of growth. Malnutrition is a result of not getting enough of our needed nutrients and can happen to anyone of any age. Stunted growth can occur during any developmental stage of your life and even to a fetus whose mother is experiencing malnutrition. This can kill a baby or cause it to have both physical and mental development issues...
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... bureaucracy-as described and analysed by Max Weber- highlighting how they are both outcomes of enlightenment thinking. Your essay should draw on the assigned readings, as appropriate, from week two to week seven. Word count: 1000 “By submitting your work via this SafeAssign link you declare that all materials included in this submission are product of your own work and that due acknowledgement have been given in the text and in the bibliography to ALL sources, be they printed, electronic or personal. You also declare that you will not facilitate plagiarism by making your work available to others through hard copy distribution or other means. Furthermore, you declare that the submitted material has not been submitted for grading purposes in the past, be it for this module or other modules that you have undertaken as part of your studies.” Date: 6/11/13 Signature:Brian Allen Reflection: In general I found myself more capable of doing this assignment based on my results of my last assignment. In my last assignment I found that my result was very poor. This was as a result of numerous poor mistakes. These mistakes included formatting issues such as not adding a cover note or page numbers. This time around I was more aware of ensuring my formatting was correct. Another mistake I found that I made was a timing...
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...1. What is the Enlightenment achieving for society by putting science in the forefront and moving mythology (Religion) in the background? Myths are still as popular and useful in today’s society as they were back in ancient civilization. Every society has its own form of myths and usually these various myths are changed slightly to fit different cultures and backgrounds. Putting mythology to the background will result in relying on science, which is based on facts and truths. Putting science in the forefront would narrow society into thinking in an organized thought pattern, such as the scientific method. Science and mythology are both very different, when being compared. The Enlightenment thinkers believed and trusted in science. Putting science in the forefront and moving mythology to the background would liberate enlightenment thinkers. In society, there are many different methods of completing task but the most common seems to be, using science. However, without mythology in society, there would be no faith or opinion associated with theories. During the sixteenth and seventeenth century, Europe proposed three fundamental opinions that incorporated everything the enlightenment would stand for. Individualism is the first one and it represents the significance of individuals and their instinctive rights. The second one, relativism, is the theory that diverse beliefs, cultures, and value systems had the same morals. The last one is rationalism, and this gave humans...
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...quest as a search or pursuit made to acquire meaning and historical as a systematic account of events and time relating human race. Therefore Quest for historical Jesus is the attempt made by a number of people to discover who Jesus was and is. Before the period of enlightenment, the church had only one image of Jesus Christ. He was unanimously and harmoniously accepted as presented by the gospels, the church doctrines and traditions and the liturgy. However, the emergences of the enlightenment period in the 18th century twisted events, minds and the faith of the people. Enlightenment was a period of philosophical movement characterized by belief in the power of the human reason and by innovations in political, religious and educational doctrines. Hence, human reason was the most appealing phenomenon. Everything was subjected to critical analysis and assessment by the intellect and those that were found plausible were treasured and the non-plausible rejected or considered as myth. In the light of this, to ascertain the truth regarding the what the gospels, the doctrines of the church and traditions taught Jesus they began questioning their faith so as to know what is truth and what is false, what to belief and what not to belief. As a result, many things which were not very clear to the mind about Jesus came up and as such the need for scientific rediscovery of the historical Jesus. Examples of such issues among others were the true historical identity of Jesus, his suffering...
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...philosophy, there have been many influential figures coming from all corners of the planet. Despite having worldwide influences, philosophy is usually divided into eastern and western schools of thought. Eastern philosophy is centered on cognitive dimensions that revolve around meditative thinking in order to reach enlightenment, while the western school of thought subscribes to the idea of attaining salvation through a leap of faith This paper shall put forth two philosophers, one from each school of thought, discussing their unique ideas and then shall continue on to compare and contrast their ideals. Siddhartha Gautama was born into a life of privilege and wealth, being the son of a king. When Siddhartha experienced the suffering in the world, he left his wife and child to pursue a path that would uncover the cause of suffering and its cure. “After six years of wandering and meditation, he found enlightenment.” (Moore & Bruder, 2008, p.530) With this attained enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama took up the handle that he is known by today, Buddha which means “the Enlightened One.” Siddhartha’s new enlightenment led to the creation of Buddhism, which “essentially was a philosophical response to what might be called the problem of suffering.” (Moore & Bruder, 2008, p.530) Buddha laid out his answer to suffering in his doctrine of the Four Noble Truths. The four truths of this doctrine were as follows: “(1) There is suffering;( 2) suffering has specific and identifiable...
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...T. N. Madan Introduction: Scope, methods and Concepts 1. Secularization, secularism, Christian tradition and the Enlightenment: a brief history T. N. Madan differentiates between secularism, secularization and secularity. 1) Secularization refers to socio cultural processes in which the role of the sacred is progressively limited; 2) Secularism is the ideology that argues for the historical inevitability and progressive nature of secularization everywhere and 3) Secularity is the resultant state of society. The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer Holyoake in 1851 to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion. The English word ‘secular’ comes from the Latin ‘saeculum’, which means ‘an age’ or ‘the spirit of an age’ and has the same meaning as the Greek ‘aeon’. In general terms, secularism means “belonging to this age, or worldly” along with a denial of other worldly realities (i.e. religious). The Bible introduces the idea of divine creation in the book of Genesis. God speaks directly to Man in Genesis: “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it”. As Peter Berger, a social theorist notes that in this the idea of a secular world is sown as a God who stands outside of the Cosmos which is his creation. This opens the way for self making activity which Berger calls ‘historization’. Caesar was the emperor of Rome. In a famous passage Jesus said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things...
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...criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or society by using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. An example of satires are political cartoons which we witness every day in newspapers and magazines. These types of cartoons criticize some recent actions of political figures in a comical way. The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Larry Sanders Show are all examples of television satires. “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we must pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it. “(Colbert, The Colbert Report) In the eighteenth century, a dominant intellectual movement happened. This was called the Enlightenment period, also known as the age of reason. While the Enlightenment was a broad international movement, many of its leading thinkers were French. The Enlightenment thinkers are known collectively as philosophes, the French word for philosophers. In fact, the...
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...Why was Socrates regarded as a man of virtue? Why was Socrates regarded as a man of virtue? Socrates: Man of Virtue (470-399 B.C.E.) Socrates proposed the theory of value in which there are two sorts of good: virtue and happiness. Both are unconditional goods. But happiness is a "self-generated" good in that it "derives its value strictly from its inherent properties;" whereas virtue is an "other-generated" good in that it derives its value from happiness, precisely from its conduciveness to happiness. Virtue is an instinct in all humanity which can be aroused through self-examination. This universal truth is accessible to everyone who thinks and question. Socrates assumes that any person with whom he talks has the resource to answer his question correctly, that is, that no specialist knowledge is required. Socrates thought that knowledge is virtue, and virtue leads to happiness. It makes sense to think that moral people know what morality is. If you know right from wrong, then you might be able to choose to do what you know to be right. It also makes some sense to suspect that our beliefs about right and wrong influence our decisions. If we believe its right to help a drowning child, then it would be fairly shocking to decide not to do so—and it would less surprising when we decide to help the child. It is quite a shocking statement to say that virtue always leads to happiness. Criminals commit crimes that hurt others to help themselves. To think that their crimes would...
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