Jaylen McDuffie

03/08/2020

Professor Nelson

Western Cultural Traditions II

18th Century Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a very influential time in history; however, many still ask to what extent

this period actually helped the world. The Enlightenment in the 18 th century was a time full of

accomplishments. It is first important to understand what exactly The Enlightenment was in order to

answer the question of to what extent it was actually helpful to the world. The Enlightenment is most

simply described as when science meets philosophy. It expanded the original ideas brought to light during

the Scientific Revolution to all aspects of life. This expansion of ideas was able to happen because of the

new tools of thinking that stemmed from the Scientific Revolution. Because of these new ideas, people

began rejecting the traditional Christian values, bringing more scientific fact into their beliefs rather than

the traditional religious views on creation. Immanuel Kant described The Enlightenment as “man’s

leaving his self-caused immaturity.” The greatest impact on the main ideas during the Enlightenment

came from Hobbes, Locke, and Newton. Hobbes and Locke believed in natural law – that everyone was

born free and equal in nature. They were fearful that humans would compete violently for any resources

that may be scarce. Newton’s ideas demonstrated how scientific reason could enable people to discover

the natural laws on their own. The Enlightenment was a time for new ideas and new beginnings that

would affect the future world in many ways.

Prior to the Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution, which began in 1543 with Copernicus’

Heliocentric Theory, that the Earth and the other planets revolved around the sun. This idea marked the

beginning of the Scientific Revolution which gave the basis for the ideas brought about during The

Enlightenment. Later on, in 1687, Newton published his Laws of the Universe, which are known now as

Newton’s Laws. These laws are still used to this day and are taught in a first-year physics class, as well as
an introduction to engineering class. These ideas alone gave all of humanity a new perspective on the

universe and a new set of powers to challenge any previous assumptions they had about the universe.

During the actual time of The Enlightenment was the Industrial Revolution, which was also very

closely compared to the Age of Imperialism, because they occurred around the same time. The Industrial

Revolution changed the world for the better in the sense that products were being finished and distributed

much quicker. This is because of the increased control and power over people in order to get the raw

materials required to produce these products. The consequences of this environment, however, were the

extremely poor working conditions in the mills, workshops, and factories, and many people’s lives were

at risk while at work. The Age of Imperialism is often tied with the Industrial Revolution because it

involved owners of factories searching for control over areas with more access to raw materials. Another

very important impact that the Enlightenment had on the future world was the writing of the Declaration

of Independence. If you take a look at the writing that exists within the document, it is easy to notice the

language and ideas were both influenced by the influencers during The Enlightenment. In relation to the

influence on human rights, after WWI and WWII ended, and millions of people were killed, the United

Nations was formed, and any country could be a part of it. After the second world war ended in 1945, the

United Nations first drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 in order to try to create a

universal document that could clearly apply to every human. To do so, those involved in writing the

document revisited the ideas regarding human rights that came about during The Enlightenment. This

made it possible for them to address any and everyone and make it clear that the document applied to all

human beings. For example, the ideas of John Locke are present in the Articles of the document. In the

first article, it is stated that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are

endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” This

article very clearly states his basic views that he expressed clearly during the Enlightenment. The result of

this document’s creation was a bit scattered. There were many who were for it, while other countries who

still placed great emphasis on the degradation of women, or on segregation at the time were obviously not
very thrilled about it. Although levels of success were mixed, the creation of this document was a good

start to the improvements to be made on human rights in the future.

During the Enlightenment, Locke said that people were molded by their environment and their

experiences. This statement alone can explain the effect of The Enlightenment on the world. There were

so many new ideas and advancements made during this period that they couldn’t have done anything

besides affect the future world massively. Everything that is in place today most likely could not be

without the occurrence of any of these ideas or advancements. Although it may not seem like it at first

glance, once you look inside of everything that was brought about during this time, the degree of impact

that The Enlightenment helped the world is very high.