The Greatest Effects Of The Enlightenment Era - 2374 Words

The Enlightenment era spanned the late 16th and 17th hundreds and it was a movement in which thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Thomas Pain, and Adam Smith sought to make advances in a similar manner to the occurrences in this period with scientific achievements/improvements. Two of the greatest effects of the Enlightenment era were the American and French Revolutions, which gained their foundation from the revolutionary ideas brought forward by the Enlightenment thinkers. The leaders of the American and French Revolutions were seeking to create new governments reflecting some of the values and ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. One of the many influential Enlightenment thinkers was a philosopher by the name of Thomas Hobbes, who also served as a teacher to the first male child of Charles I, the monarch of England. The beheading of the England’s monarch in 1649 for treason had a profound influence on Thomas Hobbes and left him extremely troubled and horrified. The beheading of England’s monarch led Tomas Hobbes to argue for the presence of absolute monarchy in his work The Leviathan in 1651, which effectively kicked off the Enlightenment. In the Leviathan, Hobbes narrated his theory that all human beings are inherently self-driven, evil, and violent at heart thus an all powerful monarch who ruled under an absolute monarchy would serve to be the best form of government to keep order and ensure the welfare of people at heart. Hobbes further informed that if theShow MoreRelated The Romantic Hero in Goethes Faust Essay1550 Words   |  7 Pages hero because the transformation of his attitudes mirrors the larger transformation that was occurring in the society in which Goethe conceived the play. Faust’s odyssey transports him from adherence to the cold rationale of the Enlightenment to a passion for the pleasures that came to define the Romantic spirit. 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Beethoven also made massive contributions to orchestration, which is writing for orchestra in a way that achieves the greatest over all effect. Beethoven also used cyclic form, which is repeating a musical idea in each movementRead MoreThe Political Landscape Of France1367 Words   |  6 PagesThe political landscape in France had been shifting for a long time before the Enlightenment. The economic and military gains made by Louis XIV, the Sun King, ultimately crippled the country later when the Estates General failed to overthrow the French government democratically and peacefully. Two great thinkers, Baron de Montesquieu and Jean- Jacques Rousseau, both paved the way for the French and other Enlightenment revolutions during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although neither of the men saw