The Enlightenment
- Submitted by: torill
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- Category: History
- Date Submitted: 02/01/2010 12:53 AM
- Pages: 4
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The enlightenment
The enlightenment was a time of change. People started to believe in science, not just in god. People understood that they could change the outcome of things, and that they had more power than they thought earlier. The poor people also got a chance to get out of poverty because people started to believe that they were not being punished from god.
In the Enlightenment people started to believe that god did not control the world. They still thought he had created it, but they thought that they could control the outcome of their own life themselves. The poor people saw that they could change their life if they worked hard enough, because god did not punish them for something they had done. They could get out of the poverty if the society accepted it, and the society started to accept that poor people also had some rights. We see this clearly in “a modest proposal” where Jonathan Swift suggests in an ironic way that they should start to eat poor peoples children to get enough food. He did that to show that the society looked at the poor people differently than the rich people. Nobody would have suggested to eat a rich person's child. This text was an eyeopener to the people.
When people began to doubt that god controlled everything in the world, they started to look for reasons to all the things happening all around them. Science became “a replacement for god.” We can see that in Joseph Wright of Derbys picture “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” where a lot of people are watching an experiment. The fact that a picture of an experiment is considered art also show how the world started to accept science, and started to rely on it instead of god.
The science made a lot of people understand that your position in society had nothing to do with god, but with what family you were born in. The poor people were put into the situation they were in, and had very little chance of getting an education and a good job. The writers and...
The enlightenment was a time of change. People started to believe in science, not just in god. People understood that they could change the outcome of things, and that they had more power than they thought earlier. The poor people also got a chance to get out of poverty because people started to believe that they were not being punished from god.
In the Enlightenment people started to believe that god did not control the world. They still thought he had created it, but they thought that they could control the outcome of their own life themselves. The poor people saw that they could change their life if they worked hard enough, because god did not punish them for something they had done. They could get out of the poverty if the society accepted it, and the society started to accept that poor people also had some rights. We see this clearly in “a modest proposal” where Jonathan Swift suggests in an ironic way that they should start to eat poor peoples children to get enough food. He did that to show that the society looked at the poor people differently than the rich people. Nobody would have suggested to eat a rich person's child. This text was an eyeopener to the people.
When people began to doubt that god controlled everything in the world, they started to look for reasons to all the things happening all around them. Science became “a replacement for god.” We can see that in Joseph Wright of Derbys picture “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” where a lot of people are watching an experiment. The fact that a picture of an experiment is considered art also show how the world started to accept science, and started to rely on it instead of god.
The science made a lot of people understand that your position in society had nothing to do with god, but with what family you were born in. The poor people were put into the situation they were in, and had very little chance of getting an education and a good job. The writers and...