Related Essays
Revolution, Constitution and Enlightenment
The American Revolution and the ensuing U.S. Constitution put forward by the Federalists were both products of and directly informed by the European Enlightenment. The Founding Fathers were considerably influenced by thinkers like Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu (whose separation of powers served as the model of the three-branched government of the U.S.). This paper will explain how the European Enlightenment set the stage for the American Revolution and U.S. Constitution by putting out the ideas that the Americans would use as the basis of the political and social… Continue Reading...
Then he lived as an ascetic, almost starving to death. He understood neither opulence or austerity would lead to enlightenment. What is important is moderation.
What events transpired under the Bodhi Tree?
Through three watches in the night, where he had to fight temptation from beauty, and danger, Buddha achieved enlightenment.
What did the Buddha do after attaining enlightenment? How did he come to spread his teachings?
He contemplated the truths he had discovered and then decided to preach his work to five holy men in Deer Park. These men became his disciples. These disciples helped him spread his teachings to others.
2. Describe in detail (and in your… Continue Reading...
horror, suspense, other-worldliness and mystery. These elements are significant because the Age of Enlightenment had been characterized by a cold, objective, analytical focus on nature and humankind. It had been based on the concept that reason was sufficient to explain all events in the world and in fact all creation. Yet as Shakespeare's Hamlet reminded readers, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Shakespeare 1.5.167-168). Part of this interest in the Gothic was inspired by tales from the Orient, which serves as the subject of Beckford's "Vathek." Another part of this interest was… Continue Reading...
latter placed greater emphasis on the ability of laypersons as well as monks to obtain Enlightenment. In contrast, Hinduism is a distinctly Indian religion. Both religions embrace the concept of reincarnation, although it is Hinduism who uses this idea to justify a caste system, or the notion that the social class into which someone is born justifies the existence of a stratified society. This paper will argue that Buddhist art similarly reflects the religion's concept of the non-existence of a central self as well as a veneration of the Buddha and its teachings, versus Hinduism which reflects an anthropomorphic understanding of god as well as… Continue Reading...
Enlightenment philosophy. When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, he did so not out of nowhere, but within the overall context of Enlightenment theory. The Declaration of Independence is frequently considered a political document, but… Continue Reading...
Enlightenment and enshrined Reason and liberalism in his own heart. As such, he has lost his humanity and his ability to be a social person: he locks himself up in his laboratory, punishing himself be obsessing over the physics of re-animation. His Enlightenment ideology has dehumanized him—a revelation that Shelley was passing on to the reader, which she received from her own life experiences as a the wife of a Romantic-Enlightenment poet likewise struggling with his own revolutionary ideas and obsessions. Victor seeks his own glory in society and vainly… Continue Reading...
of the progress of history was tied to his immersion in the world of Enlightenment and Romantic writers and thinkers. He lived at a time when the French Revolution occurred and reshaped the direction of history. The Revolution expressed and institutionalized new ideas about Reason (literally deified by the Revolution) as well as socio-political philosophy regarding fraternity, equality and liberty. Hegel came to maturity during this era and for him, philosophy consisted of a clash of forces -- and the old world concept of philosophy (the love of knowledge/wisdom) was what Hegel sought to transform in The Phenomenology of Spirit, as he clearly states… Continue Reading...
of freedom from the Enlightenment Era philosopher helped pave the way for the French Revolution with its insistence on liberty, fraternity and equality. A century and a half later, those same ideals would still hold significant appeal for the Western nations, especially following two World Wars in the 20th century that decimated Europe and parts of Asia. Liberalism was the main driver of the UN’s declaration of human rights—but the coming Cold War, the onset of which was very much in the minds of world leaders immediately following the carve-up of Europe between the… Continue Reading...
us anything it was that man should not play God. Enlightenment Man -- Victor Frankenstein to be specific -- is enamored of science in the gothic novel and obsessed with recreating life, or rather reanimating life. He succeeds, but fails to plan for his creation's soul. The monster's soul yearns for companionship, well-being, and even God -- and yet all avenues to these goals seem cut off to him, one by one. Instead of peace, he ends up pursuing revenge -- murdering the wife of his creator and ultimately leading Frankenstein into the Arctic, where the two are lost in… Continue Reading...
the heart in response to the Enlightenment Age which advocated solely for Reason. It was the French Revolution, after all, that enshrined Reason and deified in a show of total submission to the concept that man need nothing more than logic. It is not surprising that humanity, sympathy, empathy and compassion were utterly absent during the Reign of Terror that followed. The Revolution showed that when man gives himself over wholly to Reason, neglecting the impulses of the heart, there can be an absolute horror that follows. The bloodletting that transpired during the Reign of Terror… Continue Reading...
its goal "ultimate transformation," a goal such as enlightenment or salvation (p. 84)
• Ching and other aspects of Confucianism like ritual (li) aim for the ultimate transformation of the self and society
• The achievement of "sagehood" is also a transformative spiritual goal in the Confucian tradition.
• Religion must identify not only the goal (salvation/enlightenment) but also the means to achieving that goal (faith in Jesus/Eightfold Path)
• In the case of Confucianism, the goal is harmony or order, and the means include obedience to social order, law, and ritual.
Primacy of Religion Argument
• Religion… Continue Reading...
equality during the Enlightenment -- the French Revolution formally -- but practically speaking in the American Revolution. De Tocqueville, a French Catholic who travelled to America to investigate firsthand the grand democratic experiment, described some of the inherent conflicts of interest posed by liberty in a democratic society: as a Catholic, Tocqueville's perspective was fashioned by a sense of moral order and correctness (right and wrong according to both natural and supernatural law) -- and therein lay the difficulty. Liberty of the press, for instance, could be seen as a safeguard against tyranny… Continue Reading...
style and perspective. Goya lived through the Romantic-Enlightenment era and saw the unraveling of society on the Continent as the Old World values were swept away be Enlightenment philosophy and Romantic dreams. Redon lived to reflect the aftermath of that era: his symbolist paintings show a world that is half-mad, yet totally focused on itself and its grandiose ideas. Together, Goya and Redon cover three centuries of thought and activity in Europe. Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son (1819-1823) and Redon’s The Smiling Spider (1887) both show strangeness in the extreme and depict a frightening aspect of the… Continue Reading...
Enlightenment and Romantic Eras came a new approach to freedom. Freedom was thought of not as a choice one had between doing good and evil but rather as the liberty to do as one desired. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the only constraint on freedom was the state and the laws of the state—which is why socio-economic and political philosophy became so important. What gave people their “freedom,” however, was still debated. The nature of freedom in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was considered a natural right in some… Continue Reading...
political ideologies that supported capitalism included liberalism and socialism.
Prior to the Enlightenment, European social, economic and political institutions were dependent on Church authority (Burke, n.d.). The French Revolution was a harbinger of the new social and political institutions like liberalism and socialism. Monarchic rule was a thing of the past; once the seeds of democracy were planted, it was impossible to prevent the reaping of social, economic, and political revolution. Thus, monarchs were perceived as “inexorable and cruel tyrants,” rather than as inevitable and necessary constraints on human life (Burke, n.d., p. 137). Centralization of wealth and power in church and… Continue Reading...
and health. Locke contributed to the development of liberalism and laid a groundwork for the development of the Enlightenment.
Typically, Locke's philosophical thinking influenced the U.S. Declaration of Independence. When the U.S. constitution was being drafted, the lawmakers drew up Locke social contract theoretical frameworks and integrated them into the U.S. constitution. Emphatically, the U.S. constitution is a legal framework that offers protection of natural rights that include right life and property. Locke's philosophical thinking aroused the decision of the lawmakers to integrate the human rights in the constitution. Moreover, John Locke influenced the adoption of 1776 Declaration of Independence that states "that all men are created equal,… Continue Reading...
new doctrines and worldviews throughout the Continent. The Enlightenment and the Age of Romanticism followed. The Baroque came about as a kind of counter-Reformation style of art: it was anti-Puritan and full of drama and depictions of grand sweeping imagery and the tension in life. Goya’s work falls into this period, representing the horrors of the world when order and reason is lost. For example: His Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) shows a man asleep at his desk as his thoughts and dreams turn into nightmarish shapes and shadows reflecting the reign of chaos in Europe at… Continue Reading...
Enlightenment operated essentially within the structure of this latter paradigm. It was the judicial decision rendered by society in the wake of the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing secularization of society. Theories and the scientific enterprise were adjusted accordingly.
The Way We Can Understand the World Ourselves
Just like in any court of law, argument matters. We can understand the world ourselves by articulating the argument that makes the most sense to us and communicating it to others. Science must… Continue Reading...
in 1799 in Spain at a time when the Enlightenment was in full swing and Romanticism was getting under way. The “sleep of reason,” as Goya described it, was a reference to the idea that people in Europe were losing their capacity for logic and common sense—and in effect their minds—by entertaining ludicrous concepts and romantic, utopian visions for society. The French Revolution had already occurred and the continent was now at war as Napoleon made his force felt. Reason, Goya, felt was being lost every day and the world that was emerging was truly a nightmarish one as… Continue Reading...
enlightenment, with the focus being on familiarization with the way of life in the ‘West.’ For this to happen, Western literary pieces had to be translated into Chinese. With the West being widely regarded as a beacon of science and democracy, most translations at this time largely focused on scientific articles and works. Most specifically, a variety of books translations of Western literature were for natural science genres. As a matter of fact, between 1912 and 1949, a total of 1,121 literary pieces that largely had a natural sciences bias… Continue Reading...
