Layne Kief

WC Enlightenment DBQ
The Enlightenment and Philosophers Main Ideas and Goals
New ideas and well-educated people are what brought this great period during the late 17th and
18th century to life. In this period, known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, philosophes
met in salons and talked about political, economic, social and religious problems and shaped the world.
They also believed in natural laws, confidence of peoples ability to use reason to discover truth and tried
to discover new ways to understand and improve their society. Government, Religion, Economics, and
Gender Equality are important parts of the Enlightenment and parts of society which philosophes saw that
needed improvement.
To begin, John Locke wrote a document in 1690 that explain his point of view on government
which is when something goes wrong throughout the government, the people should create a new
government. Locke recommends executive and legislative branches of government because those are
the ones that truly help. He said that they do not only have the right to get away from a failed
government, but to prevent it from happening. They are all equal and in a state of perfect freedom to
order their own actions. This explains that there should be a freedom of government and if you do not
agree with it or it is not working correctly, you can give your opinion and the people can make the
changes they want.
Furthermore, in freedom of religion, Voltaire believed that if there were not many religions to
choose from, there would be many problems and disagreements throughout the world. He created a
document in 1726 that explained that if there was one religion, there would be no reason for it because
not everyone would care about it. If there were two types of religion, people would be fighting against
each other acting like one is better than the other instead of you believe in what you believe and respect
others beliefs. Now, with many options of what religion you want to choose from, everyone truly is happy
with their religion and respect others because they believe what they want to believe peacefully.
In addition, freedom of economics is another main idea of the Enlightenment philosophers. Adam
Smith shared his opinion in a document in 1776 about the freedom of economy and how he was against
mercantilism which is a common economic system in Europe. Mercantilism is when their goal is to make
the state or country wealthy. Smith thought that people should have a job and enjoy it, you learn more and
following your own interest actually improves your economy more than it would having a duty of doing
something for more money, but you would not have the better effort to promote it. Smith believes that you
should do what you want and not what others want for themselves or money,
Equally important, during the French Revolution, Mary Wollstonecraft showed her opinion of
Gender Equality in a document in 1792. Mary believed in women being treated the same as men and
having the same principle as them. They should follow their own desires and do what they want. There
should be nothing against women or a difference in any other way to be treated. She believes that they
should be able to be involved in the same things that men are and make their own choices freely. If they
get to do what they want to do, Mary believes that it will make them become more wise and virtuous.

To conclude, although the main ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers are government,
religion, economy, and gender equality, the philosophes did many other things for the world in that time
period that changed a lot. They believed in letting others have their own choices in life by doing what they
enjoy and what they want to work for.