preview

Intellectual Changes In The Enlightenment Period

Decent Essays

For the people of eighteenth-century Europe, the Enlightenment Period was a time when the many questions from the Scientific Revolution started getting answered. Several ideas started becoming practical and put to use. Toward the end of the eighteenth-century was the Romanticism Period. During this time, human thinking began to change and the focus was mainly on feelings and emotions. There were a lot of intellectual changes through the transition from the Enlightenment to the Romanticism period; but some things did stay the same. Some of the biggest changes between the periods were the church, poetry and art, while the intellectual continuities were liberalism and the middle class. The church was the people of Europe’s go to; it had a huge influence on what information the populace was told. Eventually, curiosity started to spread throughout the world. Farmers were specifically responsible as they began to notice and study the environmental conditions that affected their greatest harvests. Curiosity led to intellectual …show more content…

Liberalism was constant in the transition from the Enlightenment to the Romanticism period. Known as ideas of liberty and equality founded from worldview, liberalism benefits the general well being of society (“Liberalism”). Economic and political liberalism both explain that society should be free from restraint. For instance, economic liberalism claims the government should only have three main functions: defend the country, police should protect individuals, and be responsible for the construction of public works that are too expensive and hard for an individual to undergo. Additionally, political liberalism was the basic rights for individuals, such as freedom of speech and press (Spielvogel, 634-635). Liberalism overall was used in the Enlightenment period and has continued its way to the Romanticism

Get Access