Enlightenment And Ignorance

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The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state. Originating about1650- 1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677), John Locke (1632 – 1704), Pierre Bayle (1647 1706), mathematician Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) and Voltaire (1694 – 1778). Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government. The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790 – 1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism’s emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force. The philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinized previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms. Ignorance or witlessness is a state of being uninformed maybe or having lack of knowledge. Ignorance is not merely the lack of knowledge, but self destructive turning away from truth in all areas of life. Persons develop a taste for ignorance, the predisposition to embrace wrong beliefs based on presumption or mere authority. The ignorant person believes he knows what he actually doesn't know. We find it difficult to understand how people today deliberately refuse to look at what is actually happening in the world, believing the lies and distortions their leaders tell them. With a straight face, political, economic, religious, and media figures tell the people that black is white, war is peace, lies are truths, joblessness is economic recovery, ignorance is intelligence. Albert Einstein and John Locke Philosophers of the Enlightenment believed in the universe as a

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