Assignment#3 Age of Enlightment

The age of enlightenment holds some of my favorite philosophers, one being Voltaire. He became one of the greatest thinkers and writers of satire comedy of his time. Wikipedia’s age of enlightenment pretty much sums up what that period was about. It provides time periods and enlightened thinkers for all countries. Its shows how enlightenment helped form North America. The enlightenment focused on humanitarianism and human rights. According to Wikipedia, the goals on the age of enlightenment can’t be describes in one page. Enlightenment also placed an emphasis on science. Schools and colleges focused on science and astronomy. The Academy of Science was founded in 1666 in Paris. With this new enlightenment came debate, healthy debate. Society began to question and debate one another leading to new understanding. Now new studies show that there may be a history of Freemasonic presence in the enlightenment which may have played an important role in the movement itself. Montesquieu and Voltaire were both enlighten thinkers and they have ties to the Freemason. But there are arguments saying that the Mason did not act as a group, meaning they did not coordinate with one another. This is true of Voltaire and Montesquieu as they engaged in public debate often. They also disagreed with each other’s philosophy at time. Lodges of the Freemason originated in English and Scottish stone masonic guilds and they expanded in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. They had a communal understanding of liberty and equality. According to Wikipedia these understanding or ideas spread around the world and there are hints of conspiracy that lead to the French Revolution. In my opinion this Wikipedia page sums up everything important that one may need to know about the age of enlightenment. The fact that almost anyone can post on Wikipedia hurts its credibility but I do have some former knowledge of the subject from previous classes.