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The Enlightenment: Thinking Big!

Imagine a time when people started asking BIG questions and using their brains to find amazing answers!

Images

Astrology, Make Up, Enlightenment, Blog , Creative Commons

Astrology, Make Up, Enlightenment, Blog , Creative Commons

openverse
Enlightenment room, British museum
India-5141 - THE Enlightenment Tree
Moral Enlightenment
path to enlightenment
Kinkara, Citipati, The Dancing Enlightened Skeletons, Lords of the Cemetery, Pharping in the Gelugpa Monastery on the hill below Padmasambhava's cave, Nepal
Enlightenment Machine truckin' - happy Tibetan Buddhist women turning prayer wheels, counting prayers on malas, Tharlam Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, Sakya Lamdre, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal
Enlightening
Enlightenment
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment. ~ Lao Tzu
Try to maintain perfectly pure thoughts in all circumstances, so that even the most insignificant of your acts will preserve their positive energy until you attain enlightenment. A drop of water that falls into the ocean will last as long as the ocean ...
Be Enlightened!

Key Facts

Time Period
Roughly the 17th and 18th centuries.
Main Idea
Using reason and logic to understand the world and improve society.
Key Location
Primarily Europe, especially France and Britain.
Fun Fact
Many Enlightenment thinkers met in coffee houses to discuss their revolutionary ideas!

What's All This Brainy Buzz?

The Enlightenment was like a giant 'aha!' moment for people a long, long time ago, mostly in Europe. It was a time when thinkers decided it was super important to use reason, which is like using your brain's superpower, to understand the world. Instead of just believing what everyone told them, they started asking 'why?' and 'how?' They believed that by thinking clearly and sharing ideas, they could make life better for everyone.

It was all about using your mind to discover new things!

When Did This Smarty-Pants Party Start?

This exciting time really kicked off around the 1600s and lasted for about 100 years, like a super long school year filled with learning! Think of it as a bridge between old ways of thinking and new, exciting ideas. People started reading more books and sharing their thoughts in coffee shops, which were like early versions of social media!

It was a period where new ideas about fairness, freedom, and how governments should work began to bloom, like flowers in spring.

Why Should We Care About Old Ideas?

The Enlightenment is super important because many of the ideas from that time still shape our world today! Think about fairness, freedom, and the right to have your own opinions. These were big ideas that people fought for during the Enlightenment.

It helped lead to things like schools for everyone and governments where people get to choose their leaders. It’s like the foundation of many of the good things we have in our lives now!

Thinking Power: The Enlightenment's Superpower!

The main superpower of the Enlightenment was using 'reason' and 'logic'. This means thinking things through step-by-step, like solving a puzzle. People believed that if you used your brain, you could figure out anything, from how the stars work to how to create a fair society.

They also loved sharing knowledge! They wrote books and pamphlets to spread their ideas far and wide, like sending out a really important message to everyone.

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Based on content from Wikipedia · Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0