Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil

Facultad de Artes y Humanidades

History and Sociology of Education
Período A 2023
Enlightenment
Nombre: Jade Fon Fay
Watch this video and give your arguments to these questions.
1) Describe the ENLIGHTENMENT. Give 5 characteristics.
*The Enlightenment is a period of time right after the French Revolution, and it
was characterized by an intellectual and philosophical approach, which had
strong and deep effects on the society of the time.
*During the Enlightenment, people started thinking rationally and critically.
*In order to minimize human suffering, and improving the ruled of society as
much as possible.
*By questioning the way things worked while looking at them through a different
lense.

*And the resulting revolutionary ideas brought a wave of advances in how

society works.

2) Why did the Encyclopedia was so important for the Enlightenment?

Because it gave access to all people to information from other people, which
served to spread the ideas of the Enlightenment to all society. Thanks to the
Encyclopedia, everyone started to question things around them.

3) What were the social issues that concerned the thinkers of this period?
Mainly, social and political issues, like human rights and social inequality. Also,
they started to question monarchy, one absolute governor didn’t sound like a
good idea for the first time. Religion was heavily questioned as well, something
that was not common at all at the time.

4) How did this Enlightenment movement influence the US?

Thanks to the ideas of the Enlightenment, the US revolutioned how nations
would be ruled. The ideas of the Enlightenment shaped the social, legal, political
and philosophical basis of the US.

5) Name the most important thinkers during this period.

Isaac Newton, John Locke, Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

6) What impressed you about this period in education?

I’m still thinking about the creation of the Encyclopedia, and I think today, it
would be an equivalent to the invention of Google, as for the first time, people
could share their personal ideas by writing them for other people to read.
If Google was revolutionary by the time it became a thing, I can only imagine how
revolutionary the Encyclopedia, the first Google ever, was revolutionary for
Europe’s 19th century society.