Enlightenment was a movement in the 1700's that changed the whole society. It made people rethink their decisions on their religion choices and how the government worked; it caused people to think about equal rights and how people thought about slavery. Philosophers had a lot to do with the government while Enlightenment took place . Philosophers wanted self-government because they believed humans had the capability of reasoning and therefore have the competence to govern themselves. So did Enlightenment ever help the U.S. while they were struggling to become a new country?
Self-government
Philosophers believed that as humans, we are born with reasoning skills. They said that we should use those skills and stop the argument about the government by just governing ourselves. At the time, some people were in favor of self-government and others not so much. John Locke was an important philosopher back in the 1700's and believed the only way to achieve liberty was by separation of government powers. At the beginning, the thought of a self-government was alienated but over time, people started to understand what self-government would do and started fighting for their freedom.
Freedom of religion
One of the biggest reasons of Enlightenment was the thought of …show more content…
They wanted to be treated as equal as everyone else was treated. People believed that you shouldn't be treated differently by how much money you had or how little you had, if you're a woman or male, or what your skin color was. It's just what people wanted. Others believed otherwise and wanted it to stay the same. The rich believed that they should be treated with more respect because they were more successful in life. Although that never happened, equal rights was fought for; and the people won. Slavery was no longer legal; and women started getting the rights that they