Because of the Enlightenment, Western attitudes towards reform, faith and reason became confident and interested in being included in the Enlightenment because it was a great evolution in philosophy and science. One of the main things that influenced the philosophes was the emergence of natural philosophy, or new scientific ideas and methods that challenged the ideas of the Middle Ages. Philosophers were influenced by it because it gave them the idea that they could challenge the old with the new. Another of the most important things that influenced the philosophies of the Enlightenment were the salons. These were places that gave them the chance to spread their new ideas, thoughts and philosophies. Voltaire was a very influential philosopher during the Enlightenment, despite the numerous times he was exiled and kicked out for his adamant views on political issues, he remained strong and this is what inspired other philosophers to do the same. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Encyclopedia was considered one of the greatest monuments of the Enlightenment. This book was a collection of data on important articles, illustrations, agriculture and other important knowledge about the social and economic life of the 18th century. This helped show the reason for the Enlightenment and strive to focus on life on earth. Philosophers considered organized religion their greatest enemy because it was against philosophers' new ideas about science and how the world works. Since the Bible was what organized religion followed, they didn't like it when philosophies or discoveries were portrayed that said something different than what is in the Bible. During the Enlightenment, philosophers found a way to combine religion and reasoning called deism. Deism was the belief that a god created the universe and allowed it to function without interference and that you were rewarded or punished for your actions after death. This belief was very forgiving and allowed for reasoning. During the Enlightenment, 18th-century Jewish thinkers embraced the new emphasis on reason, scientific discoveries, and philosophy as a way to revitalize their state. An important contributing Jewish writer was Moses Mendelssohn, who established the broad lines of someone who supported the integration of Jews into modern European life and wanted to combine Judaism and the new reasoning of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment's assessments of Islam and its assessment of Christianity and Judaism were both considered similar because of their own criticism of traditional religion and the conflicts that occurred because of it and considered different because in Judaism they only wanted tolerance religious, but in Islam the European religion of Christianity saw that their religion had false and intolerable. Philosophers of the time still saw women as those who should perform only traditional domestic roles such as cooking, cleaning, and bearing children. Rousseau's view of women was that women required to be of lower status than men and that they needed to be in two socially different spheres. The spheres of male being were to populate the world of citizenship, political action and civic virtue. Being women's spheres, they should participate only in domestic duties. Mary Wollstonecraft and advocate for women's rights and equality criticized Rousseau's views as unfavorable to women and advocated for women's traditional roles to restrict and limit their experience. Adam Smith believed that the earth's resources were limitlesswhile the mercantilist believed that the earth's resources were limited and scarce, so only one nation could acquire wealth at the expense of others. Smith could be considered a consumer advocate because he disfavors government interference in the economy and with consumers, which can sometimes be a nuisance. Smith embraced the theory of human economic and social development, known as the four-stage theory. This implied that there were four types of societies: hunter-gatherer, pastoralist, agricultural, or commercial. Trade considered the most advanced included city, country, and elaborate financial arrangements. Europe considered itself within this type and believed that non-Europeans who fell into the lower types were not as advanced or developed and considered them inferior beings. Enlightened writers viewed European empires negatively because of their treatment of Native Americans. and how they enslaved Africans. An enlightened writer with a negative outlook wrote: “The first and most fundamental idea is that human beings deserve a modicum of moral and political respect simply because they are human.” referring to the immoral actions of Europeans towards non-Europeans due to their place within the four-stage theory. While Montesquieu's political views consisted of executive power being within the king, legislative power within parliament, and judicial power within the courts, with the result that either branch was able to check and balance itself at affair, while Rousseau's point of view was to surrender one's rights to the will of the community. Montesquieu's view was flawed because it did not take into consideration how powerful aristocrats dominated government. Rousseau was considered a child of the Enlightenment because he agreed with the government's opinion. He was also someone who valued society more than the individual. The enlightened monarchs did not truly believe in the ideals of the philosophers. They simply believed and acted on their ideas and helped their people, but only so they could stay in power. They didn't actually have absolute power because they did things to benefit the community and enlightened writers, which is what motivated their reforms rather than what they really wanted to do, which was expand their territory. The Partition of Poland was a division of Polish territory created in fear of Catherine the Great's military success. The partition of Poland indicated that the spirit of enlightened absolutism was actually not there and that they actually just wanted to expand the territory. Although France is considered rich due to its extravagant and expensive architecture and buildings such as the Palace of Versailles, their government is considered corrupt due to the many financial problems caused by the monarchy, and the many failed attempts by administrators to solve them financial leaders, and of the unjust distribution of power towards the nobles compared to the majority of France. The monarchy's financial debts led to heavy taxes on the peasants and the lower classes' food source. This created stress on them which resulted in riots and the need for a revolution. A major mistake Louis XIV made was his failure to effectively tax his subjects. Instead of taxing the nobles with the most money, he taxed the peasants who had almost nothing to give. During the revolution the National Assembly was created and since it was a revolution it was made without the consent of Louis XIV, so he called for a “Royal Session” of the Estates General and closed the building where the National Assembly had met. This was the biggest mistake Louis could have made because,ignoring his request, the National Assembly gathered on a tennis court to pledge their dedication to writing a new French constitution. I believe he could have avoided the French Revolution if he had been a more skillful ruler by reducing taxes on the peasants and increasing them on the nobles who were where most of the money was. The monarch's success and efficiency had much to do with the revolution. Because of its poor choices about where to tax the most and the poor choice of assigned financial administrators, the French government has not been able to prosper as it would have if it had been a competent monarch. During the revolution, the National Assembly was created, a combination of the 3rd estate and other clergy and nobles from the former legislative branch called the Estates General. This was a big step forward in the revolution because before there were three states separated by social status, the 1st and 2nd were the upper classes, and the 3rd were the lower classes. Although the 3rd estate encompassed most of France, they had the fewest opinions in the area of ​​legislative obligations. This required a revolution in government by creating the National Assembly. During the Enlightenment, emphasis was placed on the natural rights of man and that these rights should not be violated. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen precisely highlighted the natural rights proven by the proclamation that represented it by stating that all men were "to be born and remain free and equal in rights". and that those natural rights are “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” During the first years of the revolution, the legislators of the French government significantly reorganized the government from the Estates General to the new National Assembly which allowed the former Third Estate to have a greater say within the government. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was the national church created by the assembly. The clergy had to swear allegiance to the state and many of them refused to provoke the sacking of the assembly. At this time of the French Revolution, the National Assembly finally finalized the new constitution established in 1791, the political factions were dissatisfied with the 1791 constitutional agreement because it only allowed active citizens to vote. The revolution of 1792 was considered the second revolution that France had due to a war in French politics. Sans-culottes were the lower class people, but the word actually means without trousers because to be an upper class man you wore trousers but the lower classes didn't and they would be treated differently based on their social status even if they were equally rich as an upper class man. The sans-culottes were also the ones who led a more radical revolution than the Girondins. The sans-culottes became a factor in the political affairs of France by collaborating with the government to make decisions. Both the Jacobins, the radical republican party of the French Revolution, and the sans-culottes worked together because they were both republican parties and it all ended because the Jacobins wanted an unregulated economy. In 1792, France went to war with Austria with the belief that it would unify France. However, this was not entirely the case. Even though they gained the sympathy of the people, France still lost a lot of money and went into debt, all the while losing more soldiers to fight the revolutionaries. The Reign of Terror was the period between the summer of 1793 and the end of July 1794, when the French revolutionary state resorted to widespread executions and violence to defend the Revolution and suppress its perceived internal enemies. Please note: this is just an example. Get a document.