The Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment describes the period in history when modern though and reason began to exert influence in the world. This period of time, in the 18th century, assumed that human reason and rational thought was the best way to solve the philosophical and social problems of the day. The embodiment of the Enlightenment can be summed up as the quest for knowledge, the activity of the mind which constantly is seeking for the cause behind the effect. The man who belongs to the Enlightenment is unable to witness a phenomenon without seeking to find an explanation, seeks to remedy evil in the world, to find errors and correct them, and overall to understand the nature of the universe through thought and reason. Benjamin Franklin lived and epitomized the qualities and spirit of the Enlightenment (Aldridge, 1967, p. 5). The Enlightenment. was a period of time when a rational and scientific approach to life, religious, political, and economic issues promoted a secular view of the world. The Enlightenment espoused a world view of natural law and universal order. The leading figures of the Enlightenment agreed on several principles: the supreme faith in rational man, the need to discover and act upon the universal principles of governing humanity, nature, and society. These men attacked economic and social restraints, intolerance, censorship, and spiritual and dogmatic authority. Benjamin Franklin lived these principles and was a true man of his times. This pape
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committee of the Continental Congress which was responsible for the writing of the Declaration of independence. Jefferson wrote the document and Benjamin Franklin along the others made few changes to the document (Peterson, 1970, p. 88).
Benjamin Franklin's philosophy of government was that less was better. His vision of productivity implied that the tasks to produce were conducted by individuals not governments.
Government had a duty to stimulate production but, if government becomes too active, it hinders progress instead of enhancing it (Conner, 1965, p. 62). Benjamin Franklin worked for a spare form of government which would not interfere with the ability of the individual to achieve success.
With the beginnings of revolution Benjamin Franklin gave his services to the advocation of a union of states. He had foreseen the need for the colonies to unite and present a single front to Parliament. From the beginning, Benjamin Franklin understood that the colonies had been constituted as direct states with the authorities given to states (Gipson, 1954, p. 198-199).
Therefore when Parliament tried to levy taxes on the colonies, Parliament was acting without representation by the colonies or
authority. He drafted a scheme
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's, benjamin franklin, Enlightenment Aldridge, Introduction Enlightenment, Franklin's Autobiography, Politics Enlightenment, Franklin Enlightenment, Florida England, Van Horne, British Parliament, benjamin franklin's, lambert 1993, university press, huang 1994, benjamin franklin able, conner 1965, franklin able, george whitefield, quest knowledge, heilbron 1993, york oxford university, oxford university press, benjamin franklin lived, benjamin franklin's autobiography,
Approximate Word count = 3279
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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