This era was the groundwork for a period labeled the Enlightenment. ... These ideologies led to countless others, self labeled as social physicists, social scientists, rationalists, or even social philosophers, expressing their views on the world and how it works. ... Political strongholds and ideals are thrown aside by the radicalistic approach of the enlightenments persuasion and influence to be yourself and to think for yourself. ... I would like to focus on the last of these three elements of the enlightenment for a minute. ...

• Word Count: 544
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Michel Foucault, a French philosopher of the 20th century, who uses opposing ideas of the Enlightenment in attempt to prove human worth and identity, has also addressed this question. ... Living within a panoptic society destroys the Enlightenment's ultimate ideal of the autonomous self. ... Once immoral boundaries of surveillance are crossed, one is stripped of absolute reason and freedom, thus destroying the strong Enlightenment ideal of autonomy. ...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Athenian philosopher, Socrates has emerged as one of the most influential individuals of modern thought and has played a large role in molding the way that many societies view a majority of the established principles of modern life. His ideas involving spiritual matters, the soul, individual enlightenment, and the truth are still very much practiced today. ...

• Word Count: 927
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The importance of existing though freedom, knowledge, and enlightenment is accentuated by Plato on The Republic. He uses the cave allegory to highlight how human beings will not survive the darkness unless they act together and be led by a philosopher king who leads them to the light. ...

• Word Count: 1092
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Karl Marx's father was educated in the anti-religious atmosphere of the late 18th century Enlightenment. ... Marx's ideas about human nature, and about how we know and function in the world came from traditions articulated by Hegel, Feuerbach, Kant, and other German philosophers (Worsley 31). ...

• Word Count: 1215
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

So prolific is he that his eponymous theories, Marxism, are still being employed by sociologists, philosophers, and economists alike to this day. ... Raised in a post-Enlightenment household, Marx was heavily influenced by the revolutionary period in history. ... Published in 1848, this book features various theories that have been concluded by both Marx, and his close friend, the philosopher Friedrich Engels. ...

• Word Count: 2958
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate