It's powerful dedication to reason and rational thought that until quite recently the era was sometimes characterized as the Age of Reason. The turn toward what became known by 1750 as the Enlightenment began in the late seventeenth century. ... Kant hoped that the call for self-education and critical thought would mean no disruption of the political order. ... There were radical thinkers during the late eighteenth century, such as the American revolutionary Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) who prepared to endorse an immediate political disr...

• Word Count: 862
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate