Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

The Enlightenment

Driving Question: To what extent did the Enlightenment change society?

During the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment generated new ideas about the natural and political worlds. The reverberations of these new ideas echoed across the world, but not everyone felt the vibrations of this philosophical revolution.

Learning Objectives

  1. Understand the extent to which the Enlightenment influenced political and cultural change.
  2. Use sourcing skills to analyze how the Enlightenment helped produce new ideas about science.
  3. Use the historical thinking practice of claim testing to identify, assess, and use authority when evaluating and making claims.

Vocab Terms:

  • abolition
  • aristocrat
  • citizenship
  • constitution
  • monarchy
  • philosophe
  • radical
STEP 1

Opener: The Enlightenment

STEP 2

Revolutionary Words

Teaching Tools

Check out page 8 of our Historical Thinking Skills Guide for an explanation of sourcing.

Our online teacher community External link is a great resource for suggestions on how to teach sourcing in your classroom.

The Enlightenment spread new ideas about religion, politics, and science. In this sourcing activity, you’ll examine some debates that emerged around the science of inoculation.

STEP 3

Dare to Know

Teaching Tools

Check out our Video Guide for ideas on engaging students in active learning with video.

Thinking about how to up student engagement in this lesson? Check out this blog post on TikTok claim testers External link —a sure win!

The thinkers of the Enlightenment questioned old sources of authority. In this article and video, you’ll see the results of their efforts, and then you’ll dive into the authority claim tester yourself.

Diderot’s 1750 Encyclopedia External link

Diderot’s Encyclopedia was a work produced through the massive effort of many authors and thinkers. It attempted to catalog human knowledge and reimagine the world.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 4

Causation and the Camel

Teaching Tools

Check out page 4 of our Historical Thinking Skills Guide for an explanation of causation.

Our online teacher community External link is a great resource for suggestions on how to teach causation in your classroom.

STEP 5

Closer: The Enlightenment

Teaching Tools

Want tips for before-, during-, and after-reading scaffolds? Find reading strategies and more ways to support all learners in our Differentiation Guide Locked .

The ideas of the Enlightenment are often best analyzed through the words of those who shaped it. This closer activity provides original quotes and their modern “translations.”

Extension Materials
Checkmark Alert Banner
Dig deeper into the ideas of the Enlightenment with this primary source collection.