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:
- Understand the extent to which the Enlightenment influenced political and cultural change.
- Use sourcing skills to analyze how the Enlightenment helped produce new ideas about science.
- 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
Thinking about how to up student engagement in this lesson? Check out this blog post on TikTok claim testers.
Would you ask your dentist for advice on fixing a hole in your jeans? Probably not. We trust different authorities in different situations.
This debate activity is also a sourcing activity! As you prepare, be sure to download the Sourcing Excerpts as well as our Sourcing Tool and Feedback Form. And of course, read the sample answers and instructions in the Lesson Guide, which has helpful tips for teaching about bias in primary and secondary sources.
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.
Did you know: Before he got serious with the Encyclopedia, Diderot wrote a bawdy piece of erotica called The Indiscreet Jewels, which offered a satire of Louis XV’s court and French society. The novel was a commercial hit, and its proceeds helped Diderot fund his later philosophical work. This is a good opportunity to remind students that historical sources don’t need to be boring to be influential.
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.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- What was the most revolutionary political idea in the Enlightenment?
- In what ways was the Enlightenment also an economic, ethical, and religious phenomenon?
- How quickly did most Enlightenment thinkers want change to happen?
- Some people pushed for more-revolutionary results from the Enlightenment. Who were they?
After you read
Respond to these questions: Do you think the Enlightenment should be called revolutionary? Why or why not?
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- How was Paris in 1750 a “contradiction”?
- How was the Diderot’s Encyclopedia also representative of this contradiction?
- What political and national revolutions does the video connect to the philosophers and their encyclopedia?
- Why did some “enlightened monarchs” and aristocrats support this work?
- Why was Diderot’s Encyclopedia so controversial?
After you watch
Respond to these questions: Do you think the Encyclopedia was a revolutionary document? Why or why not?
Alphonse the Camel had a difficult life, but what caused his demise? Let’s explore this poor camel’s end and get to the bottom of this mystery!
Want to learn more about the long history behind Enlightenment ideas promoted by thinkers like Burke? Read the blog post “Give Me Cereal, or You Get Death!”
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.”
Enlightenment thinkers sought to transform their world and how people thought about it. Use the article, source collection, and activity to examine their motives and impacts.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- What evidence do we have that scientific observation and experimentation occurred before the sixteenth-century Scientific Revolution?
- How did new technologies contribute to the expansion of scientific knowledge?
- How did Islamic scholars contribute to the discoveries of the Scientific Revolution?
- In what ways did women contribute to the Scientific Revolution and how did women’s involvement in this revolution change over time?
- How might the Scientific Revolution have led to the Industrial Revolution?
After you read
Respond to the following questions: What is one example of how scientific inquiry has changed since the Scientific Revolution and what is one example of how scientific inquiry has stayed the same?
