The Enlightenment was a movement that shunned superstition and was more in favor with a scientific explanation of the world. The Enlightenment was also known as the Age of Reason or Age of Enlightenment. It started in Europe and America around the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment was about people who used their critical thinking skills to argue knowledge, education, politics, religion, and art. The enlightenment produced an increased number of inventions, books, scientific findings, political laws, and revolutions.
The Enlightenment produced a new variety of thinkers. These thinkers used rationality to change their religious disposition of the elite “Enthusiasts” to “Intellectuals”. People like John Locke and David Hume looked at
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The Printing press made its first debut in the 15th century, which helped spread ideas throughout European cities. Print culture during the enlightenment used text and visual communication to spread word about the movement to the English colonies. The rise of literacy increased within British American colonies. Literacy was regular for most men than women. Books, pamphlets, and newspapers were published and distributed. The first newspaper was made in Boston in 1690 and was called the “Publick Occurrences”. About 70 year later every city had their own weekly newspaper. By the mid-1700s, as the colonies multiplied in size the newspaper began to publish alliterations between colonist and the growth of the city. One of the main books was the Bible, the other was the almanac. The almanac was mainly used by farmers to predict the weather for the upcoming season. This allowed farmers to plan ahead. The most successful was Benjamin Franklin’s, “Poor Richard’s Almanac” The name came from a pen name, Richard …show more content…
People who were skilled in herbalism used to make revolting potions that were sometimes made with fecal matter and urine to cure different types of sicknesses. An assumption that dog droppings was the cure for blindness. They would grind the dry droppings into powder and rub the powder inside of the blind eye. Medicine did not improve since previous periods. Hippocrates was separated into four different fluids yellow bile, blood, black bile, and phlegm. Doctors used leeches which are segmented worms that are blood suckers. They also carried knives and lancets. They believed they could cure metal illness issues. The doctor would cut the patients veins and allow the patient to bleed out to get rid of the infected blood. The bleeding had no positive effect and increased the chances of death. Women played a huge role in colonial medicine they help out as midwives assisting with child birth and other female issues. Men were excluded in labor and anything pertaining to women’s private areas. However, some male doctors did not like the fact that women were in
During the early Modern era to the present, the printing press has made a dramatic effect on the Western society. During the early modern era, the printing press was a cheap and effective way to spread the word of the Bible to anyone that could read, increase knowledge and provide education to the world. The printing press allowed people to create and copy the Bible so anyone can have access to the Bible. Along with the Bible, more books were created such as textbooks for schools, reading books for education or entertainment, research and more. As time continues on, printing press created different ways to spread information around.
The effect of this library on Benjamin Franklin and his community was the beginning of the spread of knowledge to all people of the colonies. Soon many other colonies and cities adopted the ideal of the lending libraries and people soon were able to borrow Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac, if they could not purchase their own copy. The author quoted, “These libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges” (Franklin, Chapter 8). The library became known as the Library Company. The library that Benjamin Franklin
This allowed for colonist to be more intelligent. Due to the market of printed materials the printing press became popular for creating newspapers. By 1740 there were thirteen colonial newspapers and that later grew to twenty-five in 1765. Some most popular were the Boston News-Letter, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the New England Courant (Foner 154). Newspapers initially were used to advertise but then changed to reporting politics and religious
The first colonial newspapers began in the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century. In 1690, the first English-American news-sheet made its
Elizabethan Medicine and Alchemy was atrocious and people believed vacuous things. For example, people at the time believed that: “Everything in the world is composed of four elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water”(Elizabethan Medicine). This resulted in Doctors bleeding their patients and oftentimes applying leeches to fix the imbalance of the four elements in a patient's body. Elizabethans also had strange ways of treating different things. Head Pains were treated herbs such as rose, lavender, sage, and bay.
A good example of this would be when the Black Death began appearing in Europe. Doctors did not know of this illness or how to treat it. This led to many different treatments appearing throughout history Many of the Plague Doctors proposed Blood Letting which was composed of lancing through veins and letting 'bad blood' drain from the wounds before stuffing the open veins with a mixture herbs. Another similar to this was lancing the buboes which was where the boils where cut open to the infection drained from the body. Many other cures were proposed, some more gruesome than others.
The aspects of European Enlightenment influenced the educated Americans during the eighteenth century. Enlightenment was a type of thought that emphasized science and reason over the aspects of religion. The Enlightenment thinkers basically applied careful investigations based on research and trials to the social and political aspects of life. European Enlightenment spread to America from across the Atlantic with goods and people. The thinkers of the Enlightenment ideas hoped that reason could govern human life instead of religious enthusiasm.
Many standard features of modern science did not become commonly used elements of scientific practice until the 1800’s. “Regular” medical practices at the time were based on the Four Humours Theory (scholars of the period decided that the body contained four humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) and therefore was seen to be based more upon philosophy or art than true science (The History of Medicine). Before the turn of the century, medical practices were seen as almost barbaric to modern eyes, due to the use of mercury, iron, bleeding, leeches, induced vomiting, prescribed laxatives, arsenic and phosphorus based medicine, and the use of prayer, and often led to the death of the patients rather than them becoming well again. At the turn of the century, many western physicians began dabbling with newer theories that were being used in Europe.
The printing press had a significant impact on the Protestant Reformation in several ways. Firstly, it facilitated the dissemination of reformist ideas. Before the printing press, books and written materials were copied by hand, making them expensive and time-consuming to produce. However, the printing press revolutionized this process by allowing for the mass production of texts.
The rising merchant class and lower nobility created a demand for a more economical book. The printing press made it easy for scholars and educators to spread ideas through books and pamphlets. Consequently, small pockets of learning existed around and ideas could not travel freely. With the invention of the printing press around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, books could be printed faster. “Gutenberg was determined to speed up the process of the printing press”- ( https://www.livescience.com/43639-who-invented-the-printing-press.htm )
During the 18th Century, the Enlightenment was introduced in Europe. This new movement brought about modernization of thinking about government and individualism, and reevaluated previous beliefs. The Enlightenment had many new Philosophers who helped spread their views on government. Philosophers were similar in ideas about the rights of citizens and people’s choice of which government they want, however they differed on the reason government existed and governmental power. Overall, the ideas were a substantial departure from previous ideas about human equality, absolute rulers, and the court system.
“Gutenberg 's printing technology quickly spread from Mainz to Subiaco in Italy (1465), Paris (1470), and London (1476). By the beginning of the 16th century, there were approximately 240 printing shops in Europe.” (The Spread of Printing). The amount of printing shops increased as the technology Gutenberg invented became more popular. Gutenberg’s invention was popular due to how it increased the availability of books in most cities and countries.
In this essay I’ll take a look at the era known as the Enlightenment, that period in the history of the West extending from the late 17th through the 18th centuries. What we’ll see is that the very issues we’re dealing with today were problems three centuries ago. Before looking at the Enlightenment itself, let’s take a brief look at the mindset preceding this extraordinary era. Prior to the Enlightenment, believing in God in the West was like believing in the sunrise; the answer to all the big questions of life was God.
The Enlightenment gave people power to make the changes they wanted for independence and politics using intellect and reason, their natural right. The norm of a society that is modelled today became reason over
Therefore, they maintained that “reason” was an important element that could free humanity from the religious authoritarianism that was responsible for the death and suffering of many people in religious battles. Enlightenment also served as a period of knowledge, incorporation and education as new information was made available through the invention of encyclopedias. However, Enlightenment elicited mixed reactions from Conservatism, Liberalism, Nationalism, Socialism and