Enlightenment philosophy

High school (ages 12+)
Philosophy & Big Questions

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/enlightenment-philosophy

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the geographic epicenter?Originated in France, with significant developments across Western and Central Europe
2. What was the Enlightenment?The Enlightenment was a time in the late 1600s and 1700s when thinkers used reason to make society fairer and brighter.
3. Why did Enlightenment thinkers want to change religion and politics?They believed that faith alone and monarchs with unchecked power were unfair, so they used logic and evidence to challenge those ideas.

Empiricism: The theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience and observation.
Social Contract Theory: The idea that individuals implicitly agree to surrender some freedoms for protection and societal order.
Secularism: The principle of separating state affairs from religious institutions and beliefs.