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The British government, for the most part, ignored the Enlightenment's leaders in England and Scotland, although it did give Newton a knighthood and a very lucrative government office. A common theme among most countries which derived Enlightenment ideas from Europe was the intentional non-inclusion of Enlightenment philosophies pertaining to ...
Between 1714 and 1818, an intellectual change took place in the Thirteen Colonies that changed them from a largely distant backwater into a leader in various fields, moral philosophy, educational reform, religious revival, industrial technology, science, and, most notably, political philosophy, the roots of this change were homegrown. [14]
The American Enlightenment was a critical precursor of the American Revolution. Chief among the ideas of the American Enlightenment were the concepts of natural law, natural rights, consent of the governed, individualism, property rights, self-ownership, self-determination, liberalism, republicanism, and defense against corruption.
The British government generally ignored the Enlightenment's leaders. Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia 1740–1786, was an enthusiast for French ideas [citation needed] (he ridiculed German culture and was unaware of the remarkable advances it was undergoing [citation needed]).
Universities in northern Europe were more willing to accept the ideas of Enlightenment and were often greatly influenced by them. For instance, the historical ensemble of the University of Tartu in Estonia, that was erected around that time, is now included in the European Heritage Label list as an example of a university in the Age of Enlightenment.
John Locke's portrait by Godfrey Kneller, National Portrait Gallery, London. John Locke (/ l ɒ k /; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 ()) [13] was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism".
Within the hierarchy of the salons, women assumed a role of governance. Initially an institution of recreation, salons became an active institution of Enlightenment. [16] Suzanne Necker, wife to Louis XVI's financial minister, provides an example of how the salons' topics may have had a bearing on official government policy. [17]
Key ideas that sparked changes in philosophy were the fast progress of science, including evolution, most notably postulated by Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and theories regarding what is today called emergent order, such as the free market of Adam Smith within nation states, or the Marxist approach ...