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What were the major ideas of the Enlightenment? Compare them to the ideas of the Great Awakening
The Enlightenment was a movement aimed at intellectual change, and it was a wave which swept across Europe all the way to North America in the 18th century. The major political ideology of this period entailed an informative and comprehensive explanation and evaluation of social conditions; ensuring that there is a vision set forward for political action and coherent social programs. The seven most essential ideas of the Enlightenment entailed the following:
Progress
It was essential for humans to progress and attain maturity from slavery, superstition and immaturity. It was thus a focus on human history as a story of progress from immaturity to freedom and reason attainment.
Centrality of economics to politics
Ideally the well being of any society is immensely dependent on the structure of its economy, and it was thus essential that the social organization focusing on production and distribution be a core issue of importance.
Universality of Enlightenment
All human beings belong to a universal community and thus share a single nature that can be enlightened. It is thus essential for everyone to focus on their similarities rather than differences.
Secularism
This focused on the fact that there was need to separate religion from politics and there ought to be no specific official religion. Religious matters ought to have been a private issue.
Popular government
Maintained that aristocracy is not the only class that should exist within the government and people have the ability to rule themselves. It required the need for democracy and equality.
Human autonomy and reason in enlightenment
Enlightenment focuses on humans developing reason thorough maturity. Human autonomy being the essential of reason would ensure that the relationship between one’s freedom and that of the state is maintained. Reason would enable people to think rationally and thus attain the

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