Theories Of The Enlightenment
Zenobia Wright
Chapter 1
(2) Define and briefly explain both the Enlightenment and counter Enlightenment. In addition, explain how each sociology's founding fathers' work embodies both movements.
The Enlightenment started around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe. Simply put, it was a period of awakening because individuals in society started having new thoughts and ideas about the world around them. Instead of just relying on religion for answers, individuals wanted to know the reason behind why things were the way they were and wanted science to be able to prove it. They also wanted changes to be made in regards to their government, churches, and economy. In addition, the Enlightenment period is what gave rise to …show more content…
Basically what is happening in society is that individuals are worshipping or glorifying man made objects and alienating or possibly even disassociating them from the people who did the manual labor. For example, many people have cars in today's society. However, when we go out and purchase a car, we don't take into consideration all of the people who played a part in constructing the car. We tend to isolate the car from those who put in the labor. As a result, all we see is the shiny paint, the nice wheels, fancy interior, and all those other aspects of the car that we presume as "valuable". This is true for pretty much any commodity or man made object that we have today. There is nothing material in particular that makes a specific commodity or object "valuable" or worth worshipping, this is more so an objective thought in our minds that says you need this, or owning this particular commodity will bring you status or make you more socially accepted. As a result, prices on commodities increase due to supply and demand. The more people who glorify or are in want of an object, the more labor is required to produce more of the good. The end result, is the price of that commodity being
Chapter 1
(2) Define and briefly explain both the Enlightenment and counter Enlightenment. In addition, explain how each sociology's founding fathers' work embodies both movements.
The Enlightenment started around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe. Simply put, it was a period of awakening because individuals in society started having new thoughts and ideas about the world around them. Instead of just relying on religion for answers, individuals wanted to know the reason behind why things were the way they were and wanted science to be able to prove it. They also wanted changes to be made in regards to their government, churches, and economy. In addition, the Enlightenment period is what gave rise to …show more content…
Basically what is happening in society is that individuals are worshipping or glorifying man made objects and alienating or possibly even disassociating them from the people who did the manual labor. For example, many people have cars in today's society. However, when we go out and purchase a car, we don't take into consideration all of the people who played a part in constructing the car. We tend to isolate the car from those who put in the labor. As a result, all we see is the shiny paint, the nice wheels, fancy interior, and all those other aspects of the car that we presume as "valuable". This is true for pretty much any commodity or man made object that we have today. There is nothing material in particular that makes a specific commodity or object "valuable" or worth worshipping, this is more so an objective thought in our minds that says you need this, or owning this particular commodity will bring you status or make you more socially accepted. As a result, prices on commodities increase due to supply and demand. The more people who glorify or are in want of an object, the more labor is required to produce more of the good. The end result, is the price of that commodity being