Absolutism and Enlightenment

The concepts of “Absolutism” and “Enlightenment” conflict because you cannot have one with the other with out problems. Absolutism is someone having complete power and control over something, while The Enlightenment is a philosophical movement that emphasized the use of reason to analyze previously accepted principles and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms. The two of these concepts cannot exist peacefully. While living in a country under the policies of absolutism, if a group of people starts to really think and analyze their government system and find there is something they don’t agree with they won’t be able to be heard by the leader without violence. Or if they just don’t like how things are run they are unable to protest without getting shot because the leader might fear a huge rebellion. A person from the enlightenment might realize that they should have more say in the country the live in and that it is wrong to put so much power in one persons hands. Logically if someone had too much power they could easily use it to do bad things. Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who said, “Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.” This quote is basically saying how anyone who is not part of the enlightenment movement is an idiot and has not yet grown enough to be able to live and think on their own. It also says that the only way to personally grow and mature is to think for yourself and to go on your own, lead, and help change the world for the better, instead of always following and doing what you are told. Since absolutism has one monarch in power who controls everything having people think outside the box and question authority could lead to them losing power. Absolutism is someone having complete power and control over something, while The Enlightenment is time where people thought more about everything and questioned things