Renaissance Vs Enlightenment

Throughout history, huge developments in science, art, building, etc. were usually attributed to a group of people or a civilization. For example, cuneiform was made by the Sumerians, pyramids were built by the Egyptians, and democracy was developed by the Greeks. Very few of the major inventions and ideas in the ancient world were accredited to an individual. In the ancient world, civilizations work together as one, and the individual had no place in society. Everything was about being one. However, starting with the Renaissance, and leading up to the Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment periods, the focus switches. The individual was finally in the picture. This change begins in the 1300s with the start of the Renaissance. The Europeans
In the 1600s, they started exploring the areas of reason and law as well as science. They believed that reason could be used to solve any problems. During this Enlightenment period, thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Baron de Montesquieu discussed their opinions on government and the human condition. Thomas Hobbes said that laws must evolve to respond to changes in nature and environment. People should first choose leaders and then follow them unless the rules fail to satisfy the needs of the masses. John Locke thought that man was born with a tabula rasa, or blank slate. Environment is what shapes man, and by reforming the environment, laws could be improved. Like Hobbes, he thought that leaders who failed to uphold the social contract should be removed. Around this time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a composer born in Austria, was another influential member of the Enlightenment. Not only was he a child prodigy, but he lived up to his fame as an adult. His music was revolutionary, and he wrote for the general people, not solely for the