The eighteenth century is the Age of Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment popularizes the ideas developed during the Age of Reason.
The Enlightenment is basically the view or belief that modern science and our
understanding of the social world derived from modern science can help us to
improve the living conditions on this planet. War, poverty, and injustice
are not God-given punishments for our sinfulness but bad management.
Oppressive governments can be reformed or overthrown. Social inequality
can be alleviated and, maybe, overcome. Disease is not to be accepted
stoically but to be fought with new medicines. Poverty can be reduced
through the productivity of new inventions and technologies. Ignorance can
be overcome through universal public education. Human societies are
perfectible if only we have the will and use our scientific knowledge to plan
and socially engineer for a better future. There is no limit to what human
reason and ingenuity can achieve. The French Enlightenment thinkers are known as the
philosophes. They are not really philosophers but what we would today call
journalists or popularizers. One of the great achievements of the philosophes was the
publication of the Encyclopédie. All those who contributed articles are
known as the Encyclopedists. Philosophes and encyclopedists are often used
as interchangeable terms when describing the French Enlightenment.
Opponents of the French government's plans to legalize same-sex marriage
and adoption took to the streets of Paris in January. With an estimated
350,000 marchers, the demonstration was considered one of the largest in
years. The French government took note, but vowed go ahead with
its plans for the law anyway.
France now joins Britain in taking a major legislative
step in recent weeks toward allowing gay marriage and adoption — making
them the largest European countries to do so. The Netherlands, Belgium,
Norway and Spain, as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa have
authorized gay marriage, along with nine U.S. states and the District of
Columbia.
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