To what extent was the Enlightenment socially inclusive Essay

To what extent was the Enlightenment socially inclusive - Essay Example Scholars such as Robert Darnton associated enlightenment with the conventional enlightenment philosophy. As observed by modern scholars, to understand the extent in which enlightenment was socially inclusive, systematic evaluation on intellectual progress that took place to both intellectuals and other people from different social status is vital (Hof 1994, p. 91). Initially, enlightenment involved both low and high enlightenment process in Europe at different levels. The essay will therefore focus on the extent in which enlightenment was socially inclusive. The extent to which enlightenment was socially inclusive in the European continent in the 18th century can best be evaluated by systematically analysing two enlightenments, the low enlightenment and the high enlightenment. The high enlightenment is the intellectual progress among the intelligent people of the 18th century who included professional elites and nobles. These elites and other intellectuals in the society were also in a position of accessing, reading, and writing publications such as encyclopaedia (Israel 2001, p. 127). In addition, high enlightenment received impetus from natural philosophical writings and publications. The works and publications of natural philosophers as well as the role of academic institutions increased the popularity and intellectual curiosity of the high enlightenment. Moreover, the elites and professionals in the 18th century came up with â€Å"Republic of Letters† that were read by people from different states in Europe (Chukwudi Eze 1996, P. 256). Professionals and social elites who did not take part in writing publications participated in reading and debating the enlightenment ideas and teaching either in their social gathering or in salon centres. Social and political leaders and advisors also showed endless interests in opinions, teachings, and ideas that were contained in the â€Å"Republic Of Letters†. Religious leaders including Frederick the great also confirmed that, the ideas and contents that were contained in the â€Å"Republic of Letters† demonstrated religious tolerance in the treatment of Huguenots, Jesuits and Jews (Muthu, 2003, p. 137). Despite being apparent, the definition and the explanation of the ideas that are contained in high enlightenment has proved to be complicated. Example of the existing contradictions in the understanding and definition of the contents contained in enlightenment is found in â€Å"Essay on Miracle† composed by David Hume’s in 1748. The essay questions the existence of miracle as stated in the publications that talk about enlightenment. Thomas Sherlock’s â€Å"Trial of the Witness of the Resurrection of Jesus† (1729) confirms the existence of miracle in the society. Currently, there is no specific party charter that can be used by scholars to understand the enlightenment principles (Rousseau and Porter 1990, P. 147). Despite insufficient information rega rding enlightenment principles, scholars have made several generalisations on the principles of enlightenment. Enlightenment talked about the significance and relevance of intellectual curiosity. Enlightenment also emphasised the importance of pursuing practical ideas that could improve human life. In addition, scholars also taught the significance of independent mind and debate as well as the need for revaluation of the entire bodies of knowledge (Black 1990, p. 91). Low

Assignment 7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Assignment 7 - Essay Example Therefore, it is imperative to use the three main steps. Organizing involves, grouping the data collected according to the patterns formed by the data collected. Organizing the data will help the researcher to store easily and retrieve without confusing with other stored data. Description involves delineating the data collected. The large amounts of data collected have different features and characteristics. Describing them will be imperative, as it will help the researcher to identify data with the similar characteristics. In addition, description helps in data organization. The final step in the inductive process is interpreting, interpreting involves analyzing, assessing and elucidating the data collected in order to fathom. Interpreting, further, is important as it helps in finding solution to the research problem; it also helps in finding the most accurate conclusion. Every data collected has to include statistics. Statistics helps in understanding patterns presented in data collected. Nevertheless, in order to realize a pattern formed by data collected, researchers should collect data more than three times (Calhoun, 2008). Statistics involves collecting, organizing and interpreting numerical figures (Calhoun, 2008). Quantitative data is interpreted with statistics. Researchers can use expressive and inferential when analyzing data statistically. Both descriptive and inferential statistics have similar ways of quantifying data but differ in different strategies. Both statistics involves more than one group. In addition, if researchers are analyzing one group of people they can use both statistics more than once. Researchers can use both statistics to find the hypothesized results depending on the type and method of collecting data. Despite the similarities in descriptive and inferential statistics, they differ in the methods of analyzing data. De scriptive statistics uses mathematical procedures that help in organizing and