What specific contributions did Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot Essay

What specific contributions did Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot make to the age of the Enlightenment - Essay Example With his ‘Philosophic Letters on the English’, Voltaire conveyed profound appreciation of English life including its religious toleration, political liberty, and freedom of the press. Aside from religious tolerance of the era, he also supported the advocacy for ‘deism’ or a religious perception based on Newtonian principle which assumed the existence of a mechanic (God) that formed the universe. Discuss the significance and the influence of John Locke and Isaac Newton on the Enlightenment. The age of Enlightenment also witnessed growing interest toward influences derived from scientific awareness the concepts of which had flourished through geniuses like Isaac Newton, who had his most remarkable creation of ‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’ published in 1687. The mathematical proofs for his universal law of gravitation as well as the full account of astronomical studies initiated by Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus were covered in t his work which also pointed out the essential rules of reasoning from which the Universal Law evolved. Consequently, Newton’s ‘Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy’ was crucial to the development of ‘Scientific Revolution’ wherein abiding by such is ascertained to reform a person’s view of the world, of European religious traditions, and of science in ancient times. The ‘Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy’ substantiates four primary rules to follow with the first being the admission of ‘no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearance’. Thus, based on the second rule, ‘to the same natural effects’ humans must ‘as... This paper includes questions and answers on the Enlightenment. Since the Enlightenment demonstrates a post-Renaissance interest focus in man as the enduring subject of intellectual revolution, the advancements of the era greatly favored reformations in philosophies and sciences between the 16th and 18th centuries. Hence, arts and literature were paid limited to negligible attention unlike in the period of Renaissance in which artistic pursuits of various forms counted in almost every aspect of living. Just as the Renaissance broke away from the Middle Ages when religious reign paved the way for the absolute rule of monarchs, so did the Enlightenment impair the spiritual and cultural values that were of indispensable value to arts and literature alike. While the Newtonian science, for instance, inevitably found its way to shape cultural expressions in the west, it highly manifests itself in philosophical forms complied with by Europeans who had attempted to determine parallels of sci entific approach with handling social affairs where discovery to resolve circumstances of human conflicts is of huge concern.