The Enlightenment Writers Essay, Research Paper

The Enlightenment Writers

The central ideas of the Enlightenment writers were similar to, yet very

different from, those of the writers of earlier periods. Four major

Enlightenment writers were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson,

and Patrick Henry.

Their main purpose was to write to educate and edify and not so much as

to write for aesthetic purposes. Most of their work was designed to convey

truth or give sound instruction on such issues of political, social, or economic

interest as Benjamin Franklin’s ?The Way to Wealth.?

The writers of the Enlightenment or, better put, die Aufklarung conveyed

the ideas of freedom, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom

from oppression, and the intellectual freedom that every man has a right to

whether it be oppressed by political or religious issues which were, at the time,

basically the same since the church and state were still one.

The Enlightenment writers pushed forward their ideas and beliefs that

all men should be educated and have the ability to read so that they might learn

more and rise higher, socially and politically which would lead to self

betterment.

Enlightenment writers and pre-Enlightenment writers were similar in the

way that they tried to convey reason and learning. They differed of the premise

of the techniques of writing. The pre-Enlightenment writers were mostly made up

of the educated class of clergy and the upper class, who would afford to go to

school. The clergy wrote mainly for the purposes of the church, such as

transcribing books or writing works on God or religion. The upper-class writers

would be of the nobility, so they would usually write for aesthetic purposes or

to write essays to impress their peers.

Many great ideas were presented and defended by the Enlightenment

writers which were similar yet different from writers form earlier periods.