Age of Enlightenment

Examples of Age of Enlightenment in the following topics:

• Monarchies and Liberal Democracies

  • Currently, 44 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state, 16 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognize Queen Elizabeth II of England as their head of state.
  • The twentieth century saw a major escalation of this process, with many monarchies violently overthrown by revolution or war, or abolished as part of the process of decolonization.
  • Currently, 44 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state—16 of those are Commonwealth realms that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state.
  • Liberal democracy traces its origins, and its name, to the European 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment.
  • Near the end of the 18th century, these ideas inspired the American and French Revolutions, the latter giving birth to the ideology of liberalism, and instituting forms of government that attempted to apply the principles of the Enlightenment philosophers into practice.

• The Spread of Liberal Democracy

  • According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, with the presence of multiple and distinct political parties.
  • Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to the European 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment.
  • These conventional views were first challenged by a relatively small group of Enlightenment intellectuals who believed that human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality.
  • Near the end of the 18th century, these ideas inspired the American Revolution and the French Revolution, the pair of which gave birth to the ideology of liberalism and instituted forms of government that attempted to apply the principles of Enlightenment philosophy in practice.
  • Defend the notion of liberal democracy using examples from its enlightenment origins

• Secularism and the Future of Religion

  • In studies of religion, modern Western societies are generally recognized as secular.
  • Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement; this process is known as secularization.
  • Coined by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851, secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, and it now plays a major role in Western society.
  • When discussing activities, secularization refers to the transfer of activities from institutions of a religious nature to others without that character.
  • Discuss the rise of secularism and its response in the West

• Pluralism

  • These can range from the advocacy of equal respect for the various cultures in a society, to a policy of promoting the maintenance of cultural diversity, to policies in which people of various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities according to the definition of the group to which they belong.
  • Multiculturalism has been an official policy in several Western nations since the 1970s, for reasons that vary from country to country, including the fact that many of the great cities of the Western world are increasingly made of a mosaic of cultures.
  • The Canadian government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration.
  • Multiculturalism in Western countries was seen as a useful set of strategies to combat racism, protect minority communities of all types, and to undo policies that had prevented minorities from having full access to the opportunities for freedom and equality promised by the liberalism that have been the hallmark of Western societies since the Age of Enlightenment.
  • Harvard professor of political science Robert D.

• Democracy

  • Democracy is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine policy, laws, and state actions.
  • Democracy is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine public policy, the laws, and the actions of their state.
  • The concept of representative democracy arose largely from ideas and institutions that developed during the European Middle Ages and the Age of Enlightenment and in the American and French Revolutions.
  • In some definitions of republic, a republic is a form of democracy.
  • According to some theories of democracy, popular sovereignty is the founding principle of such a system.

• Postindustrial Societies: The Birth of the Information Age

  • An example of the Information Age is how virtually every individual uses the Internet in some way at their place of work.
  • The Information Age formed by capitalizing on computer microminiaturization advances.
  • The Information Age has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society due to the fast evolution of technology use in daily life.
  • This graph shows the drastic increase in Internet usage, indicative of the pervasiveness of the Information Age.
  • Examine the impact the Information Age has on the accessibility and breadth of information available to society

• Age and Race

  • Aging does not result in similar outcomes for members of different races.
  • There is evidence that black senior citizens are more likely to be abused - both physically and psychologically and suffer greater financial exploitation than do white senior citizens.Further, recent demographic profiles suggest that social aging varies across racial groups, and demonstrates that minority elders (especially Hispanic and African American identified) typically enter later life with less education, less financial resources, and less access to health care than their white counterparts.Finally, researchers have noted that minority groups' greater likelihood of facing patterns of structural disadvantage throughout the life course, such as racial discrimination, poverty, and fewer social, political, and economic resources on average, create significant racial variations in the stages or age-related trajectories of racial minorities and majorities that may be observed at all points of the life span, and contribute to disparities in health, income, self-perceived age, mortality, and morbidity.
  • As a result, sociologists often explore the timing (in both subjective and objective conceptualizations of age) of varied life events within and between racial groups while exploring ways that age-related disparities influence the structural realities and bio-social outcomes of people located within different racial groups.

• The Role of Age

  • Age is an important factor in U.S. politics because there is a correlation between age and rates of political participation and because it is a determining factor in the issues people care about.
  • The lower voting rates of young people in the U.S. help explain why things like Medicare and Social Security in the U.S. are facing looming crises—the elderly will retain many of the benefits of these programs and are unwilling to allow them to be changed even though young people will be the ones to suffer the consequences of these crises.
  • Its mission is to improve the quality of life for retired people and people over the age of 50.
  • Its total revenue in 2006 was approximately $1 billion, of which $23 million was spent on lobbying.
  • Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign was notable for attracting large numbers of young voters.

• Work and Technology

  • The Information Age has impacted the workforce through automation and computerization, resulting in higher productivity and fewer jobs.
  • The Information Age has impacted the workforce in several ways.
  • There is another way in which the Information Age has impacted the workforce: automation and computerization have resulted in higher productivity coupled with net job loss.
  • The basic characteristic of this sector is the production of services instead of end products.
  • Discuss the shift in the economy from mechanization to automation due to the Information Age and its impact on the modern industrial worker

• Age and Gender

  • This is of special concern considering women live longer than men, as illustrated in the next figure.
  • Men are also more "successful" when attempting suicide, which increases the rate of death among men of suicide.
  • Another factor that may contribute to the greater life expectancy of women is the different types of jobs men and women tend to have during their lifetimes.
  • Other biological factors likely play a role, including greater heart health among women, though how much they contribute to the greater longevity of women is not entirely clear.
  • The combined effect of all these differences may or may not account for the longevity gap between men and women, but it is clear that women do live longer than men and that holds true around the world.