foregrounded rationalism and empiricism as the basis of knowledge, which most modern people have
seen as an advance over superstition and unquestioned obedience to received authority. There is
a comfort in hypotheses that can be tested and verified (or not), in experiments that can be
duplicated. Most of us also could not live without the technological advances that the primacy
of science brought, such as electrical lighting, mass transit, vaccines, phones, and
computers.
The Enlightenment led to ideas such as the natural rights of man
which posited that certain rights, such as individual liberty, were part of the nature of the
universe and not dependent on the whims of a monarch or government. This resulted in many
developments we find positive, such as the implementation of democratic governments.
However, as many noted after World War I and World War II, the same rationalism and
faith in science that improved life immensely during the 19th century also led to
the...
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