SOC231H5 Final: soc231 test concepts
Document Summary
The enlightenment period refers to the intellectual movement that started during the english revolution, and carried on through the french. This was during the 18th century and it was viewed as an intellectual and social movement to shed light of reason on society. Perhaps the most important thing which arose during the enlightenment was an important shift from religion to science. Newton created the empirical method which had underlying assumptions and used reason with observation as the basis of acquiring truth. Newton"s scientific method was originally utilized in the realms of physics and math but was soon adopted into other realms, such as the social sciences. This scientific method was for the first time being applied to society in order to understand it. All aspects of society where subjected to this form of scientific analysis, including religion. It was believed that by understanding the forces of a society, one could determine their direction and control their consequences.
