Candide: Difference between revisions

In the 18th century new ideas and philosophies were popping up everywhere. An intellectual movement in Europe known as as the Enlightment started to change the way man viewed his world. Also known as the age of reason, this was the road to understanding in which Voltaire lived. Isaac Newton introduced the idea that the universe was governed by setlaws that were also able to be discovered. This concept was detremental to the way people had prevously thought because it undermined the faith in a personal God. It was believed by many philosphers, such as Voltaire, that churches should not interfere with scientific research. By the end of the 1700's, the idea of self-government had changed in England and  started a revolution in France and America. Europe moved from an rural farming economy to an industrial one. At the end of this century the world had changed dramatically as the advances in science, political democracy, and religious freedom swept away the last traces of the Middle Ages (Gunnels & Sutton).