In five pages this paper contrasts and compares Enlightenment ideals with later political ideologies of fascism and communism. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
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have posed the greatest challenges to Enlightenment ideals. In order for a student to back up this claim, that he or she has suggested, a look at fascism and
communism is warranted. Also, an inquiry into the Enlightenment--what it was and what it meant--is also relevant. How do fascism and communism differ from Enlightenment ideals on both an intellectual
level and in historical context ? First, what was the Enlightenment and how have things changed ideologically since that time? The Enlightenment is a bit of an enigma as
it is not easily defined. It was a part of history that encompassed much of the world and took place during the time when America was about to achieve independence.
According to Hampson, the Enlightenment period was a time when the culture of the educated was thought to encompass the whole of human knowledge (11). It was an exciting time
in world history as well as in the United States. Some consider the Enlightenment to be a blanket term, defining one of several dominant intellectual movements in the eighteenth century
(McLeish 235). Further, its roots can be traced back to earlier days such as the Reformation in the sixteenth century (235). There was a paradigm shift as the
Enlightenment approached in that man was now seen as master of his destiny as opposed to simply being under the rule of an invisible God (Hampson 35). Francis Bacon, in
the early seventeenth century, began to reject authority and tradition in many areas of learning. In fact, his poem entitled The Life of Man includes the lines: "Yet since with
sorrow here we live opprest, What life is best? Courts are but only superficial schools To dandle fools. The rural parts are turned into a den Of savage men. And