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**The Enlightenment & Great Awakening**

**A Rising Challenge: The Enlightenment**

In the early 1700s, the Enlightenment spread across Europe, becoming a powerful cultural force that the Great Awakening would later refine.

- **Personal Agency:** The Enlightenment promoted the idea of individual sovereignty or free will, empowering people to consider their own needs and desires before those of monarchs or the church.

- **Waning Authority:** As authority came into question, the church's influence weakened, losing its unmatched authority over European life.

- **Societal Station:** Questioning the rights of priests and monarchs, many Europeans began to advocate for greater self-determination and the ability to earn their own station in life.

Threatened by the Enlightenment, many in power attempted to repress it, but its ideas nonetheless spread to the colonies with resounding effect.

**Question:**

What did believers in Enlightenment values argue should determine their societal station?

A. The station of their birth
B. The blessing of a monarch
C. Their own achievements

Answer :

Final answer:

Enlightenment thinkers argued that societal station should be determined by individual achievements rather than birth or royal blessing. This belief emphasized personal agency and meritocracy, radically challenging traditional views of hierarchy. Their ideas laid the foundation for modern concepts of equality and democracy.


Explanation:

The Enlightenment and Societal Station


Believers in the principles of the Enlightenment argued that people's societal station should be determined by their own achievements rather than by the circumstances of their birth or the favor of any monarch. This revolutionary idea emphasized individual capability and merit as the basis for social hierarchy, directly challenging the established norms where hereditary nobility and divine right often governed one's place in society.


The Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, posited that all individuals are born equal with inherent talents that should dictate their roles and status. This focus on personal agency laid the groundwork for modern democratic thought, influencing subsequent social movements that advocated for equality and justice.


Learn more about societal station here:

https://brainly.com/question/13170161