Introduction


 * __ Introduction __**

Thomas Jefferson … Ben Franklin … John Adams … James Madison … Alexander Hamilton. All of these men were among our founding fathers. All of these men are considered great thinkers. But how smart were they? There was a group of thinkers who lived in Europe prior to and concurrent with our founding fathers. These thinkers worked in many fields from math and science to political philosophy. These men were so brilliant that the era of history in which they lived is called “The Enlightenment.” Many of their writings provided the theories and ideas that our founding fathers borrowed and built upon. In some ways, our founding fathers were **__copycats!__** To really understand the thinking of our founding fathers you need to understand the work of these Enlightenment thinkers. We will be studying the great European philosophers and thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and determining how the thoughts of these men helped bring on the American Revolution and shape the Constitution of the United States.

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