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AMERICA AND THE “ENLIGHTENMENTS”

Explore the historical transition of America and the impact of the Enlightenment era on its development. Learn about the transformation from tradition to progress, the influence of key philosophers, and the paradigm shifts towards interdependence, collaboration, and holistic thinking.

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AMERICA AND THE “ENLIGHTENMENTS”

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  1. AMERICA AND THE “ENLIGHTENMENTS” Seeding a Higher Level of Human Consciousness

  2. HISTORICAL TRANSITION • Third Transformation • Until We Transform We Will Be Stuck in Tradition • Need to Know From Whence We Came to Ask The Right Questions

  3. “The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, not a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” ……Thomas Jefferson

  4. AMERICA as an Experimental Laboratory • Individuality • Humanism & Secularism • Reason • Progress • Sovereignty of the People • Separation of Powers

  5. “The Revolution was more than just a protest against English authority; as it turned out, the American Revolution provided a blueprint for the organization of a democratic society. And while imperfectly done, for it did not address the terrible problem of slavery, the American Revolution was an enlightened concept of government whose most profound documents may have been the American Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution. To feel the full impact of the Enlightenment on America one needs only to look at the first inaugural address of Thomas Jefferson, who, along with Benjamin Franklin, is considered to be the American most touched by the ideas of the Enlightenment.” …..Henry J. Sage, 2012

  6. CONNECTIONS TO PHILOSOPHIES • Immanuel Kant • Voltaire • David Hume • Adam Smith • John Locke • Rousseau • Montesquieu

  7. EVOLUTIONARY PARADIGM SHIFTS • Independent to Interdependent • Radical Individualism to Connected Individuality • Linear to Non-Linear • Hyper-Competition to Deep Collaboration

  8. Shifting to a Second Enlightenment • Independent to Interdependent • Self-Interest to Help Each Other Succeed • Linear to Connective Thinking • Static Structures to Interlocking Modules Webs & Networks • Reductionism to Holism • Standard Education to Transformational Learning • Meaning From Wealth, Power and Control to Meaning from Creativity/Spiritualism

  9. Shifting to a Second Enlightenment • Competition to Collaboration • Certainty to Uncertainty and Ambiguity • Debate to Dialogue • One Best Answer to Choices • Culture Dumbed Down to Culture Constantly Upgraded • Representative Democracy to Mobile Collaborative Governance

  10. “We often mistake the “search for truth” for truth itself. One of the great challenges of the future will be to have leaders at all levels who are not ideologues and who do not get caught up in the “truth of the moment” for individual self-interest and power. A key idea of the Second Enlightenment will be to bring together different types of people who will explore new ways of looking at the world to help explain and facilitate a newly emerging time of interlocking complexities.” Rick Smyre President Center , Communities of the Future

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