Enlightenment thinking
The two documents that define Enlightenment thinking, a completely new way of thinking, are the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. ... This was a completely different concept than that that of the pre-Enlightenment era. ... The age of Enlightenment started an avalanche of questions and rethinking of the commonly held beliefs. ... This was a complete shift in thinking. ... He based the document on the ‘natural law’, as taught during the Enlightenment. ... These documents draw a line between the new way of thinking brought on by the Enlightenment, and the old ways of thinking in where a few individuals determined the course of society.