The Enlightenment Period is one in which people began to think outside of the bounds of the bible and religion. God was beginning to be thought of as more of a watcher from above of the complex world he created, rather than an active engager and controller of this world. Descartes’ famous phrase “cogito ergo sum” translates to “I think therefore I am,” and emphasizes the idea that many philosophers had developed: we are beings who are capable of thinking and making moral decisions on our own; we are guided by reason rather than the hand of God.

“I think therefore I am” is a phrase condensing the idea that because we can form thoughts about ourselves and our surroundings, the known and the unknown, we are conscious and self-aware beings. This was an important discovery because, since each human being held and practiced the ability to think, it put us all on a relatively equal ground; no one was above anyone else. Royalty no longer held a deity status and the application of gender roles and of racial status was to be seen as a suppression of one’s right to think and be as all other humans. Revolutions broke out during this period in which those in power, such as Kings, were slaughtered or overthrown. Due to the engagement of thought and a certain level of open-mindedness among people brought about by the Enlightenment Period, women and people of different races have been able to advance in society.