Question

This disaster demonstrated how European thinking had changed in the previous decades due to the Enlightenment.
Responses

Hurricane hitting Spain
Hurricane hitting Spain

Earthquake in Lisbon
Earthquake in Lisbon

Great Fire in London
Great Fire in London

Flooding of Paris

Answer 1

The disaster that best illustrates the changes in European thinking due to the Enlightenment is the **Earthquake in Lisbon** (1755).

Following the earthquake, which caused massive destruction and loss of life, there was a significant shift in philosophical discourse. Thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau began to question traditional beliefs about divine punishment and the role of God in human suffering. The disaster prompted debates about causality, rationality, and the need for human agency in addressing societal problems, reflecting the Enlightenment values of reason, empirical evidence, and social progress.

In contrast, while events like the Hurricane hitting Spain, the Great Fire in London, and the flooding of Paris had their own impacts, they didn't catalyze the same level of philosophical inquiry and re-evaluation of societal beliefs in the context of Enlightenment ideas that the Lisbon earthquake did.