the enlightenment 1700s the age of reason or the age of rationalism
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Background Info
Why did The Enlightenment Period begin? Privileged minority rules the majority Scientific Revolution – people want facts & no longer look to
God or gods for information about daily life. Monarchs ruling with absolute power
What is The Enlightenment? A period in the 1700s where philosophers believed that they
could apply the scientific method & reason to explain human nature logically
God did not act in human affairs Human actions determined the future
Quick Overview
Why was it important? And why do we need to study it? Many new political ideas
Some are in our founding documents! New ideas led to revolutions and new governments! Ideas still in use today!
Contributions The Encyclopedia – By Diderot & Jean d’ Alembert
28 volumes of complaints on the church, government, slave trade, taxes, & war
1751-1772 Salons – Gathering place for enlightenment women Revolutions
American Revolution 1776 French Revolution 1789
Enlightenment Thinkers
Philosophes Critics of society and government
The church Government
Published their beliefs in books, pamphlets, and plays.
Thomas Hobbes Lived through the English Civil War
People are naturally in a state of total freedom & chaos (anarchy) & need a government to keep order and stop self interest from taking over. SO, people give up their freedom to
enter a Social Contract An agreement between the people
and the government that they form
Contract is FINAL and the leader has absolute power!
John Locke“The Father of the Social Contract”
Modifies Hobbes’ theory by stating that people still have rights even under a social contract & government. Life, Liberty, & Property We need a government to protect those
rights
The people can amend (change) the contract! We have changed the Constitution 27 times!
If the government or leaders aren’t protecting the people’s rights – the people can overthrow them and create a new one!
Baron de Montesquieu
French author who wrote The Spirit of the Laws He describes the perfect government
His idea of a perfect government has 3 branches… Executive Legislative Judicial All of these have Checks & Balances which
allow each to limit or check the power of the other two.
Believed Great Britain had the best government
Voltaire
French author who wrote satires about the French government and the leaders of the church. Most famous was Candide
Believed in personal freedoms Freedom of Speech Freedom of Religion
Arrested twice for his views.
“I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Wrote The Social Contract
People are naturally good but their environment, laws, & education corrupt them. SO, government should be made by the
people, for the people Popular Sovereignty
“We, the People” in the US Constitution
Did not want a strong centralized government.
The only Enlightenment thinker who did not like the idea of reason or rationalism.
Mary Wollstonecraft
English author
1759-1797
Used Enlightenment thinkers’ ideas of equality to argue for women’s rights Equality for men and women
Long Term Effects
People fought for their new ideas in government and revolution ensued.
Many enlightenment ideas can be found in America’s founding documents! Especially the Declaration of
Independence, The Bill of Rights
(Amendments 1-10), The Constitution They still form the basis for
human rights violations