Caroline Zhang

The Enlightenment ThinkersPhilosophe Ideals Major Works Other

Thomas Hobbes1588 - 1679

The government's purpose is to ensure peace

Social Contract - between citizens and leader, citizens give up rights for peace and security

People never have the right to rebel

Man is ultimately bad advocate absolutism

Leviathan (1651) - refers to Louis XIV

Wrote during English Civil War, advocate French system of government

John Locke1632 - 1704

The government's purpose is to create order and protect man's natural rights

Man has innate rights - life, liberty, property

Social Contract - people give up liberty in exchange for security, have the right to rebel if the government doesn't protect natural rights

man is tabula rase- blank mind, can improve social conditions

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) - blank slate

idea that knowledge is derived from reason

Isaac Newton1642 - 1727

World Machine- universe is a regulated and uniform machine operating according to natural laws

Principia (1686)

lead to ideas of a world based on reason

Rene Descartes1596 - 1650

Cartesian dualism - separation of body and mind

Emphasis on deduction- start with self evident truths (I think, therefore I am) and deduce conclusions

Discourse on Method (1637) -emphasis on the mind

lesser nobility

Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu1689 - 1755

Separation of powers - separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches to limit and control each other, imposing checks and balances

Look to nobility to protect people from monarchical despotism

Criticized French institutions (church)

Persian Letters (1721)

The Spirit of the Laws (1748) - comparative study of governments, apply scientific method to the social and political

was a member of the aristocracy

François-Marie Arounet, Voltaire1694 - 1778

The literate and intellectually curious of the social elite should be educated

Freedom of thought is most important

Attack the church, criticize traditional religion

Religious toleration deism

Philosophic Letters on the English (1733) - admiration of English government

Candide - play criticizing fanaticism and superstition

Treatise on Toleration (1763)

member of the middle class

Denis Diderot1713 - 1784

Attack Christianity Encyclopedia challenges

monarchical authority

Encyclopedia (1751 - 1765) - collaborative work, spread Enlightenment ideals

François Quesnay1694 - 1774

leader of the Physiocrats wealth = land, wealth can be

increased only by agriculture Natural forces of the economy -

supply and demand Government should not interfere

reject mercantilism

lay foundation for economic liberalism

Adam Smith1723 - 1790

The government's purpose is army, police, public works, colonies

wealth = labor three basic principles of

economics free trade, condemn use of

tariffs labor is a nation's true wealth state shouldn't interfere

Laissez-faire - "let do," noninterference

Inquiry into the Nature and Causes on the Wealth of Nations (1776)

three basic principles on economics, attack on mercantilism

lay foundation for economic liberalism

Baron Paul d'Holbach1723 - 1789

Strict atheism and materialism, God is the product of the human mind

universe = matter in motion humans are machines People should live to please

themselves

System of Nature (1770)

shock fellow philosophers with atheism

Marie-Jean de Condorcet1743 - 1794

Humans have progressed through nine stages of history

Humans are about to enter the tenth, perfect stage due to reason and science

The Progress of the Human Mind (1794)

lived in turmoil of the French Revolution

Jean - Jacques Rousseau1712 - 1778

Nature of man is good, but he is ruined by society and ownership of property

Social Contract - agreement on part of society to always be governed by its general will, people should give up some freedom in favor of the general will

Discourse on the Origins of Mankind

The Social Contract (1762)

Émile - describes ideal, natural, secular, education of the young

lower middle class

Mary Wollstonecraft1759 - 1797

Women should have equal rights in education, economics, and politics

subjection of women is like arbitrary power of monarchs over their subjects

Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

founder of modern feminism

Early PhilosophersHigh EnlightenmentLater Enlightenment