The Enlightenment1700s

The Age of Reason or The Age of Rationalism

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