Theses of some of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment

1700s

Like Stephen Colbert today, Voltaire was a master of satire who poked fun at the illogical aspects of society and cleverly caused his readers to rethink generally accepted ideas on war, religion, superstition, etc. He often sarcastically wrote the opposite of what he meant to illustrate the folly of society.

General Enlightenment:VOLTAIRE

People must leave their “self-caused immaturity” and make use of their reason in all matters so that they can lessen the power of those who keep them in the dark and can create a better reason-based “Enlightenment” society.

Kant wanted people to think for themselves and not let self-serving “guardians” such as priests, governments, society, and tradition guide “lazy and cowardly” people into illogical or harmful practices.

General Enlightenment:Immanuel KANT

Writing a century before the Enlightenment, Hobbes believed an Absolutist ruler was necessary to protect people from themselves and their darker instincts, which would emerge if people were free to rule themselves. (Imagine life without a police force.)

He believed that people voluntarily allowed monarchs to rule over them. This was radical and controversial, because he implied that power comes from the consent of man, and not from any God-given “Divine Right”. (See next slide)

Political Enlightenment:Thomas HOBBES 1

Hobbes believed that without a king, people would compete and fight for power, wealth, and survival with the biggest and most brutal emerging victorious. Life would be reduced a state of war in which the sides would be “all vs. all”.

He stated that without a Leviathan strong and powerful enough to keep the peace and protect people from each other, life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” …kind of like Mr. Lewin.

Political EnlightenmentThomas Hobbes 2

Close-ups of illustrationof Hobbes’ Leviathan

Locke believed Absolutist monarchs make an unspoken agreement with those they govern, as “Divine Right” does not exist. Instead, the people accept and are duty-bound to obey a government so long as it protects people’s “natural rights” of Life, Liberty, and Property.

Whenever a government fails to protect these rights of the people, that government may be replaced by the people. Locke is therefore the intellectual inspiration of the US Declaration of Independence.

Political Enlightenment:John LOCKE

Believing that anyone receiving total, unchecked power would be bound to abuse it, Montesquieu believed in a Separation of Powers in which power should be spread among different people needing others’ consent to take action.

Tired of corrupt, ineffective monarchs like those of his native France, Montesquieu’s idea of power being shared among the rich and educated makes him the intellectual inspiration of the US Constitution with its non-dictator elected President.

Political Enlightenment: Charles de Secondat,

Baron de la Brede et de MONTESQUIEU

Accepting Absolutism in most cases, Rousseau strongly rejected Divine Right. Instead, he believed in a “Social Contract” in which people would agree to obey laws that reflected a society’s common beliefs called the “General Will”.

A leader not respecting the General Will can and should be overthrown. A person breaking laws in agreement with the General Will could and should have his or her freedoms taken away in some way such as fines or imprisonment.

Political Enlightenment:Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU

Paine and the Deists (including most leaders of American independence) only believed in the parts of traditional Christianity that could meet the test of reason.

Deism tries to bring faith and reason together by believing in only the Christian beliefs that can stand the test of reason. They believe God is like a “watchmaker” who set the Earth in motion, but then got out of the way and does NOT directly intervene in peoples’ lives.

Therefore, Deists reject the authority of priests, belief in miracles, and original sin. Instead, they see Jesus as a great moral teacher, but not as a super-being who rose from the dead, hears peoples’ prayers, and acts upon them. To Deists, Christian ethics are the basis of religion, not faith and rituals.

Religious Enlightenment:DEISTS (Thomas Paine)

Skeptics reached the conclusion that when subjected to the Scientific Method and pure intellectual reason, one must conclude that religion is probably false, as it is a product of man’s superstition, fear of the unknown, and quest for answers.

However, society’s general belief in this almost-assuredly nonexistent God brings far more benefits to society than harm. It provides comfort, hope, a fair moral code, and an explanation for man’s existence. It is therefore both understandable and good that religion exists so long as it helps mankind rather than hurts it.

Religious Enlightenment:SKEPTICS (David Hume)

Atheists believe religion is not only false, but also illogical, unnecessary, counter-productive and harmful to both the individual and society.

They believe it is abused to justify injustice, and keeps people from bettering both themselves and society, for man does not need to believe in “phantoms” to act morally or to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Religious Enlightenment:ATHEISTS (The Baron d’Holbach)