Ideas of the Enlightenment

The Philosophes

Ideas Before the Turmoil• The later part of the 18th century, new ideas were generating

throughout Europe.• People were desperate for change-many calling for reforms• Radicals called for limits on the king’s powers.• Ideas were not new• English Revolution• American Revolution

Thinkers of the Enlightenment• Philosophes- were the intellectuals of the

18th century Enlightenment. • They were men who applied reason to the

studies of politics, economics, science, and social issues.

• They looked for weakness and failures that needed improvement.

Thomas Locke• An English philosopher and physician• He believed that everyone had the

natural right to to defend his life, health, liberty and possessions.

• Known for his anti-authoritarian theory of state and advocacy of religious tolerance and theory of personal identity.

• He was famous for arguing that the divine right of kings is supported neither by scripture nor by the use of reason

Voltaire• Name: Francois-Marie Arouet

(French)• Had issues with the Catholic

Church and spoke out for religious freedom.

• He argued that the Catholic Church kept its members in the “dark” and robbed them of what money they possessed.

• He especially felt this way about the peasants (Third Estate)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau• Voiced that the king (King

Louis XVI) was not doing his job.

• Rousseau advocated that a ruler should rule according to the wishes of the citizens.

• His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought.

Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu

• Felt that there should be a balance of power.

• The government should be divided into three separate, but equal parts.

• He believed the governmental powers should be separate yet dependent upon each other so that the influence of any one power would not exceed that of the other two.

• The ruler should rule along side the citizens • They should share power, not one

group calling all the shots.

Thomas Hobbes• English philosopher best

known for his work on political thought.

• He advocated for the absolutism of the sovereign.

• Hobbes portrays the commonwealth as a gigantic human form built out of the bodies of its citizens, the sovereign as its head.

• Hobbes calls this figure the "Leviathan”.

• The image constitutes the definitive metaphor for Hobbes's perfect government.