The Enlightenment

The 18th Century Political History - Reform Intellectual History - Reason Cultural History - Individualism Social History - Increased Literacy

- Age of Aristocracy Economic History - Mercantilism

to Capitalism

Thomas Hobbes

Lived in England

(1588 – 1679)

Claim to Fame: Wrote the Leviathan

Big Ideas: government for self-protection. Thought that people were naturally bad and barbaric

John Locke (1632-1704)

From England

Claim to Fame: Wrote Two Treatises ofGovernment

John Locke’s Big Ideas

Natural rights to - life, liberty, property!

He favored a republic (leaders and representatives are elected by the people) as the best form of government.

Voltaire (1712-1778)

From France

Claim to Fame: Candide

Big Ideas: believed in freedom of religion and separation of church and state.

The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

France

Claim to Fame: Spirit of Laws, 1758

MontesquieuBig Ideas: All men are born equal. To prevent tyranny, there should be separation of powers in the government

Claim to Fame! Greatly influenced the United States: three branches of government

ExecutiveLegislativeJudicial

  "In a true state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of laws."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

France

The Social Contract, 1762

Rou“social contract”

Rousseau Believed that total freedom is the natural condition of human beings, and that people enter into society (and into having social and political restrictions on their own freedom) voluntarily.

Why do people do this? People trade natural liberty for civil liberty (liberty protected by the state/government) for the good of everyone – to benefit/promote the whole community.

The appropriate form of government for any state depends on the character of the people.

Big Idea = Government should be subject to review/be changed by its citizens (SOCIAL CONTRACT)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Encouraged the American

Revolution

Common Sense, 1776

The Rights of Man, 1791

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless. “

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

1724 – 1804 German/Prussia Claim to Fame: Critique of Pure Reason, 1781

Big Ideas:Peace Through Laws“Dare to Know”

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) England

EQUALITY/RIGHTS FOR WOMEN!!!

Vindication of the Rights of Women

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”

Catherine the Great

1729 – 1796

Russia

Big Ideas – Enlightened monarch (allowed many freedoms, and promoted art, science and education in Russia)

Claim to Fame – longest ruling female leader of Russia

Benjamin Franklin

1706 – 1790

American

Thinker, inventor – promoted the idea of civic duty, people should volunteer and work together

“First American”

Founding Father

Thomas Jefferson

1743 – 1826

Virginia (Albemarle County)

Big Ideas – blended together many Enlightenment ideas

Wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

Capitalism – New Economic Idea Adam Smith - 1776 - The Wealth of Nations

What did Smith believe in? Profit (making $) motivates people. Division of labor. Private ownership of

property. Law of Supply & Demand. Law of Competition (it’s a good thing). Free trade.