Enlightenment

Enlightenment
1.”Age of Reason” –Reason or logic was used
to Improve society.
2. Natural laws (Universal laws that are always
true) were used to improve society
3. Governments received their authority(power)
from the people –Not from God. They believed
in democracy.
4. Scientific Rev and Enlightenment
encouraged spread of new ideas and use of
reason.
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Enlightenment Thinkers
1. Thomas Hobbes
2. John Locke
3. Baron de Montesquieu
4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
5. Voltaire
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Leviathan
A Leviathan is a huge
“sea monster”
represents the all
powerful government
Hobbes believed exist to
avoid chaos
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Thomas Hobbes
• English Philosopher
• Published the Leviathan
• In the beginning, people lived in anarchy
• Life is violent and dangerous
• People choose a leader to rule them and protect
them
• People give Monarch absolute power
• A social contract creates stability
• People only have the right to protect themselves
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Who wrote the Two Treatises of Government?
The mystery
author!
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John Locke
• English Philosopher
• Published Two Treatises of Government
• People have made a social contract
• But have kept:
• The right to life, liberty and property
• Rulers must preserve these rights
• If not, people have the right to overthrow
such ruler and replace him for breaking
the social contract
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French agreed with his ideas…The people
should rebel!
The Storming of Bastille
Liberty leading the
People
by Delacroix
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Locke vs. Hobbes
•What was the
differences in their
ideas about Social
Contracts?
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Baron de Montesquieu
• Promoted the idea of a government with
separation of powers.
• Wrote a book The Spirit of the Laws,
• Executive Branch: to enforce the laws
• Legislative Branch: to make the laws
• Judicial Branch: to interpret the laws, or
make sure they are fair. (Supreme Court)
• Thought that individual rights should be
protected.
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Rousseau
• French Author and thinker. Published The Social
Contract- everyone works for common good of
society
• Believed that the (Popular Sovereignty) power
to rule belonged to the people, and governments
should receive their authority from the people.
• Believed that people had the right to rise up
against their government and carry out needed
changes.
• "Man is born free and everywhere he is in
chains."
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Francis-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)
(Voltaire)
• Wrote Candide in 1759 in which he
analyzes the problem of evil in the world
and depicts the woes heaped upon the
world in the name of religion
• His battle cry against the Roman
Catholic Church was ecrasez l’infame
(“crush the damned thing”) Believed in
religious freedom and freedom of
speech.
• "I disapprove of what you say but I
will defend to the death your right
to say it."
• "It is dangerous to be right when the
government is wrong.
• French Author and thinker.
• "Man is free at the moment he wishes to
be”
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There should be “separation
of church and state”
This was Voltaire's belief
Church State 12

Enlightenment Philosophers
Thinker Main Ideas Type of Government
Hobbes •Wrote the Leviathan (1651)
•convinced that all humans were naturally selfish and wicked
•Social Contract
Absolute Monarchy
Locke
Voltaire
Montesquieu
Rousseau
Beccaria
•Humans are reasonable and could learn from mistakes
•All people are born free and equal-life, liberty, & pursuit of happiness
•Government comes from consent of people
•Thought to be the most brilliant of the philosophes
•Believed in freedom of speech-used literature as his weapon
•Separation of powers (checks and balances)
•United States used his ideas as basis for government
•Believed that civilization corrupted people’s natural goodness
•Believed that man was born free but governments hinder peoples
freedom
•Laws exist to preserve order not to avenge crimes
•Ideas became basis of US Bill of Rights-outlawed torture, speedy
trials, etc.
Self-Government
(Democracy)
Democracy
Democracy
Direct Democracy
Democracy
(Greatest good for the
greatest number of
people)
Wollstonecraft •Argued for women’s rights Democracy (Equal
Rights)

Copy these quotes into your notebook and draw a small image next to each to
illustrate it!
All mankind... being all equal and
independent, no one ought to harm
another in his life, health, liberty or
possessions. – John Locke
Without governments, there would be
“war….of every man against every man”-
Thomas Hobbes
I do not agree with a word you say but
will defend to the death your right to say
it- Voltaire
Power should be a check to power-
Montesquieu
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in
chains- Rousseau

Key effects(results) 0f the
Enlightenment
• 1. Believed could overthrow unfair
governments-led to revolutions in
U.S., France and Latin America.
• 2. Enlightened Despots –European
monarchs who ruled using
Enlightenment principles (ideas)
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Salons Spread Enlightenment ideas :Mme. Geoffrin entertains.
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Enlightenment Ideas affect the
culture
Desire for geometric shapes, orderly
repetition in mathematical patterns
Dislike for “messiness” and “Chaos”
Preference for Democracy
Preference for civilized, polite
discussion of ideas. Intellectual
debate not force.
Desire to create social standards
based on reason not tradition.
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Gardens -Straight lines, 90 degree corners, the stuff to
warm the heart of an Enlightenment thinker. Thus,
hedge--mazes appear across Europe.
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Even the untidiness of natural hair disturbs Enlightenment society. Thus, the tradition of the
perfectly coiffed wig appears in the age of Washington and Jefferson and Marie Antoinette.
Powdered porcelain make-up and other cosmetics become fashionable and artificial
“beauty” patches (bits of black cloth with adhesive) are used to create artificial moles or
freckles (or to hide natural ones.) It is an age of artifice.
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Architecture-studied
the ideas and art of
ancient Greece and
Rome.”Neoclassical”
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Whose house is this and what architecture
inspired it?
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ART-Rococo Style-Painting
Softer, more delicate style than
baroque shell-like decoration
used in gardens.
Art as happy, witty, frivolous,
playful
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What famous Enlightenment
painting is this?
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Liberty Leading the
People
Lady Liberty
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Changes In music and
Literature
• Lighter and more
elegant sound.
• 3 Great composers
were from Vienna
• Franz Haydn
• Wolfgang Mozart
• Beethoven
• Literature –novels
• Growing Middle class
made novels and
fiction popular
• Dictionary-Samuel
Johnson 1755
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Jonathan Swift
A Modest Proposal recommended
that poor Irish children be butchered,
roasted and served for Sunday
dinners. It would reduce population
and provide income.
Gulliver’s Travels Horses put humans
to shame. Mocked humans as Yahoos
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