5.1 - The Enlightenment Flashcards
What are the two main ideas when thinking about Enlightenment?
- Promoted the use of logic & reasoning which challenged the role of religion and absolutist kingdoms
- Paved the way for reforms and political revolutions
When did the Enlightenment occur?
Between the 17th and 18th centuries
What were the two things the Enlightenment was inspired by?
The Scientific Revolution and the Renaissance
What did John Locke argue? (2 points)
- All men have a right to liberty, life, and property
- People are naturally reasonable and moral
What did Jean-Jacques Rousseau argue? (4 points)
- The Social Contract Theory: “man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains”
- believed we should get rid of civilization and return to the “state of nature”
- Believed people should give up their rights and submit to the general will of the people
- influenced democracy; government by the people
What did Thomas Hobbes argue? (4 points)
- People should adhere to a social contract with the government in order to avoid chaos
- Absolute monarchy was the best form of government
- Humans are born violent and disorderly
- People don’t have the right to rebel against government
What did Baron de Montesquieu argue/write?
The Spirit of the Laws - the government should have multiple branches as well as a checks and balances system between them (influenced the US)
What did Voltaire argue/write?
Candide - challenged the idea that “all is for the best in the best of all worlds” whatever the heck that means
- Rulers shouldn’t use religion to justify their rule
- Promoted religious freedom, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech
What did Mary Wollstonecraft argue?
She advocated for women’s writes and wrote “A Vindication for the Rights of a Woman”
What did Olympe de Gouges argue?
The French Revolution should include giving women suffrage
What were some significant changes due to the Enlightenment? (7)
- nationalist movements led to new American societies
- religious freedom increased
- women struggled for the right to vote
- industrial revolution started
- democratic systems in Europe & the Americas
- individual rights like freedom of speech
- european monarch’s powers declined
- abolitionists fought to end slavery
Who were the marginalized groups that began fighting for their rights?
Women, slaves, and serfs
Which of the marginalized groups gained their rights first?
Serfdom, which ended in 1750
What are some examples of women demanding suffrage (voting rights)?
- Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
- hosted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott
- rewrite the Declaration of Independence to include “that all men and women are created equal”
What was the book Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes about?
a state where people lived without a government and it was chaotic & brutal
What were John Locke’s essays “Two Treatises on Government” about? (3 points)
- The government was made to protect a human’s natural rights
- The government is responsible for the people
- If the government fails to do its job, people have the right to overthrow
(Influenced Thomas Jefferson)
What is Deism?
The idea that while there is a god who created the world, that god does not intervene with human history and lets the world run on its own
How did the Enlightenment impact the arts/the Classical Movement? Who were two prominent figures?
- the arts went back to Greek and Roman ideals that represented reason and order
- art, music, etc, all went back to order, simplicity, and clarity
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Johann Sebastian Bach
