Enlightenment

Question 1

What is the Enlightenment? Why did it occur, and what was its impact on the world?

Question 2

Who were the major philosophers of the Enlightenment?

Answer 2

Hobbes,
Locke,
Montesquieu,
Wollstonecraft,
Rousseau,
Voltaire,
Beccaria,
Smith,
Diderot

Question 3

John Locke

Answer 3

•Humans are naturally reasonable, moral and good
•Humans have natural rights: life liberty and property
•People form governments to protect natural rights
•Best government was one with limited power
•If a government violates people’s natural rights, people have the right to overthrow government

Question 4

How are the Enlightenment thinkers similar and different from each other?

Answer 4

○ Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Wollstonecraft, Rousseau, Voltaire, Beccaria, Smith, Diderot

1) all wanted to improve human condition
2) valued reason, science, religious tolerance,
3) natural rights -life, liberty, and property

Question 5

● What new ideas were developed during the Enlightenment and sparked change in government and society?

Answer 5

1) separation of power (different branches of power. Keep each other in check)
2) Rights of man (all men are created equal)
3) separation of state and church (government separate from church)
4) materialism

Question 6

Thomas Hobbs

Answer 6

•Humans are naturally cruel, greedy and selfish.
•To escape this “brutish” life people entered into a social contract.
•Only a powerful government could ensure an orderly society.
•Believed only an absolute monarchy could keep a society completely orderly

• Wrote “The Leviathan”

Question 7

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer 7

Wrote “The Social Contract”
• Beliefs:
- People are naturally good;
society corrupts
- Some social controls are good - popular sovereignty
- People will give up freedoms to benefit the common good
• “Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.”

Question 8

Voltaire

Answer 8

Wrote “Manner of Spirits of Nation”
• Beliefs
- Very critical of the Catholic
Church
- Believed gov’t would be the world’s downfall due to corrupt officials
- Hated the slave trade and religious intolerance

Question 9

Mary Wollstonecraft

Answer 9

Wrote “A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman”
• Beliefs
- All humans have reason, therefore men and women should be equal
- Equality in education, workplace, and politics
- Women should be a good mother first but have much more to offer

Question 10

Adam smith

Answer 10

wealth is created via labor,

self-interest spurs people to use their resources to earn money.

Smith’s theories that economies thrive when competition, capitalism, and a free market, are alive and well in the 21st century.

Question 11

Denis Diderot

Answer 11

Diderot believed in materialism. He believed that all things must be examined, debated, and investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings.