Enlightenment Flashcards
What type of government was used before the Enlightenment?
Monarchy
What is Divine Right?
The idea that kings were ruling because it was God’s will
What institution was even more powerful than the royalty during the Dark Ages?
Catholic church
Before the Scientific Revolution, where did most knowledge come from?
Before the Scientific Revolution, all knowledge came from the Bible, Catholic Church, or the ancient Greeks.
How did we gather knowledge after the Scientific Revolution?
After the Scientific Revolution, we gained knowledge by testing theories and gathering data.
Give four examples of knowledge we learned during the Scientific Revolution.
The earth isn’t the center of the universe (heliocentric)
How did the Church respond to the Scientific Revolution?
Because they went against official church teachings, any science that the church didn’t agree with was criticized, tortured, or killed.
What is the Enlightenment?
The enlightenment is a time period of immense change. It contained an explosion of ideas that focused on individual happiness and rights through logic and reason.
What are the three largest effects of the Enlightenment?
Less religious outlook
Belief in Progress
Importance on the Individuals
What undermined the power and influence of the Catholic Church?
Scientific Advances
During the Dark Ages, whose happiness was the most important? Afterwards?
Kings and Queens, The common people
What is the social contract?
An agreement between the citizens and the government to follow rules in return for safety
What are the three Natural Rights?Be able to explain each one.
Life
Liberty
Property
According to John Locke, what is a government’s main concern?
To protect the natural rights of its citizens
What different ideas were there about how to set up a government during the Enlightenment?
- Voltaire – Democracy needed to have freedom of thought, expression, and religion
- Montesquieu – separation of powers
- Beccaria - Believed in ending capital punishment and torture. And argued that everyone has a right to a fast and fair trial in front of a jury
John Locke -
Natural rights, government’s duty is to protect those rights
Thomas Hobbes -
People are wicked and need a strong king to keep order
Voltaire -
Freedom of thought, expression, and religions
Montesquieu
separation of powers in government
Rousseau -
Democracy is important for the citizens to buy in to the government
Beccaria -
Wrote about fair legal practices
Adam Smith
Capitalism, people don’t need to have the government tell them how to deal with money
