Enlightenment Review Flashcards
Both Thomas Hobbes and John Locke thought that mankind lived in a “state of nature”. What is a social contract? How did Hobbes’s and Locke’s ideas about the state of nature and the social contract differ? (your answer should include Locke’s idea of the three inalienable rights)
A social contract is an agreement by which people give up some or all of their liberty and rights to a government in return for peace and security. Thomas Hobbes thought that in the state of nature people had no notions of right from wrong, justice or injustice and life was a war of every man against every man. Hobbes believed that life in the state of nature was so terrible people banded together under a common government to defend themselves and they made a social contract. Locke believed that mankind lived in a state of nature in which individuals were completely free to do as they saw fit. Locke believed that each person in the state of nature possessed three natural rights, life, liberty, and property. unlike Hobbes, Locke said that people in the state of nature followed a moral law, a natural law that they were required to respect the rights of others. Locke didn’t think that people in the state of nature were always cruel, selfish creatures, but he did think that their rights were not entirely secure.
Three ways in which liberalism differs from a medieval idea of human society and the role of the government…
Liberals tended to think of government as a necessary evil if we could live without it we would, well medieval thinkers thought governments were supposed to help people achieve the greatest of all goods- eternal life. Liberals believe that governments should permit freedom of thought and expression. Medieval thinkers thought that false religions should not have full public freedom. Liberals thought that the state of nature human beings live unconnected to other people well Medieval thinkers thought that human beings were made to live in a society with others.
Deism vs. Christianity
Deism was the religious idea that God set the machine of the universe in motion and left it alone to continue moving by the laws of nature well christianity believed in Jesus Christ the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity they also believed that God was watching us and could hear our prayers and answer them.
Pierre Bayle’s “Dictionary”
Pierre Bayle’s The Historical and Critical Dictionary was an encyclopedia, offering a collection of articles on history and historical and biblical figures, theology, ethics, geography, mythology, literature and philosophy. it was also a powerful tool in spreading skeptical doubt
What Enlightenment thinkers believe should guide life
Reason and science.
The Enlightenment thinker that said the best form of government is a very small republic, where people could gather in an assembly to make laws…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was the leader of a group of atheist philosophers. he published the encyclopedia which spread anti-religious views across Europe.
The Enlightenment writer that, through his place, stories, and philosophical works, spread Enlightenment ideas throughout France and Europe…
Voltaire or his real name Francois-Marie Arouet
