Final- Enlightenment Flashcards
Enlightenment
a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.
Rationalism
a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.
Natural Law
a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct.
Natural Rights
Rights that people supposedly have under natural law. EXAMPLE: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (Declaration of Independence)
Social Contract
An agreement among people in a society to cooperate for social benefits. Sometimes sacrificing individual freedom for state protection.
Popular Sovereignty`
Principle that the authority of the government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives. Rule by the People.
Democracy
a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Enlightened Despotism
form of absolute monarchy or despotism inspired by the Enlightenment. Enlightened monarchs especially embraced its emphasis upon rationality.
Philosophes
Intellectuals of the 18th century enlightenment.
John Locke
In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. Natural Laws!
Thomas Hobbes
Very pessimistic. Presents a bleak picture of human beings in the state of nature, where life is “nasty, brutish, and short.” Had a lasting contribution to Western Political Thought.
Immanuel Kant
contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics have had a profound impact on almost every philosophical movement that followed him.
Voltaire
Supporter of Social Reform, Civil liberties, religious freedom, free trade
Baron de Montesquieu
Published The Spirit of Laws and Persian Letters, which had a lot of emphasis on government. SEPARATION OF POWERS!! Legislative, executive, judicial.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Political Philosophy, particularly his formulation of social contract theory.
