HISTORY: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION - PHILOSOPHES

Question 1

FRENCH REVOLUTION - PHILOSOPHES: MONTESQUIEU

EXTRA DETAILS
- BELIEF: Most effective form of GOVERNMENT is when there is a separation of powers between the EXECUTIVE the JUDICIARY and the LEGISLATIVE power.
= A radical concept: To promote individual liberty

Answer 1

• BORN AND DIED (1689 - 1755)
• Born into the aristocracy
• Nobleman who shared many of the beliefs of aristocracy
• The Spirit of the Laws:
• Absolute government was suited only to large empires with hot climates
• Democracy was only workable in small city states
• Despotism emerged from systems of absolute government
• Power should be DIVIDED between the monarch and other bodes in the state (Parlements and the provincial states)… Limit the power of the monarch (inspired by Britain’s constitution)
• Supported constitutional monarchy

Question 2

FRENCH REVOLUTION - PHILOSOPHES: ROUSSEAU

EXTRA DETAILS

• Critical of ‘civilization’ - only concerned with their appearance
• Arts and sciences aren’t beneficial
• Popular Sovereignty: Power comes from the people
• Government should serve the people

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT (1762)

• Man is born free, and yet everywhere he is in chains
• Believe that the vote of the majority would determine the law
• PAGE 61

Answer 2

• BORN AND DIED (1712 - 1778)
• Emphasized the emotion and the good essence of nature
• Argued that modern society is ARTIFICIAL and CORRUPT. All, it could not make people happy.
• Civilization itself was the source of all evil
• A man was spontaneous, honest and free; thus, the idea of ‘noble savage’ was born.
• Civilized people are wearer of masks and reality is always replaced by appearance.
• ‘Man no longer dares to appear what he is’
• Viewed property as one of the ‘chains’ which imprisoned the ‘civilized’ person… Believed that property was the root cause of social ills.

Question 3

FRENCH REVOLUTION - PHILOSOPHES: VOLTAIRE

EXTRA DETAILS

• With great power comes great responsibility
• Ordinary people should have no influence
• Questions society’s ability to have no influence
• Anti-Semitic and racist

Answer 3

• BORN AND DIED (1694 - 1778)
• Championing of free speech and religious toleration and the supremacy of reason and over superstition
• “A thin, skill-like smile that sneered at everything sacred: religion, love, patriotism, censorship”
• Freedom of religion and toleration
• Deplored the power of the Catholic Church (RESTRICTS FREE THOUGHT / CORRUPTED)
• Demonstrated these beliefs by his involvement in the case of jean Calas (1698 - 1762)
• “If men are to deserve tolerance, they must begin by not being fanatics”
  Believed that fanaticism was expressed essentially by religious or racial persecution, the two great curses of civilization’