The Enlightenment Flashcards
Voltaire
Exposed abuses
Targeted corrupt officials & aristocrats
Battled inequality, injustice,
superstition
Fought for freedom of speech
Was exiled
Adam Smith
Supported laissez faire
Free market
Supply and Demand
John Locke
People were basically moral
Everyone born with natural rights
Two Treaties of Government: best govt. had limited power, served people, and could be removed if necessary
Thomas Hobbes
People were naturally cruel and greedy
Rules were necessary
Social Contract ( an agreement by which they gave up the state of nature for an organized society.)
Leviathan (book)
Wanted absolute monarchy and organized society
Dennis Diderot
Encyclopedia (28 Volume)
purpose was “to change the general way of thinking” by explaining the new ideas on topics such as government, philosophy, and religion.
Attacked divine right and traditional religion
Angered French Govt. and Catholic Church
Jean Jacques Rousseau
People were good but could be corrupted
Individuals lived to serve the community
Baron de Montesquieu
Criticized absolute govt.
Admired Britain’s limited monarchy
Checks and Balances (3 branches check each other)
Mary Wollstonecraft
Accepted that women’s first duty was to be a mother
Women should decide interests and shouldn’t be dependent on husbands
Equal education for boys & girls
Philosophe (who was one, what did they believe in?)
Voltaire was one.
Applied methods of science and reason to improve society.
Radical ideas about women?
Women didn’t have same natural rights as men, had rights at home.
Women should stay home, raise children, other sexist bullshit.
Salons
Who controlled them?
Informal social gatherings at which writers, artists, and philosophers exchanges ideas.
Madame Geoffrin was most well known (Diderot & Mozart)
Despots
What did they do?
What did they believe?
Were absolute rulers who used power to bring political and social changes.
Despots:
- Fredrick the Great
- Catherine the Great
- Joseph II
Fredrick the Great
Duty to work for common good
Drained swamps and grew new crops
Seeds and tools distributed
Religious tolerance
Bureaucracy meant more power for him
Catherine the Great
Read works of philosophes, letters with Diderot and Voltaire
Granted nobles charters of rights
Criticized serfdom
No intention of giving up power
Joseph II
Son of Maria Theresa
Disguised himself as subjects
Toleration
Ended censorship
Sold property of monasteries and convents to build hospitals
“Peasant Emperor”
