The Enligthenment Flashcards
Describe Enlightenment thought.
a period in the 1700s in Euopre in which people rejected traditional ideas and supported a belief in human reason. The belief that logical thought can lead to truth is called rationalism. The Enlightenment introduced new ways of viewing authority, power, and the government and law. Enlightenment philosophers believed that all people were born with certain natural rights that no government had the right to deny.
Describe John Locke’s views on government.
an English Enlightenment thinker of the late 1600s, who believed that all people possess natural rights. These rights include the right to life, liberty and property. According to Locke, people create governments to protect their rights and if the government fails to do so, the people have the right to overthrow it.
Explain how Baron de Montesquieu suggested the government should be structured in order to disperse power.
Montesquieu wrote that the powers of government should be separated into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This separation of powers would prevent tyranny by creating what is called a system of checks and balances. Each branch could keep the other two from gaining too much power.
Explain Voltaire’s beliefs on natural rights.
Voltaire was a French thinker of the 1700s who believed in free speech. He used his sharp wit to criticize the French government and the Catholic Church for their failure to permit religious toleration and intellectual freedom.
Describe Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s views in his book “The Social Contract”
Rousseau, another French philosopher of the 1700s, put forth his ideas in a book titled “The Social Contract.” He believed that people are naturally good but are corrupted by the evils of society, such as the unequal distribution of property. He felt that in agreeing to form a government, people choose to give up their own interests for the common good. Rousseau believed in the will of the majority, which he called the general will. He believed that the majority should always work for the common good.
Compare and contrast the different perspectives on human nature and the role of government between Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract and Thomas Hobbes’ The Leviathan.
Rousseau believed that people were naturally good and were corrupted by society, therefore democracy was the best form of government. Hobbes believed that people were born evil and with malicious intentions and therefore needed a strong, strict, absolute government to maintain order.
Explain the impact of Enlightenment thought.
The ideas proposed by Enlightenment thinkers had a great impact throughout Europe in the 1700s. Greater numbers of people began to question established beliefs and customs and led to various revolutions throughout the world.
