The Scientific Revolution Flashcards
Thomas Hobbes
English philosopher and empiricist
- Negative/pessimistic view of human nature
- Supporter of absolutism
Opposite of John Locke
- Most famous work = Leviathan
Social contract theory
Theory held by Thomas Hobbs that states the people are to give up their rights and liberties to sovereign in exchange for security and stability
John Locke
Linked the Scientific Revolution with the Enlightenment
- Became a leading proponent of educational reform, freedom of the press, religious toleration, and the separation of political powers
Thomas Hobbe’s beliefs
humanity needed to be protected from the “state of nature”
John Locke beliefs
- Scientific method could be applied to the study of society
- All knowledge is sensory (empiricist)
- People must relinquish Some of their liberty in exchange for security
Hobbes vs Locke
Hobbes = Individuals should surrender their rights to an absolute state of unlimited authority in exchange for protection. People cannot rebel
Locke = Human liberty and rights are natural. People must sacrifice Some rights for the sake of security but they also possess the right and duty to overthrow the state should it become tyrannical
Montesquieu
French
Published Persian Letters
where he manifested doubts about the quest for colonies
- implemented principles of observation, experimentation and analysis and led to scientific inquiry to be applied to the social and political factors of the state
- looked to the nobility to protect people from monarchical despotism
- grealy admired British system of government
define: Philosophe
French Enlightenment thinker
Montesquieu beliefs
Anti-slavery; states that it compromised the general good of men and societies
- “The sovereignty of the king came not from God, but from the people”
- The British lived in a state of liberty due to their government separation of powers with checks and balances as well as constitutionalism and the rule of law
- However, believes women should be subservient and domestic
Volatire
French
Most widely read Enlightenment writer
- Helped spread ideas vida the “republic of letters” all over the continent
- “Set the goal for the Enlightenment itself”
- hated the established Church in France
Voltaire beliefs
- Believed the only government body to guarantee natural rights of a king’s subject is the English House of Commons
- Believed enlightened monarchs would protect people against despotic nobles
- did not believe British political system could be imported to France
Diderot
FEMINIST!
advocated that laws that limited the rights of women were counter to the laws of nature
- made the Encyclopedia, which challenged monarchial authority and especially divine right rule
Diderot beliefs
Women need more rights!!
- Social and political institutions should submit to rationalism
Rousseau
Most radical thinker (except about women)
Bridge between Enlightenment (reason/rationalism) and Romanticism (emotion/idealism)
- idealized emotion instinct and spontaneity more than any other thinker
- wrote The Social Contract
- more concerned with the collective liberty/communal good
Rousseau beliefs
“Men are born free yet everywhere they are in chains”
- vague on his government beliefs “more direct democracy”
- believed in “the general will”
- argued that civilization had corrupted the gooness of man
- Sovereignty comes from the people in their collective search for freedom
- women should hold traditional roles in society :C
