Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789)

Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789) ● Also known as the age of reason. ● The Age of Enlightenment ties into the scientific revolution, because people think for themselves and don’t listen to everything they are told. ● Believed in natural laws ○ Natural laws: unchanged principles that were discovered through reason, that govern human conduct. ● Use methods of modern science to explain the reasoning of hypotheses. ● The enlightenment thinkers were called philosophes ● Move away from absolutism and divine rule (rule by God, and only have to answer to God) ● Enlightenment thinkers (philosophes) and their beliefs/what they contributed to modernday society ○ Thomas Hobbes ■ Said that people are born evil, and have the traits selfish, greedy, and cruel. ■ Government protects people from other people ■ Without government, people would fight, kill, rob, and oppress one another ■ Thought of the Social Contract ● People give up their rights to the government to be protected from one another ■ Wanted absolute monarchs - no power to the people ■ Wrote about his ideas in a book called the Leviathan Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789) (continued) ○ John Locke ■ The absolute opposite of Thomas Hobbes ■ Believed that people are moral and reasonable and that they want to do the right thing ■ Believes that people are born free and equal with three natural rights ● The natural rights - life, liberty, and property (LLL) ■ Wrote the Two Treatises of Government - government has limited power no absolute monarchy and no divine rule ○ Baron de Montesquieu ■ Criticized absolute monarchs - liked Britains limited monarchy ■ Believed having 3 branches of government would prevent tyranny ● Created the checks and balances ○ No one branch could become more powerful than the other two ● Executive branch ○ Enforces Laws (president) ● Legislative branch ○ Creates laws (the house of representatives) ● Judicial branch ○ Applies laws (Supreme court) Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789) (continued) ○ Voltaire ■ Believe in freedom of the press - expose corrupt political and church leaders ■ Fought for civil liberties - rights of citizens ● Includes: ○ Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state ■ Believe that human’s worst enemy is intolerance, prejudice, and superstition ■ Writing anger at gov and church officials. Imprisoned and exiled. His books were burned and outlawed ○ Jean Jacques Rousseau ■ Believed that people were naturally good, but corrupted by society ■ Everyone should have the same amount of property ■ General will - will of the people as a whole ■ Good of the community should be placed above individual interests common good ■ Despised all oppression ■ Wrote the social contract ○ Adam Smith ■ Scottish economist that admired enlightened thinkers that were about money (physiocrats) ■ Wrote The Wealth of Nations which depicts a free market without govt interference ■ Supply and demand should run the market ■ Government’s duty to protect society, justice, and provide public works Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789) (continued) ● Women in the Enlightenment ○ Natural rights were for men, although people said women had natural rights ○ Salons: ■ Places where enlightenment thinkers gathered to speak about their thoughts ■ Allowed thinkers to spread ideas - hosted by women - guests forced to speak in common language ○ Famous women in Enlightenment ■ Mary Astell ● Questioned the lack of education for women ● Criticized the unequal relationship between men and women in marriage ■ Mary Wollstonecraft ● Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women ● Also worried about the education of women, and need to participate in public life ● The Spread of the Enlightenment ○ Books and pamphlets carried ideas of enlightened thinkers ● The aftermath of the age of enlightenment ○ Absolute monarchs turned into governments working to protect the people ○ Church being in authority turned into the separation of the church and power ○ Separation between rich and poor turned into all people having rights ○ Rewarded in the afterlife turned into happiness on earth