The Enlightenment

The enlightenment was a time in the 1700's in Europe when people began to question old ideas and search for knowledge. The name Enlightenment refers to the light of knowledge that supposedly replaces the darkness of superstition and ignorance. Enlightenment thinkers believed that science and reason could improve people's lives.

Europe

Scientists and scholars

Both reacted against the medieval period, with its reliance on authorities such as church and king. Renaissance thinkers looked mainly to the literature and arts of ancient Greece and Rome for ideas and answers. Enlightenment thinkers turned to science and reason. They did build on the work of some Renaissance scientists, such as Copernicus and Galileo.

He was one of the greatest scientists in history. Certain basic laws of nature were true for the whole physical world. These laws could be discovered through observation and reason.

His work encouraged people not to accept ideas on faith but to question and search for answers.

His thoughts were his own, and they proved his existence.

Holland allowed more freedom of thought and expression than other European countries.

He showed people how to use observation and reason to find truths, rather than accepting them on faith alone. He encouraged people to question everything expect their own existence.

He introduced a new way of thinking about what we know and how we know it. He insisted on using reason.

Cruel, greedy, and selfish; willing to do anything to get what they wanted.

He favored a strong government with strict laws to keep people from fighting each other (a monarch). For a strong society he believed there had to be law and order.

Parliament seemed to be winning the struggle against the king. Hobbes worried that his ideas would cause him trouble if Parliament triumphed over the monarchy.

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 meant that Hobbes could publish freely. The plague and the fire caused people to turn to religion, and Hobbes's ideas fell out of favor.

It means "blank slate"; Locke believed that the mind is a blank slate that is filled with and defined by experiences.

The rights to life, liberty, and property

The people

Locke thought government should protect people's rights, while Hobbes believed government should be all-powerful in order to control human evil. Locke thought human nature was neither good nor bad; Hobbes thought humans were naturally selfish and warlike.

Change the government and replace it with one that would protect their rights.

During the Glorious Revolution the English Parliament drove out an absolute monarch, King James II. Parliament replaced him with 2 constitutional monarchs, William and Mary. Locke was strongly in favor of the revolution and even became an advisor to Mary.

The book made fun of the French ruling class. Montesquieu could have been thrown in prison for publishing these ideas.

By imprisonment in the Bastille, exile, book burning, and book banning.

Both admired England's limited monarchy and supported such a system for France.

The freedom to express one's opinion

It was a 30-volume collection of the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers. It was written by Voltaire and other philosophes

Scholars and thinkers who considered ways to achieve a better society.

All citizens have natural rights to life and liberty; when a government does not grant those rights, the people have the right to change or overthrow it. The government gets its power from the people.

The people have unalienable rights. The government must "promote the general welfare" by protecting the rights of its citizens. Each branch of government can "check" certain acts by other branches.

Separation of powers, checks and balances.

They read widely and studies science and foreign politics.

Benjamin Franklin