Philosophy in the Age of Reason and the American Revolution

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key thinkers, ideas, movements, and terminology of the European Enlightenment and the birth of the American Republic.

Natural law

Rules discoverable by reason that govern scientific forces, such as gravity and magnetism, which thinkers applied to better understand social, economic, and political problems.

The Enlightenment

An eighteenth-century revolution in European thinking in which reformers used human reason and the methods of the new science to study human behavior and solve societal problems.

Thomas Hobbes

A seventeenth-century English thinker who wrote Leviathan and argued that people are naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish, requiring an absolute monarchy to enforce an orderly society.

Social contract

An agreement by which people give up their freedom for an organized society to escape a brutish state of nature.

John Locke

A seventeenth-century English philosopher who wrote Two Treatises of Government, arguing that people are reasonable and moral, possess natural rights, and hold the right to overthrow any government that fails to protect those rights.

Natural right

Rights that belong to all humans from birth, which John Locke identified as the rights to life, liberty, and property.

Philosophes

A group of Enlightenment thinkers in eighteenth-century France who applied the methods of science to understand and improve government, law, and society.

Baron de Montesquieu

The French thinker who wrote The Spirit of the Laws (1748) and advanced the idea of separating government powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches with checks and balances.

Voltaire

The pen name of François-Marie Arouet, a French philosophe who used biting wit to combat inequality, injustice, superstition, and religious prejudice, while fiercely defending freedom of speech.

Denis Diderot

The French editor who spent years compiling the 28-volume Encyclopedia with the goal of changing the general way of thinking on government, philosophy, and religion.

Encyclopedia

A 28-volume reference work edited by Denis Diderot between 1751 and 1789 that gathered articles denouncing slavery, attacking divine-right theory, and praising freedom of expression.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Enlightenment thinker who wrote The Social Contract (1762), arguing that people are naturally good but corrupted by society, and that minimal controls should be based on the community's general will.

Mary Wollstonecraft

A British social critic who published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), calling for equal education for boys and girls so that women could participate equally with men in public life.

Physiocrats

French thinkers who focused on economic reforms, claiming their system was based on natural laws of economics, rejecting mercantilism in favor of free trade and laissez faire.

Laissez faire

An economic policy urging governments to allow businesses to operate with little or no state interference.

Adam Smith

A Scottish economist who wrote The Wealth of Nations, arguing that the free market and the forces of supply and demand should regulate business activity under a policy of laissez faire.

Censorship

The restriction of access to ideas and information, used by church and government authorities through book banning, book burning, and the imprisonment of authors.

Salons

Informal social gatherings originating in seventeenth-century Paris where writers, artists, philosophes, and members of the nobility and middle class met on an equal footing to exchange and spread ideas.

Baroque

A grand, ornate style of courtly art and architecture popular during the age of Louis XIV, characterized by huge, colorful, and exciting paintings that glorified historic battles or saints.

Rococo

A lighter, elegant, and charming aesthetic style developed under Louis XV that moved away from religion, featuring pastel colors, delicate shells and flowers, and depictions of noble subjects in rural settings.

Enlightened despots

Eighteenth-century absolute rulers who accepted Enlightenment ideas and used their royal power to introduce political and social reforms.

Frederick the Great

The king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786 who saw himself as the 'first servant of the state,' reduced torture, simplified laws, reorganized civil service, and allowed a free press and religious tolerance.

Catherine the Great

The empress of Russia who began ruling in 1762, corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot, abolished torture, granted nobles a charter of rights, and criticized serfdom, while ultimately expanding the Russian empire.

Joseph II

The Hapsburg ruler of Austria and son of Maria Theresa who traveled among his subjects in disguise, ended censorship, granted religious equality to Protestants and Jews, and abolished serfdom.

George III

The British monarch who began a 60-year reign in 1760 and sought to reassert royal control over Parliament, choose his own ministers, and tax the American colonies.

Stamp Act

A 1765 law enacted by the British Parliament that levied taxes on printed items such as newspapers and pamphlets in the American colonies, sparking colonial protests against taxation without representation.

Popular sovereignty

The democratic principle stating that all government power originates from and is derived from the consent of the people.

Treaty of Paris

The 1783 peace agreement signed by American, British, and French diplomats ending the Revolutionary War, in which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States.

Federal republic

A form of government established by the United States Constitution in which power is divided between the national government and state governments.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, which put Enlightenment ideas into practice by explicitly guaranteeing personal freedoms such as speech, religion, and the press.

Immanuel Kant

A German philosopher whose work The Critique of Pure Reason helped define the era and introduce the term 'Enlightenment'.

Thomas Paine

An English-born author and political thinker who wrote Common Sense, an influential 1776 pamphlet that urged colonists to declare independence.

Declaration of Independence

The historic 1776 document drafted by Thomas Jefferson that declared colonial separation from Great Britain based on natural rights and popular sovereignty.

Boston Massacre

A March 1770 conflict in which British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonial protesters, killing five people and fueling anti-British resistance.

Boston Tea Party

A December 1773 protest against British taxes where American colonists hurled a cargo of recently arrived tea into the harbor.

Battle of Saratoga

A crucial 1777 American victory that marked the turning point of the Revolutionary War by convincing France to form an alliance.

Yorktown, Virginia

The location of the decisive 1781 siege where American and French forces compelled a British army to surrender, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution of the United States, which established a national government that lacked sufficient power to govern effectively.

Checks and balances

A constitutional principle where each branch of government possesses powers to limit the actions of the other branches to prevent abuses of power.

Madame Geoffrin

A respected French salon host whose weekly gatherings brought together leading intellectuals, artists, and philosophes on an equal footing.