The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason Notes

A set of vocabulary flashcards detailing key thinkers, concepts, publications, and impacts of the Enlightenment period.

The Enlightenment

A European cultural and intellectual movement of the late 1600s and 1700s that grew out of Renaissance humanism, driven by advances in science, philosophy, and mathematics.

Political Liberalism

An ideology championed by John Locke focusing on individual rights, liberties, popular sovereignty, and the right to vote.

Economic Liberalism

An economic philosophy associated with Adam Smith emphasizing capitalism, free trade, free markets, and economic choice.

Religious Liberalism

An Enlightenment perspective advocating deism, religious tolerance, and the separation of church and state.

John Locke

An English philosopher (1632-1704) who argued in Two Treatises of Government (1680) that governments exist to protect natural rights based on popular sovereignty and consent of the governed.

Natural Rights

The fundamental human rights identified by John Locke as life, liberty, and property.

Baron de Montesquieu

A French philosopher (1689-1755) who argued that reason and science should be applied to government through the rule of law, social contract, economic freedom, and religious tolerance.

The Spirit of Laws

A 1748 book by Montesquieu advocating separation of powers, checks and balances, the rule of law, and political liberty as safeguards against tyranny.

Voltaire

A French Deist writer and philosopher who admired the moral teachings of Jesus and the Bible, rejected miracles and Christ's divinity, and advocated religious tolerance.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

A Swiss philosopher (1712-1778) who wrote Social Contract (1762), asserting that government must be ruled by the general will of the people based on consent.

General Will

Rousseau's concept that legitimate government authority is based on the collective will and agreement of the governed.

Deism

An Enlightenment religious belief viewing God as a remote clockmaker who created a rational universe but does not intervene through miracles or supernatural events.

The Jefferson Bible

A compilation created by Thomas Jefferson titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, which isolated Jesus's moral teachings while excluding miraculous events.

Statue of Freedom

A female allegorical figure standing on a globe atop the Capitol dome, associated with the motto E pluribus unum.

Adam Smith

A Scottish economic philosopher known as the Father of Modern Economics and Father of Capitalism, who published The Wealth of Nations in 1776.

The Wealth of Nations

A 1776 book by Adam Smith establishing classical economics, free markets, supply and demand, and the idea that wealth is not finite.

Denis Diderot

A French Enlightenment philosopher known as the father of the Encyclopedia, who criticized religious and monarchical authority.

Shift in Authority

The core Enlightenment movement away from traditional views of divine rule toward reason, science, individual rights, and human progress.