The Age of Revolutions (ca. 1650-1812)

Thomas Hobbes (British 1588)

Believed that all humans are inherently evil and that without government life would be brutish and short. People had to give their rights over to a powerful ruler and sign a social contract. This was because he grew up in a war

John Locke (British, 1632).

People can learn from experience and improve themselves. All people are born with three natural rights: life, liberty and property

Barón de Montesquieu (French, 1689)

Separation of powers would keep any individual from gaining total control of the government.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (French, 1712)

Good governments are driven by the ‘general will' of society (supported Deism

Cesare Beccaria (Italian, 1738)

Laws exist to preserve social order and the degree of punishment is determined by the seriousness of the crime.

Mary Wollstonecraft (British, 1759)

Women, like men need to be educated

Jean Salas

A Protestant man that was tortured and executed because someone said he killed his son to convert to Catholicism

The Enlightenment

A new Intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems (also the age of reason)

Philosophe

The social critics in France during this period in time

Absolutism

Dictatorship and monarchy

Divine Right of Kings

Monarchs get their authority from god and cannot be held accountable by their subjects

Liberty vs. Freedom

Freedom means you can act without external restraint

Natural Rights

John Locke’s idea: Every man has the right to freedom and property (also influenced the Declaration of Independence)

Deism

God exists and creates a universe with it’s own natural laws

Social Contract Theory

People live together in a society that supports moral and political rules of behavior

Free Will

Connected to the social contract theory

State of Nature

Thinking device that helps philosophers see how humans have developed over time

Real name of Statue of Liberty

Liberty Enlightening the World