Enlightenment

Philosophes

Writers during the Enlightenment and who popularized the new ideas of the time.

inalienable

Not able to be taken away

universal

applies to all

Salons

social gatherings in which intellectual and political ideas were exchanged during the Enlightenment

status quo

Existing state or condition

Popular Sovereignty

political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people

Natural Rights

the idea that all humans are born with universal & inalienable rights, which include the right to life, liberty, and property

Deism

A popular Enlightenment era belief that there is a God, but that God isn't involved in people's lives or in revealing truths to prophets.

Thomas Hobbes

wrote about the "STATE OF NATURE" in which the life of man was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutal, & short." Believed absolute monarchs were needed to prevent this.

John Locke

English philosopher who argued that people have NATURAL RIGHTS: Life, Liberty, estate.

Montesquieu

enlightenment thinker responsible for "SEPARATION OF POWERS"

Voltaire

Most famous french philosophe during the enlightenment. Believed strongly in CIVIL LIBERTIES

Rousseau

Believed that SOCIETY THREATENED NATURAL RIGHTS and freedoms. Wrote "The Social Contract." Famous opening line "Man is born free but everywhere is in chains."

Adam Smith

wrote "The Wealth of Nations", Father of CAPITALISM. Free markets controlled by supply and demand.

Mary Wollstonecraft

British feminist of the eighteenth century who argued for WOMEN'S EQUALITY with men, even in voting, in her 1792 "Vindication of the Rights of Women."