history enlightenment

Hobbes

He wanted a ruler with a lot of power and that would be direct.

Man is selfish, egoist and violent by nature

All power to ruler

Life in the stage of labor is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

People cant oppose the king

Locke

Consent of the governed. Every person is born with a blank mind. People are molded by experiences that came through their senses from the surrounding world. The purpose of the government is to protect natural rights. “Where law ends, tyranny begins”

 

“The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”

We are born with natural rights - later becomes human rights - life, liberty, and property - you cannot give them away - it is immoral to be a slave

Consent of the governed 

King is bound to the contract, people are free to reject the ruler

Tabula rasa: we are born as a blank slate. We learn to understand things through our experience and what we see, hear and touch.

Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Freedom of speech - even if you insult someone - “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Religious tolerance - “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

Deism - belief in a rational and impersonal God who created the universe but does not intervene in its affairs.

Diderot

 important because of encyclopedia (he started it) 

• Thrown into jail

• Recorded skills and other things in detail for ordinary people 

• They used to believe that those skills aren't important enough to record

• His encyclopedia had hidden meanings

• A very profitable business

• “Modern day socrates” 

• Very expensive book 

• Banned for a few years 

• His success started a huge boom in publishing and reading 

• He realised it would outrage the church

• People were punished for something the church didn't like 

• The king's mistress also liked the encyclopedia when it was published

• 20 million words written by hand

• 1751 first copy published 

• The church wanted it burned

• In portugal November 1755

Cesare beccaria (1738 - 1794)

Criminal justice reform: “crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty that the severity of punishment”

Advocated for humane and just criminal laws and punishments

Adam smith (1723 - 1790)

Market works by itself

He believed that a government's three functions should be to protect national borders, enforce civil law, and engage

He said “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Man is born good and the civilisation is corrupt. 

We are born good, “man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”

He believed in the natural innocence of humans and the corrupting influence of money on society. 

General will of people

Structure of power

Frederick the Great

Built scans souci and afterwards another castle

Religious tolerance

Embraced Enlightened ideas

Relative freedom of press 

He had a very large military all from other countries so that those countries are weakened and his people aren’t hurt. Didn’t care about his soldiers' lives.

Inherited a small kingdom and to make it strong he built a large military which attacked other countries.

Everything was limited so he could keep his power

Maria Theresa

Couldn't inherit the throne because she was a woman

Frederick the great attacked her empire 

Tried to centralize the government 

Undertook limited efforts to improve the condition in which the serfs live

She made education mandatory from age 6 to 12

There was a lot of resistance from people because they didn't want the peasants to learn and the peasants needed the children to work

Joseph II

Ruled with his mother for a while but was even banished by her.

The peasant emperor: wanted to improve the life of peasants, know what they live like.

Abolished serfdom and helped peasants to cultivate potatoes

Religious tolerance 

Catherine the Great

Correspondence with Voltaire and Diderot

Supported arts and culture

Expanded access to knowledge 

Message on cultural patriage

The american experiment

american desire for a republic

Colonies sought to distance themselves from european absolutist traditions 

Concepts of natural rights, social contract, and the separation of powers

Republicanism - because they have an opposition to the monarchy

Thomas jefferson

Used enlightenment ideas mostly locke.

Natural rights (influenced by Loke)

Wrote the declaration of independence 

The start of democracy 

He didn’t want black and white people to be under the same government because the black people would never forgive white people and white people would always be cruel against black people. 

He owned 300 slaves but he didn’t free them because otherwise he would have gone bankrupt.

He hopes that future generations will do the right thing if he cannot.

Connecting to now:

Many of the ideas that emerged during the Enlightenment, such as the concept of natural rights, the social contract, and the principle of popular sovereignty, laid the intellectual groundwork for modern democratic systems. 

Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued for the importance of individual rights and the idea that government exists with the consent of the governed to protect these rights. 

There is a direct relevance of these ideas to contemporary discussions about civil liberties, privacy, and human rights, including issues like free speech and due process.

•Enlightenment ideals inspired social and political reforms, such as the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the promotion of education.

•These concerns continue to drive social justice movements, human rights activism, and discussions about addressing societal inequalities in various forms.