Enlightenment and Early French Revolution Concepts

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key philosophers, ideas, and social changes of the Enlightenment period and the foundations leading into the French Revolution.

Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher who believed all humans were naturally selfish and wicked, requiring a social contract with a strong ruler who had total power (absolute monarchy).

John Locke

Philosopher who held a positive view of human nature, believing people can learn from experience and have natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Social Contract (Hobbes)

An agreement where people give their rights to a strong ruler in exchange for law and order.

Natural Rights

Three principal rights people are born equal with: Life, Liberty, and Property.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement known as "the age of reason" (mid-1700s) that brought great changes in western civilization by applying reason to society, government, and religion.

Philosophes

Social critics in France during the 1700s who believed people could apply reason to all aspects of life.

Reason

One of the five core concepts of the philosophes, defined as finding truth through logical thinking.

Nature

An Enlightenment concept where what is natural is considered good and reasonable.

Voltaire

A philosopher who used satire to combat intolerance, prejudice, and superstition, while fighting for freedom of speech and religion.

Montesquieu

A philosopher who proposed the separation of powers to keep any individual or group from gaining total control of the government.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A champion of freedom who argued that civilization corrupts people's natural goodness and that the only good government was a direct democracy.

Social Contract (Rousseau)

An agreement among free individuals to create a society and a government focused on the common good.

Cesare Beccaria

An Italian philosophe who promoted criminal justice, arguing that laws exist to preserve social order and that torture and capital punishment should never be used.

Mary Wollstonecraft

An author who wrote essays arguing that women need education to become virtuous and useful and should enter male-dominated fields like medicine and politics.

Salons

Regular social gatherings held in the large drawing rooms of wealthy women in Paris where philosophers, writers, and artists met to discuss ideas.

Marie Therese Geoffrin

The most influential salon hostess in Paris during the Enlightenment.

Denis Diderot

The creator of the Encyclopedia, a large set of books containing articles and essays that helped spread Enlightenment ideas despite being banned by the church.

Life, Liberty, and Property

The three principal rights John Locke believed all people are born with.

Legacy of Enlightenment

The long-term effects of the movement, including a belief in progress, a more secular outlook, and the importance of the individual.

Paris

Known as the cultural and intellectual capital of Europe during the 1700s where the brightest minds gathered.