philosophies of the scientific revolution

John Locke

Proposes natural rights including life, liberty, and the ownership of property that all men should have. Writes Essay Concerning Human Understanding, proposes idea that everyone is born with a tabula rasa, or blank mind. People are molded by their experiences. If people molded by right influences, a new and better society could be created.

Montesquieu

Wrote the Spirit of the Laws as a study on governments. Attempted to find the natural laws that govern the social and political relationships of humans. Proposed the value in the separation of powers, dividing the responsibilities of government between legislative, executive, and judicial branches or elements. Proposed the value of checks and balances, empowering those branches to be able to limit the others so one does not gain too much power.

Voltaire

Proposed the value of religious toleration, or not discriminating or persecuting individuals for their religious beliefs.

Proposed the value of Deism, a religious philosophy based on reason and natural laws. Idea that God created the world, and allowed it to run without his interference and according to its own natural laws. Beliefs brought him into conflict with the church, one of the most powerful institutions of the time.

Diderot

Wrote the Encyclopedia as a twenty-eight volume collection of knowledge that he edited. Served to spread the ideas of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution.

Attacked religious superstition which had been common place in France. Called for reform to society, politics, and the law.

Rousseau

writes The Social Contract which proposed the idea that society agrees to be governed by its general will. In so doing, all individuals should be forced to abide by it since it represents what is best for the entire community. Writes Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind which proposed people had adopted laws and government in order to preserve their private property. In so doing, they had lost rights to the government and needed to regain their freedom.

Adam Smith

Believed individuals should be free to pursue their own economic self- interest. If allowed to do so, all society would benefit. Proposed the value in laissez-faire economics (French for let the people do what they want). Stated government should not interrupt the free play or natural economic forces by imposing regulations on the economy.

Philosophes

Intellectuals of the enlightenment who believed in applying the spirit of rational criticism to things in life and focusing on the present world and not just the afterlife.

Separation of Powers

the division of power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government

Salons

the elegant urban drawing rooms where, in the eighteenth century, writers, artists, aristocrats, government officials, and wealthy middle-class people gathered to discuss the ideas of the philosophes

deism

The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s). Followers believed that God existed and had created the world, but that afterwards He left it to run by its own natural laws. Denied that God communicated to man or in any way influenced his life.

Lassaiz Faire

Means allowing industry to be free from state intervention, especially restrictions in the form of tariffs and government monopolies. The phrase is French and literally means "let do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone."

Wollstonecraft

Emerged as a founder of the modern European and American movements for women's rights. Writes A Vindication of the Rights of Women. First challenge to men and the Enlightenment; how could men argue it unfair for government to have unchecked power over men, but then allow men to have unchecked power over women

Hobbes

Believed that people were naturally selfish, cruel, and greedy. So in order to protect people from own selfishness an absolute government is needed.

Beccaria

A person accused of a crime should receive a fair and speedy trial. Torture should never be used. Capital punishment should be done away with.