AP Euro - The Enlightenment

Voltaire

He never stopped fighting for tolerance, reason, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech.

This philosophe's masterful use of satire got him into frequent trouble with the clergy, the aristocracy, and the government of France.

Montesquieu

Believed that the separation of powers would keep a society in balance. Invented checks and balances

His two ideas became the basis of the US constitution. France, US, Latin Americans use them in new constitution

Rousseau

He was incredibly passionate about individual freedom. He believed in direct democracy. Argued that all people are equal and that titles of nobility should be abolished. He also had very specific ideas on education and the place of women in society.

His ideas inspired the French into overthrowing their monarch.

Disagreed with most other philosophes who believed that reason, science, and art improve the lives of all people, and instead argued that civilization corrupts people's natural goodness.

Beccaria

His idea was the abolishment of torture and capital punishment. He believed laws existed to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes.

His ideas affected criminal law firm in Europe and in the US.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Argued that women, like men, need education to become virtuous and useful. She urged women to enter male dominated fields of medicine and politics.

Her ideas caused a women's rights group to form in Europe and in North America.

John Locke

This political thinker felt that people are reasonable beings. He supported self-government and argued that the purpose of government is to protect the natural rights of people. If government fails to protect these natural rights, the citizens will have the right to overthrow it.

Thomas Hobbes

This political thinker believed that all humans are naturally selfish and wicked. He argued, therefore, that strong governments are necessary to control human behaviour. To avoid chaos, he said, people enter into a social contract. They give up their rights in exchange for law and order.

Denis Dederot

Not a philosophe, but is enlightened as he collected many articles of the philosophers and put together the "Encyclopedia" because he wanted to make the enlightenment ideals and information easily available to the public. Education and access to information helped spread Enlightenment thinking.

Thomas Paine

People have the natural right to rule themselves because they are capable of using their powers of reason to understand their world

Immanuel Kant

Greatest German philosopher of Enlightenment-separated science and morality into separate branches of knowledge-science could describe nature, it could not provide a guide for morality. Wrote Critique of Pure Reason

What is Enlightenment? Ability to recognize and break free from nonage.

Denis Diderot

Encyclopedia

Adam Smith

"wealth of nations" advocated the idea of laissez-faire; or government not involving themselves in the economy. Promoted Free Market economies

Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749)

A woman who was educated in the sciences. She was trained as a mathematician and physicist. She helped stimulate interest in science in France by translating Newton's work from Latin to French.

David Hume

Scottish philosopher whose sceptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses (1711-1776)

Enlightenment

The new intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of the individual to solve problems was the________

Natural Rights

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

social contract

The willingness of people to hand over their rights to a ruler in exchange for law and order in society was called the _________

Direct Democracy

A form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives

philosophes

Thinkers of the Enlightenment; Wanted to educate the socially elite, but not the masses; were not allowed to openly criticize church or state, so used satire and double-meaning in their writings to avoid being banned; Salons held by wealthy women also kept philosophes safe; They considered themselves part of an intellectual community, and wrote back and forth to each other to share ideas.

Salons

Gatherings in which intellectual and political ideas were exchanged during the Enlightenment - typically held by upper-class women.

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.