The Age of Enlightenment Practice Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms, figures, and ideologies of the Age of Enlightenment as presented in the lecture notes.

Madame Marie Thérèse Geoffrin

An influential hostess of a Parisian salon during the mid-eighteenth century who helped philosophes bring their ideas to the attention of high society and political figures.

Tabula Rasa

A concept argued by John Locke stating that all humans enter the world as a blank page and that experience alone shapes their character.

Public Opinion

The collective effect on political and social life from views discussed in places of leisure, homes, and workplaces, which pressured governments to answer to the citizens.

Philosophes

Thinkers and writers who favored change, championed reform, and advocated for toleration; they were often found in universities and coffeehouses.

Voltaire

The pseudonym for François-Marie Arouet, a French Enlightenment writer known for his wit, criticisms of Christianity, and works such as Candide and Letters on the English.

Deism

A belief system that combines religion and reason, positing that God exists but does not manage or intervene in the world, and that religion should be natural rather than mystical.

Nathan the Wise

A 1779 literary work by Gotthold Lessing that called for the religious tolerance of all faiths, not just Christianity.

The Encyclopedia

A collective work edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert that aimed to secularize learning and documented 18th-century social and economic life.

Baruch Spinoza

A philosopher who was excommunicated from his synagogue for identifying God with nature and linking the spiritual world to the material world in his work Ethics.

Moses Mendelssohn

Known as the "Jewish Socrates," he argued that loyalty to Judaism could be combined with rational thought and advocated for religious toleration in his work Jerusalem.

Marquis Cesare Beccaria

Author of On Crimes and Punishment (1764) who spoke out against torture and capital punishment, arguing that laws should guarantee happiness and deter crime.

Physiocrats

French economic reformers, such as Francois Quesnay, who believed the government's primary role was to protect property and allow its owners to use it freely.

Laissez-faire

An economic thought founded by Adam Smith, meaning "Let do," which advocates for a limited government role in the economy and individuals pursuing their own interests.

Separation of Powers

A political theory by Montesquieu in Spirit of Laws (1748) proposing that government be divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches to ensure checks and balances.

The Social Contract

A 1762 work by Jean Jacques Rousseau stating that society is more important than individual members and that humans can maintain freedom while being loyal to a community.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she defended the equality of women with men based on their shared capacity for human reason.

Rococo

An 18th-century art style embraced by the French aristocracy, characterized by lavish decoration, pastel colors, and light-hearted themes.

Neoclassical

A style of art and architecture, exemplified by Jacques-Louis David, that focused on themes of the ancient world and civic virtue to criticize contemporary political life.

Enlightened Absolutism

A form of monarchical government where central administration was strengthened at the expense of traditional institutions like the church to enact Enlightenment reforms.

Frederick the Great

The monarch of Prussia who promoted meritocracy, religious toleration, and legal reform, including the abolishment of torture.