Unit 5 - Enlightenment thinkers

all the enlightenment thinkers

Baron de Montesquieu

• Agreed with Locke that government should protect individual liberties and too much power led to tyranny

• Believed in separation of power: divided powers among 3 branches of government

• Model of government also included a system of checks and balances in which each branch of government could limit the power of the other branches

Voltaire

• French philosopher known for advocating civil liberties, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state.

• Believed in the effectiveness of reason above all, and that all authority should be challenged

• Argued for the rights of freedom of speech and religion; criticized intolerance, prejudice, and oppression

• Jailed twice in France for his criticisms

Denis Diderot

• His works were notable for their attitude of tolerance and liberalism, and believed human memory was the largest influencer in understanding history

Adam Smith

• An economist and philosopher known as the father of modern economics, he advocated for free markets and the benefits of competition, famously writing 'The Wealth of Nations.'

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Believed in individual freedom

• Believed people are naturally good, but power corrupts them; free people form a social contract and government based on the common good

• Argued for a direct democracy that is guided by te general will of the majority of citizens

Mary Wollstonecraft

• Believed women should have the same education as men, as the same job opportunities, not just domestic (economics independence

Olympe de Gouge

• Advocated for women’s rights and abolition, famously wrote the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.' Around time of French Revolution

John Locke

• English philosoph who disagreed with Hobbes

• Influenced by the glorious revolution when the bill of rights was created to protect citizens’ rights

• Believed that people are born with natural rights — life, liberty, and property — and argued that kings could be overthrown

• Supported limited or constitutional monarchies

• Believed the the government power came from the consent of the governed, and that kings should protect the rights of the people

Thomas Hobbes

• One of the first political thinkers of the Enlightenment

• Was bothered by the English Civil War and chaos that plagues England after the beheading of King Charles I

• Believed that humans are naturally cruel, selfish, and hungry for power; argues that people need to be protected from themselves

• Supported rule by absolute monarchs; used scientific reasoning to argue that kings with absolute power could maintain order in society

• Believed in the SOCIAL CONTRACT — people give up power and rights to a kind who provides law and order

Immanuel Kant

• Argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God (the moral law is a truth of reason)

Cesarean Beccaria

• Criticezed the abuses in the justice system

• Was upset about the use of torture, corrupt judges, secret trials, and severe punishments for crimes

• Argued that people accused of crimes should be given a fair and speedy trial and that capital punishment and torture should be abolished