Unit 5.1: The Age of Revolutions - The Enlightenment Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the major thinkers, theories, and social reform movements of the Enlightenment as described in the lecture notes.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement of the $18^{th}$ century that challenged traditional authority and emphasized reason, individualism, and skepticism of religious dogma.

Scientific Revolution

An era where thinkers like Newton and Galileo proved the universe followed predictable natural laws, which later influenced Enlightenment political philosophy.

Empiricism

Francis Bacon's theory stressing that knowledge comes from sensed experience rather than tradition, shifting focus to what humans could observe and improve.

Tabula Rasa

John Locke's argument that humans are born as a "blank slate," meaning their environment and education shape them, allowing for societal improvement.

Natural Rights

Locke's concept proposed in his social contract theory consisting of Life, Liberty, and Property.

Separation of Powers

A political theory advocated by Montesquieu involving checks and balances to ensure no single branch of government becomes tyrannical.

Civil Liberties

Individual freedoms, such as freedom of speech and religious tolerance, fiercely advocated by Voltaire.

General Will

Rousseau's belief that the collective interest of the community should guide policy within the Social Contract.

Two Treatises

John Locke's work published in $1689$ that helped shift the political paradigm from being a subject to being a citizen.

Consent of the Governed

The Enlightenment theory that government only exists by the permission of the people, serving as the ideological fuse for the American and French Revolutions.

Capitalism

An economic school of thought featuring Laissez-faire (leave it alone) economics where markets guide themselves, associated with Adam Smith.

Classical Liberalism

A school of thought championed by John Stuart Mill emphasizing natural rights, constitutional government, and religious freedom.

Deism

The belief in a "Watchmaker" god who set natural laws but does not intervene, a concept supported by Thomas Paine.

Socialism

A school of thought associated with Saint-Simon that advocates for communal ownership to prevent the inequalities of capitalism.

Abolitionism

A reform movement arguing that if all men are born with natural rights, slavery is a violation of natural law.

Feminism (Enlightenment Era)

The movement represented by Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," arguing women appeared inferior only because they lacked education.

Enlightened Despots

Eastern European rulers like Catherine the Great who considered ending serfdom and other reforms to modernize their states.

Nationalism

An emerging identity where people see themselves as members of a nation sharing a language and culture rather than just subjects of a king.

Zionism

A nationalist movement defined by the desire for a Jewish homeland as ethnic groups sought their own sovereignty.