Enlightenment Quiz Updated 2025

Empiricism

all learning occurs through observation/experience

Social Contract

giving up some individual rights for the common good

Inalienable (or natural) rights

rights given at birth; cannot be taken (life/liberty/property)

tabula rasa

"blank state"; all learning is through experience

separation of powers/checks and balances

refers to the three branches of government, no branch can overrule another

religious toleration

accepting others of different religous beliefs

deism

compares god to "clockmaker"; universal laws govern the world

popular sovereignty

the source of any power in government is the peopleacc

the general will.

the wants/needs of ALL society

Laizzez-faire/free markets

the government should not regulate the economy

What are characteristics of the Enlightenment?

1.) A focus on reason

2.) The use of observation/experimatentaion to study society.

3.) The belief one can improved society with proper education/training.

4.) Protections for individual rights

5.) Increase separation of churach and state

Who developed inalienable rights/tabula rasa?

John Locke

Who developed the idea of separation of powers/checks and balances?

Montesquieu

Who developed the idea of the general will/popular sovereignty?

Rousseau

Who developed deism/believed in religious toleration?

Voltaire

Developed the idea of free markets ("laissez faire").

Adam Smith

Who wrote On Crimes and Punishments?

Cesare Beccaria

In On Crimes and Punishments, what was this man’s attitude towards crime and punishment?

He argued against torture and the death penalty.  In general, penalties should be just enough to deter people.

What did Denis Diderot?

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher whoe helped right the Encyclopédie, a massive collection of articles from an Enlightenment perspective

Who was the world’s first feminist scholar?

Mary Wollstonecraft