Honors World Enlightment

John Locke

Thomas Hobbes

• Believed that all people have natural rights

• Life, Liberty, Own Property

• Added to Hobbes's Social Contract Theory

• Said people can break the "contract" when a king becomes corrupt

• Believed best government has limited powers & listens to the people

• His Big Idea: If the government doesn't respect the people's rights, the people can overthrow the government!

• Believed humans are naturally violent & disorderly

• Believed that people form a Social Contract with the king

• Give up freedoms in exchange for king's protection

• His Big Idea: Citizens need government to protect them from themselves

Francis Bacon

• Philosopher

• Popularized the scientific method

• Inductive Reasoning - process of reasoning from the specific to the general

Rene Descartes

• Scientist, mathematician, philosopher

• Deductive Reasoning - process of reasoning from the general to the specific

Tips!

Deduction rhymes with reduction--you start with a set of possibilities and reduce it until a smaller subset remains.

Induction begins with the same two letters as the word increase--you start with a limited number of observations and increase that number by generalizing.

Baron de Montesquieu

His Big Idea: Believed government should have separation of powers with checks and balances

Why should you care?

"The Age of Reason"

Sir Isaac Newton

The Enlightenment!

Enlightenment - (1600s-1700s) the European philosopher and intellectual movement that emphasized reasoning, logic, individualism, and important political philosophies

The intellectuals of the Enlightenment were called Philosophes.

Philosphes met in Salons to discuss their ideas.

• Our founding fathers studied the ideas of Enlightenment Philosophers

• The Declaration of Independence & American Constitution were written by using Enlightenment ideas & principles

• Used math to prove existence of gravity

• Invented Calculus

• Discovered laws of light, color, and motion

• Newton's Three Laws of Motion:

1.) A body at rest stays at rest

2.) Acceleration is caused by force

3.) For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction

Roots of the Enlightenment

• Grew out of the Renaissance, Reformation, & Scientific Revolution.

• All these movements challenged accepted beliefs!

• Enlightenment philosophers used the ideas and reason of the Scientific Revolution to solve problems in government & society.

Voltaire

The Enlightenment & Government!

• Criticized old & accepted ideas

• Divine Right of Kings!

• Belief that kings receive their power from God

• Wanted Individual Rights!

• Believed people should have a say in government!

• His Big Idea: Demanded that kings offer their people freedom of thought, speech, & religion

Voltaire said:

"I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!"

QUESTION: What does this statement indicate about Voltaire's views on free speech?

Galileo Galilei

Mary Wollstonecraft

• Astronomer

• Made first telescope

• Discovered that objects fall as the same speed regardless of weight.

• Confirmed Copernicus's heliocentric model

• Caused uproar--(went against the Church)

• Threatened with death

• Recanted his beliefs

• Put under house arrest

• Not allowed to publish ideas

• English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights!

• Her Big Idea: Women are NOT naturally inferior to men!!!

The Scientific Method

• Scientific Method - a procedure consisting of observation, measurement, and experiment to test a hypotheses.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Believed people are naturally good, but power corrupts!

• Best government is a direct democracy that promotes the common good of the majority

• His Big Idea: People give up individual rights to be ruled by the general will of the people!

• AKA What the majority wants, the majority gets!

Cesare Beccaria

• Italian criminologist, philosopher, & politician!

• His Big Ideas:

• Torture & the death penalty should NOT BE USED!

• A person accused of a crime should receive a fair and speedy trial!

• "punishment should fit the crime"

Nicolaus Copernicus

What is a Revolution?

Adam Smith

• Astronomer

• 1543 - published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

• Heliocentric universe (sun-centered)

• Most rejected his theory because it went against the Catholic Church's teachings

• Later Tycho Brahe & Johannes Kepler continued using math and observations to prove Copernicus's theory CORRECT!

A Revolution is a complete CHANGE, or an OVERTHROW of a government, a social system, etc.

• Father of modern Economics!

• Wrote: The Wealth of Nations

Main Points:

• Free Trade!

• countries should trade naturally...

• with limited government influence!

• Laissez-faire - "let alone"

• No tariffs, quotas, restrictions

• The wealth of a nation is based on the productivity of its workers!

The Scientific Revolution

• (1500s-1600s) the Scientific Revolution was the emergence of modern science that allowed humans to see and study the world differently using mathematics and technological advancements.

• Rejected traditional ideas!

EX. Ptolemy's geocentric universe (Earth-centered)