Untitled Flashcards Set

As empires expanded and trade routes led to more interactions, intellectuals

in the 1th and 18th centuries such as Descartes began to emphasize reason

over tradition and individualism over community values. These shifts were

called the Enlightenment. The ideals of this movement, such as individualism,

freedom, and self-determination, challenged the roles of monarchs and church

leaders and planted the seeds of revolution in the United States, France, and

around the world. Growing out of the Scientifc Revolution and the humanism of the Renaissance,

Enlightenment thought was optimistic. Many writers believed that applying

reason to natural laws would result in progress. While not denying the existence

of God, they emphasized human accomplishments in understanding the natural

world. Such beliefs led to the conclusion that natural laws governed the social

and political spheres as well. While traditional religion did not disappear, it

became less pervasive.

New ideas emerged about how to improve society. Schools of thought

including socialism and liberalism arose, giving rise to the period being called

“the Age of Isms.” Opposing socialism and liberalism were the currents of

conservatism, particularly popular among the European ruling class. (All of

these “isms” are defned later in this topic. The clash between new ideas and old political structures led to revolutions

that often had two aims: independence from imperial powers and constitutional

representation. The breakup of empires and the emergence of new forms of

government often followed. These developed out of the concept of nationalism,

a feeling of intense loyalty to others who share one’s language and culture. The

idea that people who share a culture should also live in an independent nation-

state threatened to destroy all of Europe’s multiethnic empires.

In the 17th century, Francis Bacon emphasized empirical methods of scientifc

inquiry. Empiricism is the belief that knowledge comes from sensed

experience, from what you observe through your experience, including through

experiments. Rather than relying on reasoning about principles provided by

tradition or religion, Bacon based his conclusions on his observation of natural

data. Hobbes and Locke In the same century, philosophers Thomas Hobbes

(author of Leviathan, 1651

and John Locke (author of Two Treatises of

Government, 160

viewed political life as the result of a social contract.

Hobbes argued that people’s natural state was to live in a bleak world in which

life was “nasty, brutish, and short.” However, by agreeing to a social contract,

they gave up some rights to a strong central government in return for law and

order.

Locke, on the other hand, argued that the social contract implied the right,

even the responsibility, of citizens to revolt against unjust government. Locke

thought that people had natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.

Another of Locke’s infuential ideas is found in An Essay Concerning Human

Understanding

160

, in which he proposed that a child was born with a

mind like a “blank slate” (tabula rasa

waiting to be flled with knowledge.

In a world in which most people believed that an individual’s intelligence,

personality, and fate were heavily determined by their ancestry, Locke’s

emphasis on environment and education in shaping people was radical.

The Philosophes In the 18th century, a new group of thinkers and writers

who came to be called the philosophes explored social, political, and economic

theories in new ways. In doing so, they popularized concepts that they felt

followed rationally upon those of the scientifc thinkers of the 1th century.

Taking their name from the French word philosophe

“philosopher”

, these

writers included Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin from America,

Adam Smith from Scotland, and several French thinkers

Of particular importance to writers of the new constitutions in France and

America in the 18th and 1th centuries were the ideas of Baron Montesquieu.

His famous work The Spirit of Laws

18

praised the British government’s

use of checks on power because it had a Parliament. Montesquieu thus

infuenced the American system, which adopted his ideas by separating its

executive branch

the president

from its legislative branch

Congress

and

both from its third branch

the federal judiciary

.

Francois-Marie Arouet, pen name Voltaire, is perhaps best known for his

social satire Candide

162

. He was famous during his lifetime for his wit and

for his advocacy of civil liberties. Exiled for three years due to a confict with

a member of the French aristocracy, Voltaire lived in England long enough

to develop an appreciation for its constitutional monarchy and a regard for

civil rights. He brought these ideas back to France, where he campaigned for

religious liberty and judicial reform. His correspondence with heads of state

such as Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia

and

his extensive writings, including articles in Diderot’s Encyclopedia, are still

quoted today. His idea of religious liberty infuenced the U.S. Constitution.

A contemporary of Voltaire was the writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who

expanded on the idea of the social contract as it had passed down through the

work of Hobbes and Locke. One of Rousseau’s early works was Emile, or On

Education

162

in which he laid out his ideas on child-rearing and education.

A later work, The Social Contract

162

, presented the concept of the General

Will of a population and the obligation of a sovereign to carry out that General

Will. An optimist who believed that society could improve, Rousseau inspired

many revolutionaries of the late 18th century.

Adam Smith One of the most infuential thinkers of the Enlightenment

was Adam Smith. In his book The Wealth of Nations

16

, Smith responded

to mercantilism by calling for freer trade. While Smith did support some

government regulations and saw the benefts of taxes, he generally advocated

for laissez-faire, a

French phrase for “leave

alone.” This approach

meant that governments

should reduce their

intervention in economic

decisions. Smith believed

that if businesses and

consumers were allowed

to make choices in

their own interests, the

“invisible hand” of the

market would guide them

to make choices benefcial

for society. His ideas

provided a foundation for

capitalism, an economic

system in which the

means of production,

such as factories and

natural resources, are

privately owned and are

operated for proft. The Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason led some thinkers

to reexamine the relationship of humans to God. Some adopted Deism, the

belief that a divinity simply set natural laws in motion. Deists compared the

divinity to a watchmaker who makes a watch but does not interfere in its day-

to-day workings. Deists believed these laws could be best understood through

Adam Smith was one of the first modern economists.

scientifc inquiry rather than study of the Bible. Despite their unorthodox

ideas, many Deists viewed regular church attendance as an important social

obligation and a way people received moral guidance.

Thomas Paine, never one to shrink from confict, was militant in his

defense of Deism in the book The Age of Reason

1

. Paine’s previous work,

16

, made him popular in America for advocating liberty

from Britain, but his anti-church writings damaged much of his popularity.