2. Who were some political thinkers of the Enlightenment and what were their ideas?

2. Who were some political thinkers of the

Enlightenment and what were their ideas?

Thomas Hobbes• English• Man is bad,

need absolute government

• Give up freedom for protection

• Wrote “Leviathan” – said equality led to competition and violence

• Life is “nasty, brutish & short”

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

John Locke• English• Natural rights of

man-life, liberty & property

• Rejected divine right

• Social contract with gov’t to protect these rights

• If gov’t is unjust, can break the treaty

Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.

Denis Diderot• French• Compiled the

Encyclopedie – 28 volumes

• Criticized the church & gov’t

• Contained everything known about science, technology, history, etc.

No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.

Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.

Baron de Montesquieu

• French

• Separation of governmental powers into 3 branches

• Judicial, executive & legislative branches

• Balance of power

• Spirit of the Laws

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

The less men think, the more they talk.

Voltaire

• French• Criticized

the church & monarchy

• Free speech

• Served time in prison, exiled to England

• Author of Candide

“I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

“Common sense is not so common.”

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau• Swiss• Man is naturally good – the world makes them bad

• Wrote The Social Contract

• Argued for direct democracy

• Rely on instinct & emotion

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles.

Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.

Immanuel Kant

• German• The

Critique of Pure Reason

• Human emotions about religion, beauty, morality, etc. are real even though science & reason couldn’t explain them

“It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge that begins with experience.”

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”

Philosophes• Group of thinkers in France

• Applied the methods of science to understand & improve society

• Frequently met in salons in France

– Could discuss and debate freely

– Usually held in a private home of a wealthy woman (salonniere)

Enlightenment economics…the

physiocrats

• Adam Smith – author of The Wealth of Nations in 1776

• Laissez-faire – to leave alone; believed government should stay out of business, “invisible hand” will guide the economy

3. What did those opposed to

Enlightenment ideas do to stop the spread

of information?

• Engaged in censorship

• Burning books

• Imprisoned authors

• Restricted access to information

Although the Enlightenment was readily received in affluent circles, its impact on the "masses" is more problematical. Books and pamphlets distributing enlightenment ideas were expensive. Censorship was a problem in many areas, particularly in Catholic France, when all books and pamphlets published or sold had to be approved by the censorship office. Censored books were burned, and those who published them could be sentenced to death, although more frequently their shops were closed. Even the Dutch, typically tolerant of religious dissent, banned Diderot’s Philosophic Thoughts, as it was considered an attack on religion. In France, the monarchy controlled what was published through the licensing of printers, booksellers and peddlers.

4. How did arts and literature change as Enlightenment ideas

spread?

• Art – more elegant

• Literature – novels which had plots, suspense & character development.

• Entertaining stories enjoyed by middle classes.

• Written in language that was understood

• Composers

–Haydn

–Mozart

–Beethoven

–Bach

–Handel

• Lighter, more elegant music

Enlightened Despot• Frederick the Great

• Catherine the Great

• Joseph II• Read in your text about each ruler…what is

an enlightened despot and how did each of the 3 rulers listed above fit into this category???

• HOMEWORK: p. 191 #1 & 2; p. 192 #2 & 3; p. 194 #1 & 2

5. How did the ideas of the Enlightenment lead to

the independence and founding of the U.S.A.?

• French-Indian War

• Colonial governments had already developed

• Ideas about freedom and representative government inspired colonial leaders to revolt & establish an independent republic

"Why should I trade one tyrant, three thousand miles away, for three thousand tyrants, one mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man's rights just as easily as a King can." - Benjamin Martin, THE PATRIOT

George III

• King of England

• Colonial leaders targeted him & his policies (particularly taxation) as the reason for revolution

Common Sense

• Pamphlet written by British writer Thomas Paine

• Colonies should rebel…

• Absurd for a country to rule a continent

6. Explain the influence of Enlightenment ideas on

the Declaration of Independence, the

Constitution & the Bill of Rights.

Declaration of Independence• Individual freedom

• Popular sovereignty – government power comes from the people, vote for their leaders

• Social contract

• Natural rights of man “life, liberty & pursuit of happiness”

The Constitution & Bill of Rights• 3 branches

• Separation of powers

• Checks and balances

• Individual freedoms—speech, religion, press, etc.

• Government by the people

Federal Republic

• Elected leaders

• Power divided between federal & state governments (10th amendment guarantees this)