12.

2- The
Enlightenment
Essential Question- How much power should
government have?
 Review- Renaissance and Scientific
Revolution
• Before the Enlightenment took hold What was the Renaissance?
of Europe, the Renaissance had Golden Age of arts and literature
occurred. The Renaissance led to in Western Europe
the Scientific Revolution. All of Rebirth of classical learning
these time periods are defined by a
sense of inquiry, or questioning the
established order to find better What was the Scientific Revolution?
ways of doing things. Scientists begin to question
traditional beliefs
Use of logic and reason,
observation and experimentation
 The Enlightenment
• Also known as the Age of Reason,
the Enlightenment grew out of the
Scientific Revolution of the 1500s &
1600s
• If scientists could understand the
physical world using reason, then
reason could also be used to
discover natural laws which shape
the human experience.

Natural Laws- unchanged

principles, discovered
through reason, that
govern all human conduct
 The Enlightenment
• Using methods of modern science, reformers
set out to study human behavior and solve
the political, social and economic problems
of society using reason
• Enlightened thinkers, called philosophes,
were concerned with the relationship
between government and the people, and
their ideas were used by many modern
nations in the creation of government
• Resulted in the move away from absolutism
and divine right (religion) and toward
democracy and individual rights (secularism)
 encouraged revolutionary leaders
throughout Europe and the Americas
 Thomas Hobbes
• Argued that people are cruel, greedy,
and selfish- as a result government
(law) protects people from each other
• Without government, people would
fight, rob, and oppress one another
• Social Contract- an arrangement
where people give up their rights to be
protected by the government
• Supported absolute monarchs
• Wrote about his ideas in The Leviathan
 John Locke
• Believed that people are basically moral and
reasonable. They want to do the right thing.
• All people are born free & equal with three
natural rights- life, liberty, and property
• Government exists at the consent of the
governed to protect their rights. If the
government fails to protect these rights, the
contract is broken and the people may change
or replace the government.
• Wrote Two Treatises of Government stressing
the best governments had limited power—not
an absolute monarchy
 Montesquieu
• Criticized absolute monarchies—admired Britain's
limited monarchy and said it protected people’s
rights.
• Believed having 3 branches in government would
prevent tyranny
• Having a separation of powers would
prevent any one branch from gaining too
much power over the other two
Tyranny: absolute
“In order to have…liberty, it is necessary ruler abuses
power; unfair and
that government be set up so that one man harsh rule
need not be afraid of another.”
Montesquieu
Believed gov’t should be split into
these three branches, and that each
branch should be able to serve as a
check on the other two:
-Executive (enforces laws)
-Legislative (makes the laws)
-Judicial (applies laws)

Name one country that

adopted Montesquieu’s idea
of separation of powers
 Voltaire
“I do not agree
• Believed in the freedom of press and used it to with a word you
expose the abuses of corrupt political and church
leaders. say, but I will
• Fought for civil liberties- rights/freedoms of citizens defend to the
• Freedom of Speech death your right
• Freedom of Religion to say it.”
• Separation of Church and State
• Believed that humanity’s worst enemies
were intolerance, prejudice & superstition
• His writings angered government and church
officials. He was imprisoned and forced into exile. To
stop his ideas from spreading his books and writings
were outlawed and burned.
 Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Believed that people were naturally good, but
were corrupted by society
• Unequal distribution of property was an
especially great evil of society
• Stressed the importance of the general will- the
will of the people as a whole
• Believed the good of the community should be
placed above individual interests- common good
• Hated all forms of political and economic
oppression
 Rousseau’s Social Contract
• Rousseau wrote The Social Contract Remember— a social contract is
where he lays out his ideas of
an arrangement where people
government and society
give up their rights to be
• Society places too many limits on protected by the government
peoples’ behavior- some controls are
necessary but should be minimal
• Only governments that had been freely
elected should impose law
• Sovereignty (the power to make laws) should
be in the hands of the people, and therefore
the only good government is a direct
democracy
 New Economic Ideas
• Some enlightened thinkers, called
physiocrats, attempted to solve the Mercantilism required
economic problems of the day in the same government regulation of
manner that others tried to solve political the economy to achieve a
problems. favorable trade balance.
• They argued that there were natural laws
of economics, just as there were natural
laws for society/gov’t
• These thinkers rejected mercantilism and
promoted laissez faire economic
practices. In a laissez faire economy, the
government does not interfere with the
operations of business.
Laissez Faire =
Hands Off
 Adam Smith
• Adam Smith was a Scottish economist who greatly
admired the physiocrats.
• Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, in which he
argues for a free market without government
interference.
• He believed that the forces of supply and
demand should run the market—whenever there
was a demand for goods or services, suppliers
would try to meet that demand in order to gain
profits.
• Though Smith believed the government should
stay out of the economy, he believed that it had a
duty to protect society, administer justice, and
provide public works.
 Enlightenment for Women
• Natural Rights were for men only.
Though enlightened thinkers said that
women had natural rights, they were
limited to the areas of home and
family.
• Some women were exposed to
enlightened philosophy through
salons. Prominent and wealthy women
would host informal parties where
enlightened thinkers could gather and
discuss literature, the arts, science,
philosophy and politics.
• Salons allowed Enlightenment ideas to
spread- because they were hosted by Vernacular-
women, guests were forced to speak in common language
vernacular.
 Enlightened Women
• Mary Astell
• Wrote A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694)
• Questioned the lack of educational
opportunities for women
• Criticized the unequal relationship between
men & women in a marriage

• Mary Wollstonecraft
• Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of
Women (1792)
• Women need education to participate
equally in public life
 The Spread of Enlightenment
In addition to salons, the theories of enlightened thinkers spread rapidly
through the distribution of pamphlets and books. People began to
question the “traditional way” of doing things.

Before After
-Absolute monarchs rule by divine -Government should work to
right protect the people
-Church has authority -Flexible social classes- all people
have rights
-Strict separation between nobles and
peasants -Happiness on earth
-Suffer in life and be rewarded in
heaven
 Censorship
• Not everyone embraced the philosophes ideas-
most government and church authorities felt Censorship-
they had a sacred duty to defend the old order restricting access to
that had been established by God. ideas & information
• These leaders waged a war of censorship- they
burned books and imprisoned or exiled
enlightened thinkers.
• However, enlightened thinkers still found ways for
their messages to be heard. Many disguised their
ideas in works of fiction. Despite the attempts of
the old order, Enlightened thought continued to
spread.
 Review
Peter the Great and Catherine the Great changed
Russia by

1.abolishing all social class distinctions

2.becoming constitutional monarchs
3.preventing wars with neighboring nations
4.introducing western ideas and customs
 Review
Writers of the Enlightenment were primarily
interested in

1.changing the relationship between people and

their government
2.supporting the divine right theory
3.debating the role of the church in society
4.promoting increased power for European
monarchs
 Review
John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau would be
most likely to support

1.a return to feudalism in Europe

2.a government ruled by a divine right monarchy
3.a society ruled by the Catholic Church
4.a society in which the people chose the ruler
 Review
Which statement best describes a change that
occurred during both the Renaissance and the
Enlightenment?

1.feudalism became the dominant political system

2.a new questioning spirit and attitude emerged
3.technology and science were considered
unimportant
4.the use of reason and logic were discouraged
 Review
Which statement reflects an argument of
Enlightenment philosophers against the belief in the
divine right of kings?
1.god has chosen all government rulers
2.independence is built by military might
3.the power of the government is derived from the
governed
4.a capitalist economic system is necessary for
democracy