The document discusses the political impact of the Enlightenment on government. It describes how the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution influenced the Enlightenment by rediscovering classical societies and demonstrating challenges to authority. Key Enlightenment thinkers like Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau developed ideas around natural rights, separation of powers, liberty, and social contracts that still influence governments today. The Enlightenment valued reason and believed science and understanding natural laws could improve society and lead to progress. While it did not achieve full equality, the Enlightenment also began debates around women's rights.

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The Enlightenment
1650-1800
Chapter 6 section 2

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Topics
I. Important Influences
II. The Age of Reason
III. The Philosophes

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I. Important Influences
A. The Renaissance
B. The Reformation
C. The Scientific Revolution

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A. The Renaissance
• A rediscovery of
Roman and Greek
Society
• A new emphasis
on human
qualities.

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B. The Reformation
• Ends the monopoly
of the Catholic
Church.
• Huge explosion of
new interpretations
of the Bible.
• Demonstrates a
challenge to
authority.

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C. Scientific Revolution
• The world has
natural laws to
explain it.
• Humans, as part of
nature, also have
laws that govern
them.
• We, as humans, can
use reason to
discover these laws.

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II. The Age of Reason
A. Reason
B. Nature
C. Happiness
D. Progress
E. Liberty

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A. Reason
• Philosophes viewed reason as the
absence of intolerance and bigotry.
• Through reason society could be improved
and true happiness be found.

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B. Nature.
• Whatever was natural was good and
reasonable.
• Their were laws of nature for all things.
• People could use reason to discover these
laws.
• These natural laws could be used to
explain economics, politics as well as
motion.

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C. Happiness
• People who live in a perfect state of nature
will be happy.
• Rejected idea of misery on Earth as a
ticket to heaven.
• Believed happiness could be achieved on
earth.

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D. Progress.
• Society can be improved.
• Science can improve society.
• Understanding of Natural laws could
improve society.

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E. Liberty.
• Philosophes admired the liberties of the
English.
• Restrictions on trade, religion and speech
were seen as harmful.
• Through reason people could be set free.

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III. The Philosophes.
A. Thomas Hobbes
B. John Locke
C. Voltaire
D. Denis Diderot
E. Baron de Montesquieu
F. Jean Jacque Rousseau
G. Adam Smith.
H. Benjamin Franklin

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A. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
• Wrote Leviathan.
• State of Nature is war.
• Man is Self interested
• Man needs a monarch to
rule.
• A Social Contract will
exist between the people
and the state.
– Purpose to maintain order.

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A. John Locke. (1632-1704)
• Man is good, rejected
idea of original sin.
• Man should be Free.
• Man can govern himself
through reason.
– Humans could improve
society through reason.
• Advocated idea of Social
Contract.
• Man had Natural Rights.

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C. Voltaire
• Voltaire was his pen
name.
• Used his writings to
campaign against
intolerance, injustice and
prejudice.
– Often is jailed for his
criticisms of rulers.
• Admired British system of
common law.
• Viewed reason as a
divine force.

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D. Denis Diderot
• Created the First Encyclopedia.
• Wanted to collect all information from
leading scholars and writers.
• Louis XV saw the book as a threat and
and had it banned.
• Diderot continued to print other copies.
• Inspired Encyclopedia Britannica

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E. Baron de Montesquieu
• Admired the British model.
– Hated French Absolutism.
• Spirit of the Laws. 1748.
• Separation of Powers: Each
branch of government will
have its own function.
– Executive enforces law.
– Legislative passes law
– Judicial interprets law.
• This creates a system of
checks and balances.
– Prevents any one branch from

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F. Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Wrote “The Social
Contract”.
• Believed everyone should
be Free.
• Power comes from the
consent of the governed.
• Civilization corrupts
goodness of man.
• Believed in Direct
Democracy

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G. Adam Smith
• Free Trade and
Laissez Faire
• Law of Self Interest
• Law of Competition
• Law of Supply and
Demand

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H. Ben Franklin.
• An American
Philosophe
• Poor Richards
Almanac
• Electricity

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V. Women and the Enlightenment
A. The role of Salons
B. Mary Wollstonecraft
C. Enlightenment on Women

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A. The Role of Salons.
• Acted as intellectual
centers of Europe.
• Poetry, stories,
debate, and music.
• Organized by woman.
– Marie Therese
Geoffrin.
• Restricted to the
upper class.

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The Salons

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B. Mary Wollstonecraft
• A Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Opposed traditional roles for women
– Confinement to roles is slavery
– Male tyranny
• Critiqued other philosphes for excluding
women
• Broadened the debate

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C. Enlightenment on Women
• Most did not advocate a change for women
– Montesquieu’s support was limited
• Sympathetic, not revolutionary
• Subordinate to male, but could divorce
– Most writers emphasized the physical
differences
• Weakness
• Frivolous
– Rousseau advocated traditional roles for
women

28. IDEA Thinker Impact
Natural Rights-Life, liberty,
property
Locke Fundamental to ideas
found in Dec. of Ind.
Separation of Powers Montesquieu France, U.S. Latin
America use these ideas
in their Constitutions
Freedom of thought and
expression
Voltaire Ideas found in many Bills
of Rights
Free Trade Adam Smith Free Trade, capitalism
Religious Freedom Voltaire Bill of Rights, reduction of
Persecutions
Women’s Rights Wollstonecraft Eventual women’s rights
in N. America and Europe
Major Ideas of the Enlightenment

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With the Enlightenment:
• The State becomes the common bond holding
society together.
• The scientist and the university educated scholar
become the source of knowledge.
• Natural Law and Reason, rather than revelation
or the decrees of the Church become the source
of moral authority.
• In the methods of science, European believed
they had found the source of truth.
• The Enlightenment is an attempt to find the laws
of human society in the same way that Newton
had found the laws of nature.

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Terms
• Enlightenment
• Philosophe
• Salon
• Baroque
• Newton
• Voltaire
• Marie Therese
Geofrin
• Diderot
• Priestley
• Franklin
• Cook
• Bach
• Handel
• Mozart
• Beethoven