The EnlightenmentCauses of Revolution

What are the main ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers?

How do they challenge the powers of Absolute Monarchs?  

John LockeThomas Hobbes

Voltaire

Objectives

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan (1651)

Englishman

Man motivated by power & fear –> needed an all-powerful sovereign◦ Without one, life would

be “solitary, nasty, poor, brutish & short”

Politics as a science

John LockeIndividual must become

rational, man innately good – TABULA RASA

Virtue can be learned & practiced

“Divine right of kings” is nonexistent

“Two Treaties of Civil Government”

Natural rights given to all◦Life, liberty & property

Favored a republicSocial contract btw people

& government (what is influenced by this idea??)

Baron de Montesquieu (Charles de Secondat)

1st of the French Philosophes“The Spirit of the Laws” (1749)Separation of powers ensures freedom &

liberty3 types of government= monarchy,

despotism & republic

Voltaire (AKA Francois Marie Arouet)

Author & poet

“Candide” (1759)

Men are born equal-virtue makes the difference

Directly critiqued French crown so fled

Jean Jacques Rousseau

“The Social Contract” (1762)Virtue exists in nature, not in

society“Man is born free, yet

everywhere he is in chains.”

Government is necessary Liberty, equality, fraternity

(brotherhood)General will= with each

other, not rulersRepublican government with

direct democracy◦No legal protections for

individual rights Influenced French

revolutionaries & Karl Marx

Mary Wollstonecraft

• Vindication of the Rights of Woman

•English writer, philosopher

•Men & women are equal

Salons

Aftermath…Revolution?

New forms of civil society arose◦Literacy increasing

Reform & critique couldn’t stop

Birth of the “individual”◦Natural rights

Implications??

Conclusion & Connections

So…◦What are the main ideas of the Enlightenment

philosophers?

◦How do they challenge the powers of Absolute Monarchs?  

Enlightenment Primary Source Documents

Answer the following questions after you’ve read the documents:

(group-work is ok, but I only need 1 paper per group):◦How would these writers have come up with their point of

view?◦What is Hobbes main argument? Include details.◦What is Locke’s main argument/message? Provide details.◦What are the major tenets/beliefs of Montesquieu &

Rousseau?

Answer individually (& turn in by the end of class):◦Describe how 2 Enlightenment thinkers directly

challenged absolutism (absolute monarchy). Be specific & give examples from the text.