EIGHT ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS

EIGHT ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS • Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) • John Locke (1632 – 1704) • Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778) • Baron de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) • Voltaire (1694 – 1778) • Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784) • Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) • Adam Smith (1723 – 1790) • Sam Bellamy (1689-1717) • Rene Descartes- alt. opt. (1596-1650) • Imanuel Kant- alt. opt.

THOMAS HOBBES • In nature, people were cruel, greedy and selfish. They would fight, rob, and oppress one another. • To escape this people would enter into a socialcontract: they would give up their freedom in return for the safety and order of an organized society. • Therefore, Hobbes believed that a powerful government like an absolute monarchy was best for society – it would impose order and compel obedience. It would also be able to suppress rebellion.

Hobbes #2 • His most famous work was called Leviathan. • Hobbes has been used to justify absolute power in government. • His view of human nature was negative, or pessimistic. Life without laws and controls would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Hobbes #3 - Quotes • On human nature Hobbes felt, “A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous” (Hobbes). • Pertaining to an experiment like the U.S. Hobbes says, “Curiosity is the lust of the mind” (Hobbes). • Regarding the Triangle Trade Hobbes was very conservative saying, “In the state of nature profit is the measure of right” (Hobbes). • Sarcasm is not unknown to Hobbes as he says, “Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation” (Hobbes). • Hobbes was a crotchety old dude who would have clashed with the others feeling, philosophy is the result of idleness i.e. his peers were not busy enough (Hobbes).

JOHN LOCKE • Believed in natural laws and natural rights. • At birth, the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank tablet. Everything we know comes from the experience of the senses – empiricism. • We are born with rights because they are a part of nature, of our very existence – they come from god. • At birth, people have the right to life, liberty, and property.

Locke #2 • Most famous works are the Two Treatises on Government. • Rulers / governments have an obligation, a responsibility, to protect the natural rights of the people it governs. • If a government fails in its obligation to protect natural rights, the people have the right to overthrow that government. • The best government is one which is accepted by all of the people and which has limited power (Locke liked the English monarchy where laws limited the power of the king).

Locke #3 • Locke’s ideas influenced Thomas Jefferson more than anything else when Jefferson wrote the US Declaration of Independence in 1776. • Locke justified revolution in the eyes of the Founding Fathers. • Locke also influenced later revolutions in France (1789) and in many other places in the world in the 19th Century.

Locke #4 - Quotes • In contrast to Hobbes Locke says, “No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience” (Locke). • “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions” speaking on human rights (Locke). • “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts” regarding human nature being positive (Locke). • Locke justifies the social contract theory by saying, “The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property” (Locke).

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU • People are basically good but become corrupted by society (like the absolute monarchy in France). • For Rousseau, the social contract was the path to freedom: people should do what is best for their community. • The general will (of the people) should direct the state toward the common good. Hence, the good of the community is more important than individual interests. • Similar viewpoint to which ancient civilization?

Rousseau #2 • His most famous work was The Social Contract. • JJR questioned authority - absolute monarchy and religion. • JJR was passionate, he hated political and economic oppression. • Influenced later revolutionaries, both middle class and socialist.

Rousseau #3 - Quotes • Rousseau felt, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” (Rousseau). • Rousseau wrote, “Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers,” in his description of the perfect government (Rousseau). • When discussing human nature Rousseau cautioned, “Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost” (Rousseau). • His view of the perfect government is different than Montesquieu as he says, “It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can” (Rousseau).

MONTESQUIEU • He strongly criticized absolute monarchy and was a voice for democracy. • Separation of Powers - the best way to protect liberty was to divide the powers of government into three branches: legislative; executive; and judicial. • Checks and Balances – each branch of government should check (limit) the power of the other two branches. Thus, power would be balanced (even) and no one branch would be too powerful. • Montesquieu studied the history of governments and cultures all over the world.

Montesquieu #2 • His first book, The Persian Letters, ridiculed the absolute monarchy and social classes in France. He also wrote The Spirit of the Laws. • Montesquieu’s ‘separation of powers’ and ‘checks and balances’ greatly influenced James Madison and the other framers of the US Constitution. These ideas are at the core of American government to this day.

Montesquieu #3 – Quotes • The Baron felt, “The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver,” basically he favored less governmental involvement, “Useless laws weaken the necessary laws” (Montesquieu). • As a true fan of democracy Montesquieu also loved education saying, “To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui (disatisfaction) for hours of delight. I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve” (Montesquieu).

VOLTAIRE • Advocated freedom of thought, speech, politics, and religion. • Fought against intolerance, injustice, inequality, ignorance, and superstition. • Attacked idle aristocrats, corrupt government officials, religious prejudice, and the slave trade. • He often had to express his views indirectly through fictional characters because he lived in an absolute monarchy in France.

Voltaire #2 • Wrote the famous novel Candide • Voltaire often used a razor sharp humor and cutting sarcasm in his writings. • He was imprisoned in the Bastille in Paris and exiled because ofhis attacks on the French government and the Catholic Church. • Voltaire’s books were outlawed, even burned, by the authorities.

Voltaire #3 - Quotes • A quote you might find helpful in rebuttal to Hobbes, “My trade is to say what I think,” an interesting place to be because he also felt strongly in freedom of speech saying regularyly, “I do not agree with a word you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (Voltaire). • Pertaining to the separation of Church and State Voltarie felt strongly stating, “As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities,” “Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do,” and God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh” (Voltaire). • This would be a great smack in the face, “He who thinks himself wise, O heavens, is a great fool” (Voltaire).

DENIS DIDEROT • This philosophe worked 25 years to produce (edit) a 28 volume Encyclopedia – the first one. • The Encyclopedia was not just a collection of articles on human knowledge, it was intended to change the way people thought. Montesquieu, Voltaire, and others wrote articles. • About 20,000 copies were printed between 1751 and 1789 despite efforts to ban the Encyclopedia.

Diderot #2 • Articles in the Encyclopedia supported freedom of expression and education for all people. • The divine-right theory (of monarchy) was criticized along with traditional religions. • The French king said the Encyclopedia was an attack on public morals. • The pope threatened to excommunicate Catholics who bought or read the Encyclopedia.

Diderot #3 - Quotes • Showing his addition to the Declaration Diderot states, “There is only one passion, the passion for happiness” (Diderot). • Bitterly stating, “We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter,” and “From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step” Diderot shows his feelings for religion and oppressive governments (Diderot). • He continues distrusting (hatin on) religion by saying, “If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him” (Diderot). • Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.

Diderot #4 – Quotes ii • In the true flavor of a collector of Enlightenment thought Diderot says, “When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years” (Diderot). • Finally this could be said to Hobbes, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest” (Diderot) and would be quickly chimed in on by Voltaire.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT • She argued that women had not been included in the Enlightenment slogan “free and equal.” Women had been excluded from the social contract. • Her arguments were often met with scorn, even from some ‘enlightened’ men. • Wollstonecraft and Catherine Macaulay were British feminists. The most famous French feminist was Germaine de Stael.

Mary Wollstonecraft #2 • She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792. • Wollstonecraft believed in equal education for girls and boys. Only education could give women the knowledge to participate equally with men in public life. • She did argue that a woman’s first duty was to be a good mother. But, a woman could also decide on her own what was in her interest without depending on her husband.

Mary Wollstonecraft #3 - Quotes • A proud feminist questions, “If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop” (Wollstonecraft)? • Continuing she ponders, “The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger” (Wollstonecraft). • Feeling strongly about gender equality Mary states, “ “Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously assert that women ought to be subjected because she has always been so” (Wollstonecraft).

Mary Wollstonecraft #4 - Quotes • Pertaining the female education the mother of the author of Frankenstein writes, “Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience. Virtue can only flourish among equals” (Wollstonecraft).

ADAM SMITH • Smith was a Scottish economist who has been called the “father of capitalism.” • He was an advocate of laissez faire (French for ‘let do,’ ‘let go,’ ‘let pass.’ – often referred to as ‘hands off.’). • Laissez faire was a theory of the ‘natural’ laws of economics: business should operate with little or no government interference.

Adam Smith #2 • He wrote The Wealth of Nations. • Smith argued the free market of supply and demand should drive economies. The hidden hand of competition was the only regulation an economy needed. • Wherever there was demand for goods or services, suppliers would compete with each other to meet that demand in order to make profit. • Smith did believe that government had a duty to protect society and to provide justice and public works.

Adam Smith #3 - Quotes • The rich Smith States, “ ... divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal proportions among all its inhabitants” (Smith). • In regard to human nature Smith writes, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” (Smith). • Again regarding the nature of man, “The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals. No dog exchanges bones with another” (Smith).

http://undertheblackflag.com/?p=2992

SAM BELLAMY • A poor young man who fell in love and set out to seek his fortune on the high seas, outside the laws of society. • Bellamy most likely penned “The Articles” of his ship which painted a somewhat barbaric Utopia as every man once forced to sign was treated as equal, with equal say and equal pay. • In regard to life as a pirate and government Bellamy is quoted as saying, “ “Tho’, damn ye, you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery, but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls” (Ridwan).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes h

Renes Descartes • Father of modern philosophy, Wrote Discourse on Method, Rules for the Direction of Mind, & Principles of Philosophy • Studied Euclid extensively and believed in an equality of common sense among men, that set them apart from their fellow beasts/brutes. • Learned from Galileo to be cautious of what you publish and withheld his Copernican ideas to avoid excommunication from the church h

Renes Descartes # 2 • Felt that people needed to control thoughts and created Cartesian skepticism with using science and mathematics. His theory of philosophy was unique because it sought to remove all pieces, only to replace them one by one to reveal truth. • He believes strongly in education and Vernacular, Descartes created the prism, power system, and Cartisian Coordinate system (Davis media). • His most famous quote, “I think therefore I am” (Descartes). h

Renes Descartes # 3 Quotes • He is humble but proud, as he tries to hide his pride in his intellect by saying he is less than he really is, “For I found myself involved in so many doubts and errors, that I was convinced I had advanced no farther in all my attempts at learning, than the discovery at every turn of my own ignorance,” while later bragging on his most prestigious university and his ability to not be satisfied with science, only to create his own (Descartes). "René Descartes." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Dec 17 2013, 03:30http://www.biography.com/people/ren%C3%A9-descartes-37613. h

Immanuel Kant • He is the creator of Ethics = what is right and wrong • He was a Deontologist, stating that all consequences were silly because morality is in the act alone (Davis Media). • In his writing What is Enlightenment he argues, most men are lazy and accept being a minor, or under the control of a government (Kant). • He continues saying all men should be Free, to do as their conscience says

Immanuel Kant • He continues saying, “all men should be Free, to do as their conscience says” (Kant). • Created the Categorical Imperative • 2 wrongs do not equal a right • No grey areas right is right and wrong is wrong 3 actions; 1) Universality- all actions should be judged by what would happen if everyone did the action all the time. 2) Humans should not be manipulated. Greater good is bull = no lying 3) You should be the absolute ruler of your morality (Davis Media).

EIGHT ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS