Enlightenment Ideas

Enlightenment Ideas Presentation created by Robert Martinez Primary Content Source: Prentice Hall World History Images as cited. westernciv2.umwblogs.org

The Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s had transformed the way people in Europe looked at the world. In the 1700s, other scientists expanded European knowledge. mrkash.com

Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, for example, built the framework for modern chemistry. Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against smallpox, a disease whose path of death spanned the centuries. www.ebinrushed.com

Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason. If people used reason to find laws that governed the physical world, why not use reason to discover natural laws, or laws that govern human nature? mstruong.edublogs.org

Using the methods of the new science, reformers set out to study human behavior and solve the problems of society. The Scientific Revolution led to another revolution in thinking, known as the Enlightenment. www.hermes-press.com

Through the use of reason, insisted Enlightenment thinkers, people and governments could solve every social, political, and economic problem. Heaven could be achieved here on Earth. jspivey.wikispaces.com

In the 1600s, two English thinkers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, set forth ideas that were to become key to the Enlightenment. Both men lived through the upheavals of the English Civil War. Yet they came to very different conclusions about human nature and the role of government. cronologia.leonardo.it

Thomas Hobbes set out his ideas in a work title Leviathan. He argued that people were naturally, cruel, greedy, and selfish. If not strictly controlled, they would fight, rob, and oppress one another. Life in the “state of nature” – without laws or other control – would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

To escape that “brutish” life, said Hobbes, people entered into a social contract, an agreement by which they gave up the state of nature for an organized society. Hobbes believed that only a powerful government could ensure an orderly society. For him, such a government was an absolute monarchy, which could impose order and compel obedience. ydemokrat.blogspot.com

John Locke had a more optimistic view of human nature. People were basically reasonable and moral, he said. Further, they had certain natural rights, or rights that belonged to all humans from birth. These included the right to life, liberty, and property. www.writeawriting.com

In Two Treatises of Government, Locke argued that people formed governments to protect their natural rights. The best kind of government, he said, had limited power and was accepted by all citizens. Thus, unlike Hobbes, Locke rejected absolute monarchy. www.bl.uk

Locke then set out a radical idea. A government, he said, has an obligation to the people it governs. If a government fails its obligations or violates people’s natural rights, the people have the right to overthrow that government. This right to revolution would echo across Europe and around the world in the centuries that followed. youviewed.com

In the 1700s, France saw a flowering of Enlightenment thought. An early and influential thinker was the Baron de Montesquieu. Montesquieu studied the governments of Europe, from Italy to England. His sharp criticism of absolute monarchy opened the doors for later debate. www.philatelia.net

In The Spirit of the Laws,Montesquieu discussed governments throughout history and wrote admiringly about British’s limited monarchy. Montesquieu felt that the British were protected against tyranny by dividing the various functions and powers of government into 3 separate branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial. (* The British system did not separate powers this way.) public.gettysburg.edu

Montesquieu felt that the separation of powers was the best way to protect liberty. He also felt that each branch of government should be able to serve as a check on the other two, an idea that we call checks and balances. banyanconcepts.blogspot.com

In France, a group of Enlightenment thinkers applied the methods of science to better understand and improve society. They believed that he use of reason could lead to reforms of government, law, and society. These thinkers were called philosophes, which means “lovers of wisdom.” Their ideas soon spread beyond France and even beyond Europe. www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk

Probably the most famous of the philosophes was Voltaire. He used wit as a weapon to expose the abuses of his day. He targeted corrupt officials and idle aristocrats. With his pen, he battled inequality, injustice, and superstition. He detested the slave trade and deplored religious prejudice. www.fempop.com

Voltaire’s outspoken attacks offended both the French government and the Catholic Church. He was imprisoned and forced into exile. Even as he saw his books outlawed and even burned, he continued to defend the principle of freedom of speech. www.larousse.fr

The most controversial philosophe, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was a strange, difficult man. Coming from a poor family, he never felt comfortable in the glittering social world of Enlightenment thinkers. es.wikipedia.org

Rousseau believed that people in their natural state were basically good. This natural innocence, he felt, was corrupted by the evils of society, especially the unequal distribution of property. This view was later adopted by many reformers and revolutionaries. www.prensalibre.com

In 1762, Rousseau set forth his ideas about government and society in The Social Contract. Rousseau felt that society placed too many limitations on people’s behavior. He believed that some controls were necessary, but that they should be minimal. Additionally, these controls should be imposed only by governments that had been freely elected. bookcoverarchive.com

Rousseau put his faith in the “general will,” or the best conscience of the people. The good of the community as a whole, he said, should be placed above individual interests. Thus, unlike many Enlightenment thinkers who put the individual first, Rousseau felt that the individual should be subordinate to the community. specialcollections.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk

Rousseau had influenced political and social thinkers for more than 200 years. Woven through his work is a profound hatred of all forms of political and economic oppression. His bold ideas would help fan the flames of revolt in years to come. sovranidade.org

The Enlightenment slogan, “free and equal” did not apply to women. Women did have, “natural rights,” said the philosophes. But unlike the natural rights of men, these rights were limited to the areas of home and family. courses.wccnet.edu

Other thinkers known as physiocrats focused on economic reforms. Like the philosophes, physiocrats looked for natural laws to define a rational economic system. Adam Smith

Physiocrats rejected mercantilism, which required government regulation of the economy to achieve a favorable balance of trade. Instead, they urged a policy of laissez faire, allowing business to operate with little or no government interference. farm1.staticflickr.com

Unlike mercantilists, who called for acquiring gold and silver wealth through trade, the physiocrats claimed that real wealth came from making the land more productive. Extractive industries, they said, such as agriculture, mining, and logging, produced new wealth. Physiocrats also supported free trade and opposed tariffs, or taxes on trade. macpro.freeshell.org

British economist Adam Smith admired the physiocrats. In his influential work, The Wealth of Nations, he argued that the free market should be allowed to regulate business activity. Smith tried to show how manufacturing, trade, wages, profits, and economic growth were all linked to the market forces of supply and demand. motorcitytimes.com

Smith was a strong supporter of laissez faire. He believed that the marketplace was better off without any government regulation. At the same time, he argued that government had a duty to protect society, administer justice, and provide public works. budirich.files.wordpress.com

Adam Smith’s ideas would gain increasing influence as the Industrial Revolution spread across Europe and beyond. His emphasis on the free market and the law of supply and demand would help to shape immensely productive economies in the 1800s and 1900s. www.fatihler.net

Enlightenment Ideas