Influencing Human Thought

2. Influencing Human Thought • Middle Ages/Dark Ages (500-1300) • Survival • Average person illiterate • Roman Catholic Church • Dominate Authority • God created Earth • God created Man • Bible • 1st Book published • most published book in the world

3. Renaissance (1300-1600) • Europe Rediscovered Greek and Roman Ideas • Celebrated Human Race and it’s abilities • Painters • Architects • Musicians • Scholars • Mathematicians • Algebra

4. Scientific Revolution /Age of Exploration • (1500-1700) • Scientific Method • Evidence/Proof • Natural Laws • Trade • Transmission of Ideas

5. Enlightenment (1600-1790)(Intellectual Movement) • Emerged from Dark Ages • Human Rights • Common Sense • Tolerance • Government derives power from consent of the people • Relativism: cannot impose values on others by force - all cultures are valuable • Rationalism: Human reason and science could combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny to build a better world

6. Basics of the Enlightenment • Humans could better themselves without the assistance of religion or the divine providence of a ruler. • The meaning of life would be discovered by the application of reason and natural science. • Laws should be based on the ideas of scientific inquiry. • If people could choose, they would choose liberty.

7. Enlightenment Visuals

8. John Locke • English philosopher who establishes several key ideas of the Enlightenment • Believed in individual rights – Life, Liberty, Property • Locke’s optimistic, liberal position contrasts with that of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) who believed governments were forged to keep people from destroying each other John Locke 1632-1704

9. The Heirs of Locke • Montesquieu, a French aristocrat, writes The Spirit of Laws where he champions freedom and condemns slavery as “unnatural” • He also describes a constitutional monarchy in which the three branches (legislative, executive, and judicial) are free and independent of one another, creating a system of checks and balances (influenced the U.S. Constitution) • In writing the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) uses Locke’s ideas that the governed have the right to revolt if their ruler is unjust and that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights Montesquieu (1689-1755)

10. Montesquieu - Separation of 3 Powers

11. Thomas Hobbes • Believed in the social contract-people give up individual liberties in return for social order

12. Social Contract in Diagram

13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Believed in Popular Sovereignty • Argued people are naturally good, but society corrupts them through environment, education and laws. • Published The Social Contract (1762)

14. Voltaire • Strong supporter of Freedom of Speech, Thought, & Religion • Believed Gov’ts should ensure personal freedoms

15. Denis Diderot • Created The Encyclopedia

16. Mary Wollstonecraft • Early spokesperson for Women’s Rights • Argued the ideals of equality should be extended to women as well as men. • Governments should extend political rights to women as well • Women should also enjoy educational freedoms as well • Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

17. Summary • Enlightenment thinkers thought that like laws in natural science, there were laws governing human society. Laws of nature (natural laws) give people rights of life, liberty and property. Men can build a fair society based on reason (rationality). They challenged the theory of "Divine Right of Kings." 

18. Lasting Effects • Driven by advances in math and science • Introduced new ideas about religion,man, and the influence of nature • Caused changes in politics, economics and culture • Movement towards “Human Rights”