Ch. 6.2 Enlightenment in Europe
I. Two Views on Government
A. Hobbes Social Contract
1. Wrote the Leviathan
2. People needed to hand over their rights to a strong ruler
3. Without a strong government to keep order life would lead to
chaos
4. Agreeing to a strong ruler people gained law and order called
a social contract
B. Locke’s Natural Rights
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Held a more positive view of human nature
People have a natural ability to govern themselves
People with three natural rights: life, liberty, and property
The governments’ purpose is to protect these rights
II. The Philosophies Advocate Reason
A. Philosophies
1. Paris became the meeting place to discuss politics and ideas
2. This period in France became known as the Philosophies
A. Philosophies
3. People needed to apply reason to life like Newton did to
science
4. The five concepts: Reason, Nature, Happiness, Progress, and
Liberty
B. Voltaire Combats Intolerance
1. Most influential and brilliant philosopher of his time
2. Fought for tolerance, reason, freedom of religious belief and
freedom of speech
C. Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers
1. Created and believed in the Separation of Powers: 3
branches of power
2. Wrote the Spirit of Laws
D. Rousseau: Champion of Freedom
1. Committed to individual freedom
2. Only good government was a Direct Democracy
3. He believed the social contract was between free individuals
to create a society & a government
4. Believed all people were equal & titles of nobility should be
abolished
E. Beccaria Promotes Criminal Justice
1. Believed people accused of a crime should receive a speedy
trial without the use of abuse
2. Big Idea was that governments should seek the greatest good
for the greatest amount of people
III. Women and the Enlightenment
1. The men of the era pushed for change in politics but not for
women
2. The main belief was that a women’s education be only on
how to be a helpful mom or wife
3. Mary Astell published a book called A Serious Proposal to the
Ladies which called for change on the role of women in
society
II. Women and the Enlightenment
4. Mary Wollstonecraft is another woman who wrote an essay
that attacked Rousseau’s belief of what a woman should
learn
5. Mary urged women to enter male dominated fields of
medicine & politics