The%20Enlightenment

1
The Enlightenment
2
Political Thought

• Physical Law scientific proof
• Natural Law principles that are basic and
  fundamental to human nature
• New thinking on leaders
• Natural law ensures stability and order necessary
  for civilized society

3
Thomas Hobbes

• English political theorist
• Wrote Leviathan
• Argued for authoritarian rule to protect natural
  rights
• Believed that state of nature in humans leaves
  people in chaos and anarchy
• Very pessimistic untrusting in people

4
John Locke

• More optimistic about human nature
• Belief in everyone deserving life, liberty, and
  property
• Ideas helped shape Declaration of Independence
• Belief that humans enter a contract w/ leaders
  for protection
• Can dismiss them if they are doing poorly

5
Baron de Montesquieu

• French Nobleman
• Believed in Europe forming better govts
• Combined monarchy, democracy, aristocracy
• Proposed separation of power Executive,
  Legislative, Judicial Branches

6
Voltaire

• Spokesperson for the Enlightenment
• Opposed oppression
• Wrote poems, plays, essays
• Ridiculed tradition custom when it deserved it

7
Denis Diderot

• Edited the Encyclopedia
• Made the Church monarchs upset
• Talked about natural law and criticized religion
• Other ways of spreading
• Salons
• Gathering of intellectual women at their houses