The Enlightenment

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The Enlightenment

• Or
• The Age of Reason

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Medieval Western Europe

• Generally believed to last from 400 to 1400ish
• The Roman Empire falls to mark the beginning
• The end is more vague
• The discovery of the Americas (1492), Gutenburgs
  moveable type printing press (1450), Martin
  Luthers Thesis (1517)
• The end also overlaps with the Renaissance,
  Reformation and Scientific Revolution

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Key Features of Medieval Europe

• The Middle Ages was dominated by the church and
  feudalism
• Feudalism a loosely organized system of
  government in which local lords governed their
  own lands but owed military service and other
  support to a greater lord
• Also marked by the Age of Chivalry, The Crusades,
  The Black Death, The Hundreds Years War and many
  other conflicts
• This was only in Western Europe/ Eastern Europe
  continued on as the Byzantine Empire

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The Medieval Age Ends

• The end was brought on in large part by the
  Scientific Revolution and the Protestant
  Reformation
• The end also saw the rise of the Absolute
  Monarchs
• Absolute Monarch a ruler with complete authority
  over the government and the lives of the people
  he or she governs

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Philosophy in the Age of Reason

• The Scientific Revolution leads to the
  Enlightenment
• After the Scientific Revolution the people of
  Europe looked at the world in a different way
• After the Enlightenment they thought about the
  structure of society in a different way
• Successes in Science lead Europeans to believe
  reason could improve their lives

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Natural Law

• The Scientific Revolution taught people that
  Rules discoverable by reason are able to govern
  the natural or physical world.
• If the scientific method could be used to explain
  the natural world why not use it to explain the
  behavior of people and society.
• What is the scientific method?

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Two Philosophers Lead the Way

• Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were both English
  but had two very different philosophies
• Hobbes witnessed the English Civil War
  (1642-1649) and the execution of King Charles I
• He published Leviathan in 1651
• The Leviathan outlined Hobbes philosophy on
  humanity and the role of government

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Hobbes Leviathan

• Men are motivated primarily by the desire for
  power and fear of other men.
• What were they motivated to do?
• Allow an all-powerful sovereign to rule over
  them.
• Without someone to rule them life was solitary,
  nasty, poor, brutish, and short.
• Basically Hobbes thinks men are selfish and
  without a strong leader they would kill each
  other off

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John Locke

• A generation later Locke witnessed the Glorious
  Revolution and a bloodless transition of power
• In 1690 he published Two Treatises of Government
• He outlined a theory of politics based on
  peoples natural rights of life, liberty, and
  ownership of property.
• He believed government served the people and had
  to protect these rights.
• He believed people were basically good not evil

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Locke VS Hobbes

• Limited Government VS Powerful Government
• People are good VS People are nasty
• People form governments to protect their rights
  VS
• People give up rights for security

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The Philosophes

• Following Hobbes and Locke the 1700s saw a
  outpouring of new ideas
• Applied the scientific method to understand and
  improve society
• Conflict between new ways of thinking and old

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