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Key Terms The Enlightenment

• Thomas Hobbes
• Social Contract
• John Locke
• Tabula Rasa
• Natural Rights
• Baron de Montesquieu
• Separation of Powers

• Voltaire
• Deist
• Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Noble Savages
• Physiocrats
• Laissez faire
• Enlightened Despots

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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Hobbes ? political philosopher who supported
  absolutism
• Believed that individuals entered into a social
  contract with governments.
• Social Contract ? belief that people, out of fear
  of violent death, forfeit particular freedoms for
  security

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John Locke (1632-1704)

• Locke ? political philosopher who believed that
  people are born with reason and natural rights.
• Locke posited that people are born as blank
  slates or tabula rasas and that the way they
  are treated and educated ultimately shapes who
  they will become.

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Natural Rights

• Locke believed that human nature is governed by
  natural laws.
• Believed that reason is what allows people to
  know what is truly good for them.
• To obey natural laws, people need to have and
  exercise natural rights ? rights one is born
  with.
• right to life, liberty, and property.
• Government must protect these rights and if they
  do not do so, the citizens have a right to remove
  it.

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Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

• Montesquieu ? political philosopher who denounced
  despotism and argued for the separation of
  powers.
• Separation of powers ? the breakdown of
  governmental powers and duties across multiple
  people or groups.
• He believed that Parliament was the best example
  of good government.

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Francois Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire (1694-1778)

• Voltaire ? political philosopher who believed
  that few people were capable of governing
  themselves hence monarchy was the ideal system.
• Voltaire was a deist ? believed that there was a
  planned order to the universe and that reason was
  the only way to find truth.

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Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Rousseau ? political philosopher who believed
  that reason and civilization ruined humanity,
  glorified the idea of the noble savage.
• He believed that the creation of government
  destroyed what could have been ideal societies.

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Rousseau's Theories

• Rousseau believed that if civilization and reason
  had not met humanity, the noble savage would have
  endured and humanity would have been better off.
• Noble savage ? precivilized people who are
  considered generous, free, spontaneous and
  sincere
• Believed that members of this society would enter
  into a contract with one another where they
  forfeit some freedoms.
• The general will would determine the common
  interest.
• This general will can be determined by the
  majority or a small group with a better sense or
  idea of how to manage things

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Physiocrats

• Many people used enlightenment thinking on the
  field of economics.
• These people would be known as physiocrats.
• These thinkers believed that governments should
  not regulate economic activity very closely.
• Laissez-faire economics ? belief that governments
  should leave economic activity alone and allow
  natural law to govern it.

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Enlightened Despots

• Rulers would adopt the enlightenment philosophies
  and would be considered enlightened despots.
• Examples of enlightened despots are
• Frederick the Great ? worked closely with
  Voltaire, made promises to end serfdom but failed
  to do so.
• Catherine the Great ? Russian czarina who also
  sought to end serfdom and would attempt to do so
  but would recant after pressure from nobles.
• Maria Theresa ? weakened the control of the
  Catholic Church, gave serfs more freedom, evened
  out the tax system in Austria.