After the Renaissance and Reformation, people in general started to be more concerned with worldly matters, rather than on religion. The Renaissance had made people more creative and expressive, and the Reformation had not only broken the back of the Catholic church by exposing its corruption, but also fostered a sense of individualism with the creation of new denominations of Christianity. Armed with this new sense of discovery, and with a better choice in faith, Europe moved out of the Middle Ages, and into the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment (roughly 1650-1800 C.E.) was a time of great change for the world. People started to rely more on the use of reason and logic, rather than faith and religion. Philosophers decided to come up with new ways of solving problems on their own, instead of expecting God to guide them throughout their lives. In some places, this happened naturally, while in others there was a strong backlash to challenging the church and its existing institutions.
The Enlightenment (roughly 1650-1800 C.E.) was a time of great change for the world. People started to rely more on the use of reason and logic, rather than faith and religion. Philosophers decided to come up with new ways of solving problems on their own, instead of expecting God to guide them throughout their lives. In some places, this happened naturally, while in others there was a strong backlash to challenging the church and its existing institutions.
Who were the people that got the Enlightenment moving?
The Enlightenment was a movement of intellectuals and philosophers (we will mainly be using the French version, philosophes, in this class) who followed the new inventions and writings which defined the Renaissance and Reformation. These philosophes theorized about topics ranging from how government should be run, how people should live their lives, the place of religion in everyday life, and even had discussions on women's rights. Their overall goals were to make people think, and consider more complex topics than just the ordinary ones they may run into during the course of their day. Now, it would take far too long to really cover all of the philosophes in-depth during this class, so we will instead discuss only six of the most well-known and influential ones. They all have had a great deal of impact on the way governments are run, and how people view the idea of natural rights. Most Western governments, including the United States, are heavily based on the ideas and writings of men like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Baron de Montesquieu. In fact, their ideas were so influential and powerful, that they directly helped fuel revolutions throughout the world which replaced old governments with new democracies. Both the American and French Revolutions were based on Enlightenment ideals, and that is reflected in the documents they have left behind. We will discuss both of those revolutions more next unit.
John LockeJohn Locke (1632-1704) was arguably the most important of all Enlightenment philosophers. He felt that people were inherently good, and had been born with the natural rights of Life, Liberty, and Property. Locke's theories on representative democracy make up much of the current United States government, among others (like France). His most famous work was the Two Treatises of Government, which is still often used today.
Baron de MontesquieuBaron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) desired a government which was balanced, in order to prevent tyranny and oppression. A monarch, who held all power, could not be trusted to keep the people's best interests in mind, and would rule however he or she wished, because they had total control of the government. This is why Montesquieu believed that the powers of government (executive, legislative, and judicial), had to be separated among multiple people. This way, they would work as a system of "Check and Balances," so no single person had too much power. (This is exactly how the current United States government works.) His most influential book was The Spirit of the Laws.
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Thomas HobbesUnlike Locke, who looked to democracy as a solution, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) saw it as the problem. Hobbes believed that people were naturally greedy, corrupt, and only cared about themselves. As a result, he felt that democracy would not work, and that people should give absolute control to a monarch, who would use tyranny to keep them under control. Hobbes' Leviathan was his most well-known literary work.
VoltaireVoltaire (1694-1778) was much different from other Enlightenment philosophers, because he did not write about government specifically, but rather about religion. Unlike the others as well, Voltaire was a playwright, poet, and satirist, not just a philosopher. As an artist and writer, he advocated for freedom of expression, and argued against the idea of organized religion, because it would prevent others from forming their own relationship with God. The term "individualism" can truly be applied to Voltaire, though that was not even his real name. Voltaire wrote inflammatory books and articles (like his most famous work, Candide) which made him many enemies, and he chose to use the name Voltaire to disguise himself. Ultimately though, Voltaire's beliefs got him exiled from France by his rivals.
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Jean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) fell somewhere between Locke and Hobbes on the political spectrum. He wrote The Social Contract, in which he stated that people give power to the government, in order to gain protection in return. He felt that the government and the people needed to work together by entering into a contract where each has its own responsibilities. This is why Rousseau believed that the common good is more important than any single individual, and that people should make decisions which benefit the majority, rather than the minority.
Mary WollstonecraftThe first, and most important difference to the other philosophers, is that Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is one of the few women during this time period who we see writing about their gender's hardships, and beliefs. Though an unpopular opinion at the time, Wollstonecraft believed that men and women were equal in the eyes of God, and that women should be allowed to obtain an education beyond enough just to run the home while the men worked during the day. She felt that education was a right, not something which can be denied to someone, and that educating women would allow them to be more effective mothers for their children. Now, by all means, she did not believe that women should go out and find a job like men (she still agreed that a woman's role was in the home), but felt that women should be allowed to do more in that role. Before her death that was caused by giving birth to her second child, Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication on the Rights of Women, in which she said that women are not inferior to men, just that they seem that way due to a lack of education.
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