The Enlightenment: The Age of Reason Notebook # 9 Summarize the ideas of Enlightenment that influenced democratic thought and social institutions around the world.

A. Background Enlightenment—a period in history when Europeans came to believe that reason was a better guide than faith or tradition scientific knowledge was growing & changing the way people thought about the world political & social thinkers began to apply reason to ideas of government the thinkers said there was a natural law—law that applied to everyone & could be understood by reason

B. New Ideas About Politics England led the search for natural law 1. Thomas Hobbes felt humans were selfish & violent said they could not be trusted to make their own decisions & needed a strong leader to make decisions for them (absolute monarchy) wrote Leviathan

2. John Locke said that everyone was born with natural rights—rights belonging to all humans from birth those rights are life, liberty, & property said the purpose of government was to protect those rights also said that govts. were based on a social contract—agreement between govt./rulers & citizens wrote Two Treatisies of Government

C. French Philosophes 1. Baron de Montesquieu using England as a guide, he outlined a structure of govt. for France that had a separation of powers—power equally divided among: a. executive branch—enforces laws b. legislative branch—makes laws c. judicial branch—interprets laws & decides if they’ve been broken this system allowed a checks & balances wrote The Spirit of the Laws

2. Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) blamed church leaders for keeping knowledge from people to keep the church in power wanted freedom of speech supported deism—religious belief based on reason (God created the world, set it in motion, & then allowed it to run itself by natural law) “I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

3. Denis Diderot helped spread Enlightenment ideas by publishing a 28-volume encyclopedia in it, he attacked superstition & supported freedom of religion

4. Mary Wollstonecraft claimed that all humans have reason & women should have the same rights as men (work, education, & politics) wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

5. Jean-Jacques Rousseau agreed with Locke about protecting property & govt. being based on a social contract said people are basically good but become corrupted by society said in an ideal society, people would make the laws & willingly obey them said people need to seek a balance between reason & emotion said children should be taught civic virtue—duty as citizens wrote The Social Contract