Philosophy in the Age of Reason Dr. Matthew’s World History

In the 1500s and 1600s the Scientific Revolution introduced the world to reason and the scientific method as the basis of knowledge Rules discovered by reason, or natural law, were used to study human behavior and solve societal problems (in theory!) Natural Law led to a revolution in thinking known as the Enlightenment

John Locke Thomas Hobbes

Enlightenment Thinkers Thomas Hobbes Believed people are brutish by nature and need to be controlled by an absolute monarch Citizens enter into a social contract with their government in which personal freedoms are given up for organized social order John Locke Thought that people are generally reasonable and moral People have natural rights such as life, liberty, and property Government should be limited and overthrown if natural rights are taken away

Baron de Montesquieu

Enlightenment Thinkers Enlightenment thinkers in France, known as philosophes, felt reason could reform government, society, and law Baron de Montesquieu proposed checks and balances and separation of powers as protection for liberty Greatly effected the creators of the United States Constitution

Adam Smith Voltaire

Enlightenment Thinkers Voltaire exposed the abuses of power and defended freedom of speech Adam Smith applied reason towards economic reform He rejected government regulation of the economy and urged the policy of laissez faire, which means “ let it be” Advocate for free trade and opposed tariffs

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Believed that people in their natural state were basically good. However, this natural innocence was corrupted by the evils of society. In The Social Contract he wrote that government should place minimal controls on its people, and this government should be freely elected. Thomas Paine and Marquis de Lafayette were among the American and French revolutionary leaders who adopted Rousseau’s philosophy.

Mary Wollstonecraft Argued that women should be able to decide what was in her own interest without depending on her husband. However, she accepted that a woman’s first duty was to be a good mother.