1. Important Enlightenment Thinkers

2. “The Age of Reason” 1700’s Intellectual movement stressing:
Skepticism
Progress
Follows Scientific Revolution’s emphasis on observation, questioning, natural law, secularism, and reason

3. The Philosophes Philosophers criticizing society in 1700’s France
Promote Reason, Liberty, and Progress
Reform starting with the monarchy
Tended to oppose organized religion, promote Deism (belief in a distant, uninvolved creator)

4. Thomas Hobbes Leviathan 1651
Government exists to keep wicked people in order
Absolute Monarchy best type of gov. to do this
People give up rights for law and order

6. John Locke 2nd Treatise on Government 1689
People agree to form governments to protect their natural rights; life, liberty, & property
If gov. does not protect rights  overthrow it
People can reason and run their own government- democracy
Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1690
Tabula Rasa- People born as blank slates and can be made better

7. Mary Astell A Serious Proposal to the Ladies 1694
Reasoned that women should get equal rights

8. Baron de Montesquieu The Spirit of Laws 1748
Studied British gov. (Parl., King, Courts), described it as separation of powers
Divide power so that no one part of gov. can be too powerful, branches check each other
Legislative branch writes laws
Executive enforces laws
Courts judge laws

9. Voltaire Candide 1759 Fought for Free Speech
Used satire to attack enemies and critics on enlightened values
Fought for Free Speech

10. Jean Rousseau The Social Contract 1762
Governments are formed by free men through a social contract, giving up some rights for common good (The General Will)
Argues for equality, abolishment of noble titles
Direct democracy best

11. Cesare Beccaria On Crimes and Punishments 1764
Wrote against cruel and unusual punishments
Argued for fair, consistent trials

12. Immanuel Kant & David Hume
Argued against the existence of God

13. Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792
Argued for equal rights for women, especially in education

15. Enlightenment Ideas Spread
Salons of France
Parties held to present & discuss new ideas
Often hosted by wealthy women
Diderot’s Encyclopedia
Included critiques of society
Hoped to spread knowledge
Widely read
Pamphlets

16. Legacy of the Enlightenment
Belief in progress- Idea that things can be made better
More secular outlook- Less trust in power of religion
Individual freedom

17. Enlightened Despots
Def: Absolute monarchs who tried to rule by enlightenment principles
Granted many new rights, supported the arts and education
Improved lives of people to increase own power

18. Frederick the Great (r.1740-1786) in Prussia
Takes Silesia from Austria 1742
Doubles population
Defends Prussia in 7 Years War
Attempt by Russia, France, and Austria to wipe out Prussia
“I am the servant of the state”
Passes out tools and potatoes to peasants after war
Greater religious freedom, except for Jews
Encourages education
Reduces censorship
Reforms legal system, ends torture
Doesn’t end serfdom (afraid of upsetting the junkers)

19. Catherine the Great of Russia
Continues adoption of Western Culture
Calls for enlightened reforms based on Montesquieu and Beccaria
Ends torture, expands tolerance
Crushes Cossack uprising
Refuses to help Serfs
Needed support of nobles
Ends their taxation and gives them land
Expands Russia’s borders
Partitions Poland
Wars with Ottomans for port on Black Sea

21. Joseph II of Austria (r.1780-1790)
Allows free press and free worship (Protestants and Jews)
Improves bureaucracy
Replaces nobles with Middle Class
Required elementary school
Legal reforms, end of torture
Flat tax for all
Ends serfdom, demands labor wages,
And converts debts to cash
Undone after his death along with many of his reforms