1. Thinkers
God is interested in all nations and all persons from those nations.
Psalm 96:1-10

2. Aboriginal Contributions to Liberalism
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy
Six tribes with their own council and chief, chosen by their Clan Mother
Grand Council made up of chiefs (all equal)
Goal: to live in harmony
Rule of law
Different levels of government with separate responsibilities

3. The Great Law of Peace Peace, power, and righteousness
use of negotiation rather than war
Peace is the main desire of the creator
Equal participation by all citizens and freedom of religion, speech, and the individual
Heavily influenced the drafting of the 1787 US Constitution and Canada’s in 1867
Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson expressed admiration for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
Disputed by many Europeans

4. Enlightenment Thinkers
Hobbes – Leviathan – without laws life would be nasty, brutish, and short
People give up their freedom to a dictator in order to have security (social contract)
People essentially bad
Can not rebel once in the social contract

5. Locke – Two Treatises on Government – agreed that government provided order and there was a social contract BUT people essentially good
Had the right to rebel if ruler a tyrant or broken the social contract
People have natural rights – life, liberty, and property
Government to protect those natural rights
Far reaching affects on America and France

6. Rousseau Human nature basically good but society corrupted people
All people equal rather than classes
Admired “natural savage” free from the influences of civilization but realized that to return to a natural state was impossible
Social contract with your community rather than the ruler – people give up freedom in favour of the majority will
Ideas permeated revolutions for centuries

7. Montesquieu
English government preserved “the liberty of the people” by separation of powers between Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary (idealistic)
system of checks and balances between branches
Affected US constitution

8. Adam Smith Wrote the Wealth of Nations in 1776
Believed that wealth is derived from the free choice of the people rather than the land a nation possesses.
“invisible hand”

9. John Stuart Mill advocated Utilitarianism in ethics
i.e., the view that we should each act so as to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
He was a champion of individual's rights, calling, among other things, for more power and freedom for women.
He argued that in the past the danger had been that monarchs held power at the expense of the common people and the struggle was one of gaining liberty by limiting such governmental power.

10. But now that power has largely passed into the hands of the people at large through democratic forms of government, the danger is that the majority denies liberty to individuals, whether explicitly through laws, which he calls which he calls "collective opinion." (tyranny of the majority)

11. Voltaire Religious toleration and freedom of thought
“I do not agree with a word you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
liked Locke and Newton
an “enlightened monarch” was the best ruler

12. Impact of the Enlightenment
Diderot – compiled all of the knowledge of humanity (European) into an encyclopedia which assisted the spread of enlightenment ideas and discoveries
Catholic Church tried to ban it in France but unsuccessful
Printing and discussion groups increased the spread of enlightenment ideas
(keep in mind that masses were illiterate – only middle and upper classes reading)