1. The Enlightenment

2. The Enlightenment Defined
The Enlightenment philosophes sought to make laws to explain people and the political world

3. Thomas Hobbes Believed that man was greedy and evil
Life without law (state of nature) was short, chaotic, brutal

4. Thomas Hobbes Social contract:
ruler’s job was to provide security and order
Subject’s job was to give up rights and obey ruler in order to live in a safe place
Promoted absolutism
1651 wrote The Leviathan

5. John Locke
Believed that man was generally good and reasonable with some temptation to bad
State of nature was chaotic and unsafe

6. John Locke Social contract:
Ruler’s job was to protect life, liberty, property
Subject’s job was to overthrow ruler if the ruler became abusive
Promoted a constitutional monarchy (limited)
Wrote Two Treatises on Government in 1790

7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Believed that man was good and corrupted by civilization
State of nature was good and that government made it bad

8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Social contract:
Believed the best government was the one that governed the least
Believed in majority rule (general will)
Wrote Social Contract in 1751

9. Voltaire French Enlightenment philosophe Promoted freedom of speech
Was imprisoned for this belief
Wrote Candide

10. Montesquieu French philosophe – wrote The Spirit of the Laws
Promoted the idea of separation of powers
Not all government power should be in the hands of one person or one branch of government
US used this model for government

11. Diderot French philosophe
Wrote a series of Enlightenment essays about abolishing slavery, free speech…
The multivolume book was called Encyclopedia

12. Thomas Jefferson American Enlightenment thinker
Wrote The Declaration of Independence based on many Enlightenment ideas such as those of John Locke (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)

13. Impact
Enlightenment ideas helped to develop individualism and equal rights. 
Led to some revolutions around the world
Some of these revolutions resulted in government based upon the ideas of the Enlightenment such as, Great Britain and the United States.