Name: ____________________________
Enlightenment Philosophers
AIM #7: What was so “enlightened” about the Enlightenment philosophers?
“Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives; very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”
Interpret and evaluate the above quote. Interpretation: We are all creatures of the time period we live in.
- Voltaire
We are shaped by the information of our time
what is meant by age?  The Time Period”
Being able to see past and ahead of your time (example Steve Jobs)
Revolution/Human Rights/Government  they though this 150 years ago. Today, we see this as common.
The authors, for their time, were way ahead of their time. They shape the world we live in.
Instructions
Below is a collection of quotations taken from the written works of 18th century “Enlightenment Philosophers.” Read each quote and then translate it
so it retains its basic meaning but is more easily understood.
Philosopher
Montesquieu
(1689-1755)
Quotes
#1 “The advancement of religion is different from a due
attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfill its
behests (commands), it is not necessary to hate and
persecute (punish) those who are opposed to it.”
#2 “When the legislative (lawmaking) and executive
(enforcement of laws) powers are united in the same
person, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions
(fears) may arise that the same monarch or senate should
enact (create and enforce) tyrannical (abusive) laws, to
execute (enforce) them in a tyrannical manner.”
Your interpretation

Advocating for freedom of
Religion.

In checks and balances, the
other two branches check and
balance the power of the other
branch.
3 Branches prevents/avoids
tyranny
If one person has all the power,
who can go against him?
Separation of powers


Class interpretation
-Discussing religious freedom.
-In this time, religious diversity
was uncommon (fighting btwn.
Catholics and Protestants)
- Branches prevents/avoids tyranny
-When all power belongs to one
person. There is no liberty.
-Balance power amongst 3
branches -Example: US Government
-In a dictatorship, all power is within
-1 person - no checks and balances
Jean Jacques
Rousseau
(1712-1778)
#1 “The Sovereign (ruler) cannot act save when the people 1. Laws are approved by the people
is assembled. Every law the people have not ratified
2. If people don’t agree, it’s not a
(approved) in person is null and void — is, in fact, not a
law
law. The legislative power belongs to the people, and can
example: prohibition (drinking)
belong to it alone.”
- People need to approve laws
-If they don’t like the laws then
they cannot be enforced
#2 No man should be put to death, even as an example, if
he can be left to live without danger to society.”
-Government should not take life.
-He is against the death penalty
#3 “…the social state is advantageous to men only when
all possess something and none has too much….The
greatest enemies of freedom are the extremely rich and the
extremely poor because one is willing to buy it and the
other is willing to sell it.”
Cesare
Baccaria
(1738-1794)
#4 “Thus the whole education of women ought to be
relative (connected) to men. To please them, to be useful to
them, to make themselves loved and honored by them, to
educate them when young, to care for them when grown, to
council them, to console them, and to make life agreeable
and sweet to them—these are the duties of women at all
times, and should be taught to them from their infancy.”
#1 “The torture of a criminal, during the course of his trial,
is a cruelty consecrated (made holy) by custom in most
nations. It is used with an intent … to make him confess his
crime…No man can be judged a criminal until he be found
guilty; nor can society take from him the public protection,
until it have been proved that he has violated the conditions
on which it was granted. What right, then, but that of
power, can authorize the punishment of a citizen, so long
as there remains any doubt of his guilt? This dilemma is
frequent. Either he is guilty, or not guilty. If guilty, he
should only suffer the punishment ordained (ordered) by
the laws, and torture becomes useless, as his confession is
unnecessary. If he be not guilty, you torture the innocent;
for, in the eye of the law, every man is innocent, whose
crime has not been proved.”
Anti-death penalty  if you can put
someone in jail for life that is good
enough
-There should not be a very rich and
or a very poor. Should be a middle.
-Does not come from money. Not a
good society if the rich control the
poor. -Society should be somewhere
in middle.
-Women’s education is only to help
men. Help men to do great things 
Support, comfort, and console them.




Torture is wrong
You can accuse them
Innocent until proven guilty 
due process
Trial will determine if they are
innocent or guilty
Against the death penalty
#2 “Punishment [by] death is deadly to society”
-Everyone has to be equal
-Can’t have a society that is free
and rich if they are all not equal
-Feels we should take more from
the rich and less from the poor.
-The sole purpose of women is to
be educated. To console and
entertain men. This will allow men
to do great things.
Three Ideas:
- Torture is bad and unnecessary
- Fair trials to find the truth
- Innocent until proven guilty
- Don’t jump to conclusions
quickly
Against the death penalty
Voltaire
(1694-1778)
#1 “I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it…To announce truths is an
infallible (perfect) receipt for being persecuted….It is
dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.”

Defending freedom of Speech
Was put in jail for making fun of
the Roman Catholic Church
#2 “The best government is an Enlightened Despot (fair
ruler) tempered (softened) by an occasional assassination.
The public is a ferocious beast. One must either chain it up
or flee from it.”

#3 "We should regard all men as our brothers. What? The

People are savages
Wants a fair dictator that
doesn’t abuse power and step
out of bounds.
Assassination is necessary once
in a while to serve as a reminder
Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew?
Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same
father and creatures of the same God?... Tolerance
(acceptance of differences) has never brought civil war;
intolerance has covered the earth with carnage
(destruction). Is each citizen to be permitted to believe
and to think that which his reason rightly or wrongly
dictates? He should indeed, provided that he does not
disturb the public order; if it is a crime not to believe in the
dominant religion, you accuse then yourself, the first
Christians, your ancestors, and you justify (proved
correct) those whom you accuse of having martyred
(killed) them. …Christianity is without a doubt the most
ridiculous, the most absurd, and the most bloody religion to
ever infect the world."
Mary
Wollstonecraft
(1759-1797)
#1 The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of
kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be
contested (challenged) without danger.
#2 Women ought to have representatives, instead of being
arbitrarily (randomly) governed without any direct share
allowed them in the deliberations (debates) of government.
#3 Women are systematically degraded (disrespected) by
receiving the trivial (meaningless) attentions which men
think it manly to pay to the sex, when in fact, men are
insultingly supporting their own superiority.


There’s only one God, just
different names
Think and say what you want as
long as you don’t create chaos



Had lions kill Catholics in
Roman Empire

1st Christians should be killed
because they were once not
the majority

Claims Catholics are
Hypocrites
Cant attack others if you were
also attacked

A wife should have the right to speak
against their husband
Women should not fear punishment
from their husbands, like the people
could question the King of England
She claims that men think they are
given women compliments when they
flatter them, but they do not want
these compliments they want to vote
Gives a warning, I think you
should have freedom of
speech, but be careful of it
because you can get in a lot of
trouble
Sounds like Hobbes, thinks
Monster needs to be more
reasonable/enlightened
Supports women’s suffrage
Feels women should be able to elect
representatives to represent them
in Parliament
Support Equality
Women find men’s flattery an insult
Save your compliments and grant
women the right to vote
Women secretly read her book
1. Specifically citing philosophers and their ideas, identify common overarching ideas or themes among these thinkers.
Dictators: Voltaire supported a fair dictator and Hobbes supported a cruel one
Voice in Government: Rousseau, Locke, and Wollstonecraft
Religious Freedom: Montesquieu and Voltaire
2. Specifically citing philosophers and their ideas, identify one contradiction (opposing idea) amongst the philosophers. With which of the opposing
views do you agree more? Why?
Dictator: Hobbes (absolute cruel dictator) and Voltaire (kind and fair absolute monarch)
Women’s Rights: Rousseau and Wollstonecraft
3. Select two of the Enlightenment philosophers and evaluate if their ideas are beneficial or harmful to a society. (Remember an evaluation requires
supporting details and/or argumentation)
Baccaria – innocent until proven guilty
Montesquieu – 3 branches of government and religious freedom
4. Of the five philosophers quoted, who do you feel was most “enlightened” for their time? Why? Are there any “Enlightenment” philosophers who
you feel shouldn’t be considered “enlightened?”
Wollstonecraft – many people and philosophers of her time did not believe women should gain the right to vote. She was the most forward
thinking philosopher of her time.