World History
Class Activity – Enlightenment
Name____________________________
Date_______ Period______
Thomas Hobbes on…
Human Equality:
Nature hath made men so _________ in the faculties of body and
mind as that, though there be found one man sometimes
manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet
when all is reckoned together the __________ between man and
man is not so considerable.
For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may
acknowledge many others to be more ______, or more eloquent, or
more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so
_______ as themselves.
The State of Nature:
From this _________ of ability, arises equality of hope in the
attaining of our ends. And therefore if any two men desire the
same thing, which nevertheless they ________ both enjoy, they
become enemies…
Hereby it is manifest, that during the time that men live without a common power to keep them all in _____
they are in that condition which is called ______; and such a war, as is of every man, _______ every man. For
'war' consists not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle
is sufficiently known .
In such condition there is no place for industry [meaning productive labor, not "industry" in the modern sense of
factories], because the fruit thereof is _______, and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use
of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building… no knowledge of the face of the
earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and. Which is worst of all, continual _______ and
danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Non est potestas Super Terram quae Comparetur ei"
There is no power on earth to be compared to him
John Locke on…
The State of Nature:
To understand political power aright, we must consider what state all
men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect _________ to order
their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think
fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or
_________ upon the will of any other man….
The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which ______ every
one: and reason, which is that ______, teaches all mankind, that being
all equal and independent, no one ought to ______ another in his life,
health, liberty, or possessions: for men are all the workmanship of on
omnipotent and infinitely wise Maker, all the servants of one sovereign
master, sent into the world by his order, and about his business…
The damnified person [or person who has been mistreated] has this power of appropriating to himself the goods
or service of the offender, by right of self-preservation, as every man has a power to punish the crime, to
prevent its being committed again, by the right he has of preserving all mankind, and doing all reasonable
things he can in order to that end: and thus it is, that every man, in the state of nature, has a power to kill a
murderer, for the same reason that he may kill a wolf or a lion; because such men are not under the ties of the
commonlaw of reason, have no other rule, but that of force and violence, and so may be treated as beasts of
prey, those dangerous and noxious creatures, that will be sure to destroy him whenever he falls into their power.
Reason:
Men living together according to _______, without a common superior on earth, with ______ to judge between
them, is properly the state of nature.
God, who hath given the world to men in _______, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best
advantage of life, and convenience. The _____, and all that is therein, is given to men for the support and
comfort of their being.
Nothing was made by God for man to spoil or _______. And thus, considering the plenty of natural provisions
there was a long time in the world, and the few spenders … there could be then little room for ________ or
contention about property so established.
The State of nature involves people living together, governed by reason, without a common superior, where as
the state of war occurs when people make designs of force upon other people, without a common authority.
A criminal who, having renounced _______ ... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed
upon one, declared _______ against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tiger, one of those
wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security. And upon this is grounded the great law of
Nature, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
The Enlightenment
Use pages 544-547 of your textbook to outline the ideas of the following Enlightenment philosophers:
Hobbes
Locke
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Rousseau
Wollstonecraft
Look at The Roots of American Democracy on page 562. Answer the following:
1. What additional ideas might the Framers have learned from the political writings of the Enlightenment
thinkers?
2. Explain the basic principle of checks and balances.