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The Enlightenment
Or
The Age of Reason
Medieval Western Europe
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Generally believed to last from 400 to 1400ish
The Roman Empire falls to mark the beginning
The end is more vague
The discovery of the Americas (1492),
Gutenburg’s moveable type printing press (1450),
Martin Luther’s Thesis (1517)
• The end also overlaps with the Renaissance,
Reformation and Scientific Revolution
Key Features of Medieval Europe
• The Middle Ages was dominated by the church and
feudalism
• Feudalism: a loosely organized system of
government in which local lords governed their
own lands but owed military service and other
support to a greater lord
• Also marked by the Age of Chivalry, The
Crusades, The Black Death, The Hundreds Years
War and many other conflicts
– **This was only in Western Europe/ Eastern Europe continued on as the
Byzantine Empire
The Medieval Age
Ends
• The end was brought on in large part by the
Scientific Revolution and the Protestant
Reformation
• The end also saw the rise of the Absolute
Monarchs
• Absolute Monarch: a ruler with complete
authority over the government and the lives of the
people he or she governs
Philosophy in the Age of Reason
• The Scientific Revolution leads to the
Enlightenment
• After the Scientific Revolution the people of
Europe looked at the world in a different way
• After the Enlightenment they thought about the
structure of society in a different way
• Successes in Science lead Europeans to believe
reason could improve their lives
Natural Law
• The Scientific Revolution taught people that
Rules discoverable by reason are able to
govern the natural or physical world.
• If the scientific method could be used to
explain the natural world why not use it to
explain the behavior of people and society.
• What is the scientific method?
Two Philosophers Lead the Way
• Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were both
English but had two very different philosophies
• Hobbes witnessed the English Civil War (16421649) and the execution of King Charles I
• He published Leviathan in 1651
• The Leviathan outlined Hobbes’ philosophy on
humanity and the role of government
Hobbes’ Leviathan
• Men are motivated primarily by the desire
for power and fear of other men.
• What were they motivated to do?
• Allow an all-powerful sovereign to rule
over them.
• Without someone to rule them life was
“solitary, nasty, poor, brutish, and short.”
• Basically Hobbes thinks men are selfish and
without a strong leader they would kill each
other off
John Locke
• A generation later Locke witnessed the “Glorious
Revolution” and a bloodless transition of power
• In 1690 he published Two Treatises of
Government
• He outlined a theory of politics based on people’s
natural rights of life, liberty, and ownership of
property.
• He believed government served the people and
had to protect these rights.
• He believed people were basically good not evil
Locke VS Hobbes
• Limited Government VS Powerful
Government
• People are good VS People are nasty
• People form governments to protect their
rights VS
• People give up rights for security
The Philosophes
• Following Hobbes and Locke the 1700s saw a
outpouring of new ideas
• Applied the scientific method to understand and
improve society
• Conflict between new ways of thinking and old