Topic 13: Enlightenment
Objectives
Knowledge To know the two main concepts of Enlightenment: Social Contract and Man are
born free and equal
Skills
1.
2.
To read and understand sources
To induce, analyze and synthesis sources
Attitude
1.
2.
To respect other people’s rights
To develop positive moral and civic values
Teaching Flow
1
Items
Format
Teaching Objectives
Content
Question to
Ponder
Questioning
To give students a brief
introduction on how the topic
will be treated
In the modern history of
the West, how did the
Enlightenment “inherit
from the past and carry
on for the future”?
Relationship between the
Enlightenment and
Renaissance, Reformation
and Scientific Revolution
Understanding changes of
concepts of social
relationships from the use
of money and the rise of
national states
Social contract and the
meaning of man are born
free and equal
2
To know
more (1)
Questioning &
Discussion
3
Task 1and to
know more
(2)
Questioning &
Discussion
3
Task 2
Data-based
question
5
Task 3
Data-based
question
6
Conclusion
Summary chart
To bring out the topic by
linking with historical
knowledge that the students
already know
To understand the background
factors for the emergence of
the Enlightenment
To understand the two main
concepts of Enlightenment; To
train the skills of analysing and
inducing
To understand how the
concept of Enlightenment
extends to reality
To train the skills of analysing
and synthesizing
To deepen students’
understanding of the topic
Content of the American
Declaration of
Independence
Various factors leading to
the Enlightenment and
some of its main concepts
1
Question to ponder
In the modern history of the West, how did the Enlightenment
“inherit from the past and carry on for the future”?
To know more (1)
Relationship between Enlightenment and
Renaissance, Reformation and Scientific Revolution
Authority of
Roman Catholic
Church damaged
Reformation
People pursue
reasoning, began to
disobey the Church
Humanism
Emergence
of
Renaissance
Enlightenment
Rise of
Science
Discovered Law
of Nature: had
new
understanding of
the universe
Induced people to
seek freedom and
equality
2
Task 1: Understanding changes of social relationship from the use of money.
You may remember that in Topic 8 (Middle Ages), we talked about how the use of money
affected social relationships:
Society using money
Society without using money
After you have bought things,
employed people, found a
place to live in, paid your
taxes, you can do what you
want to do.
You make all your own things and so you have no time
left, then you work as a member of a big family, which
gives you a place to live in but wants you to be attached to
it all the time, and the government can demand work out of
you, there is little freedom left.
General speaking, in a society where money is widely used, you can do what you want to do
after you have found a place to live in and paid your taxes. Well, it is not as simple as that:
there are law and order to think about: who protects you when someone wants to take over
your house? There is the question of who looks after the poor and needy: who provides
medicine, or decide where people should be buried?
Under such new situation, what responsibilities do you think does a king have? What can a
king do for his people?
Topic 13: Enlightenment
Suggested Answers: (Free answers.)

Protect people’s life and property

Formulate the laws

Set up the court

Stabilise the value of the money
To know more (2)
The rise of nation states
a.
Characteristics of a nation state

The king was more powerful than the Church.

The king needed the support of the wealth people.

The king and the people had to agree on the rate of taxation through
discussions.

The king was the people’s representative.

A parliament was set up, which was not elected by the people but
represented functional constituencies such as the Church, the nobles, and
the common people (many were merchants).
b.
Causes of the rise of nation states

The kings became wealth due to the discovery of new trade routes and the
increase of trade
c.

The wide use of vernaculars

The decline of Church influence

The use of firearms
Consequences of the rise of nation states

Induced conflicts between the people and the king

Birth of the theory of Social Contract

Gradual decline of Church authority
Summary:
The discovery of new trade routes and increase of trade led to the rise of nation states. In a
nation state, the king was more powerful than the Church, but he needed the support of the
rich and had to discuss with the people in order to agree on the rates of taxation, and
therefore it led to conflicts between the people and the king and to the birth of the theory
of Social Contract.
3
Task 2: The two main concepts of Enlightenment: Social Contract and
Man are born free and equal
Source A Content of the Social Contract
The theory of the social contract argued that the monarch and his people were bound by a
contract. The people agreed by this contract to accept the monarch’s rule, and believed
that the monarch, in turn, should protect them and maintain order. If the monarch fulfilled
his or her part of the contract, so this theory claims, the subject people should obey. If he
or she did not, they might, with justification, rebel.
1a. According to Source A, what relationship is there between the people and their king?
4
Suggested Answers: Contract
1b. In what ways is this relationship you identified in the question above different from
that of the king and the people at the time?
Suggested Answers:
There was no such issue of whether the king could be overthrown by the people in the
relationship between the king and the people at the time. However, in a relationship
based on social contract, the people and the king have a contractual relationship, and
whether such a relationship can be maintained depends on whether both parties abide
by the contract. If the king violates the contract, the people have the right to overthrow
him.
Source B
Content of John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government written in 1690
Source B
Content of John Locke’s Two Treaties of Government written in 1690
To have a correct understanding of political power and its origin, we must consider all
men are naturally in a state of perfect freedom so that they can 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 depending upon the will of any other man.
Source C Content of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract written in 1762
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of
others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
Source D
Content of Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws written in 1748
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, there can be no
liberty… Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power is not separated from the
legislative and executive.
Topic 13: Enlightenment
Study Sources B, C and D, and then answer the questions below:
1. According to Sources B, C and D, what are the words that appear most often?
Suggested Answers: freedom / man
2. With reference to Sources B and C, what rights are men born with?
Suggested Answers: equality / liberty / fraternity
3.
If you were a king of that time, what would be your responses when your people
demanded the rights mentioned above? Explain.
Suggested Answers: free answer
Task 3: Extension of the two main concepts of Enlightenment: the American
Declaration of Independence
Source E
Content of the American Declaration of Independence, 1776
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that, to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Source: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
Study Source E, and then answer the questions below:
Has the American Declaration of Independence adopted the two main concepts advocated by
the Enlightenment? Explain your answer with reference to Source E.
Suggested Answers:
The American Declaration of Independence has adopted the two main concepts advocated by
the Enlightenment. Its first sentence already mentions “We hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal”, and then it points out that man are born with certain
“unalienable Rights”, such as to live, to be free, to pursue happiness. Therefore, it can be can
that the Declaration of Independence has adopted the concept of “man are born free and equal”
advocated by Enlightenment. In addition, it also affirms the principle of Social Contract by
writing “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form”. These are proofs that the American Declaration of Independence has adopted the two
main concepts advocated by the Enlightenment.
5
Conclusion
This topic has covered the various factors that led to the Enlightenment, its main concepts,
and how such concepts affected the formulation of the American Constitution. Along with the
emergence of new forms of government, the power of the kings became restricted by written
constitutions, the aim of which was to protect people’s freedom.
Summary Chart
Led to changes of social
relationships
Use of Money
Liberated the thoughts of the
Europeans
Made people understand their rights
C. Impact
A. Background
Resulted in increased importance of
role and responsibilities of the kings
Rise of
National
States
Led to autocratic kings
Led to new concepts of
social relationships
Emergence of the Renaissance
Facilitated the outbreak of
revolutions, such as the American
Revolution and the French
Revolution
9
Enlightenment
(17-18th centuries)
Success of the Reformation
Rise of Science
John Lock’s “Social Contract”
B. Main Concepts
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s and
Montesquieu’s “Man are born free and
equal”