The Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement. Enlightenment thinkers tried to apply reason and
scientific methods to laws that shaped human actions.
They wanted to build a society around the ideas of the Scientific Revolution.
Impact of the Enlightenment
 Stimulated religious tolerance
 Fueled democratic revolutions around the world
 Rise of individualism- thinking for yourself
 Rise of a more secular or worldly outlook
Thomas Hobbes
 Wrote Leviathan
 English philosopher
 Believed all humans are naturally wicked
 Monarchy is the best form of government
 Governments are created to protect people from their own selfishness
John Locke
 Wrote Two Treaties on Government
 English philosopher
 People have the ability to reason and make informal decisions if given the proper information
 Governments should be formed with the approval of the people
 Governments should exist to protect individual rights and people
Montesquieu
 Wrote Spirits of Laws
 French political thinker
 A monarchy with limited power makes a country stable and secure
 Developed the idea of “separation of powers”
 Government should be separated or spread out among different branches of the government so that no one
individual or group has too much power and so as a result threatens liberty
Rousseau
 Wrote The Social Contract
 Swiss philosopher
 Believed that society had corrupted the natural goodness in people
 Direct democracy, where society votes in the people to make all laws, was the way to protect individual
freedom
 Government should be an agreement between rulers and the people
Enlightenment and Monarchs
 The Church and the French government were angered by Enlightenment ideas and tried to censor people’s
work
 Enlightenment thinkers tried to change the way the governments were run and tried to convince rulers to
rule justly
o Inspired revolutions in the United States and France
Major Ideas of the Enlightenment
Ideas
Thinker
Natural Rights: life, liberty, and
property
Impact
John Locke
Separation of power
Fundamental to the US
Declaration of Independence
Montesquieu
France, US, Latin American
nations use separation of power
in new constitution
Consent of the governed
Social Contract: agreement
between a government and its
people
Rousseau
Wrote Leviathan: Sea Monster
Thomas Hobbes
Pessimistic view of humans that
would result in the defense of the
absolute monarchy
Studied circulation of blood
William Harvey
Advanced medical knowledge
What was the Enlightenment and how did it influence the government we have in the US today?
Answers will vary. Use table above
Word Bank
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Leviathan
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protect
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intellectual
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approval
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rights/people
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society
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
wicked

religious
tolerance
monarchy
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

separation of power
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limited
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thinking for
yourself
power
Two Treatises on
Government
separated
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agreement
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Corrupted/goodness
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democracy
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US/France
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Scientific
Revolution
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Reason/informed
The Scientific Revolution
Background
 The Renaissance sparked interest and curiosity about many things, allowing people to start to think for
themselves.
 The Reformation led people to question and challenged the original views of Aristotle and the Church.
 Individuals began to challenge the way people viewed their place in the Universe. This became known as
the Scientific Revolution.
Before the Revolution:
 The view of the universe was geocentric
o Geocentric: the earth was at the center of the universe
o Church would arrest anyone who said otherwise in the Inquisition
What was the Scientific Revolution?
 The Scientific Revolution was a new way of thinking about the natural world.
 Based on:
o Careful observation (what you can see)
o A willingness to reject widely accepted beliefs
o Reason
What led to the Revolution?
 Muslims during the Middle Ages complied a large collection of Ancient and Modern scientific knowledge
 Scientific courses in Astronomy, Physics, and Mathematics began to be offered in colleges
 Explorers needed new tools and inventions to better explore the world
Processing:
Who was in charge of making all decisions regarding the universe prior to the Renaissance and Reformation?
The Church
Why were the Renaissance and Reformation important in leading to the Scientific Revolution?
Leaders of the Scientific Revolution
Nicolaus Copernicus — 1500
 Did not agree with the geocentric model of the universe
 First to study the idea that sun was at the center of the universe
 After 25 years, Copernicus proved that the sun was at the center of the stars and other plants
 Called the heliocentric theory
Johannes Kepler — 1600
 Kepler expanded on Copernicus’ idea of how and why the planets orbit the way they do
 Provided the planets revolved around the sun in elliptical orbits instead of perfect circles
Galileo Galilei—1500 to 1600
 1609—used a telescope to study the heavens
 1610—wrote Starry Messenger which described his observations
o Confirmed Copernicus’ theory of a heliocentric universe
Isaac Newton—1600s
 By 24, Newton was certain all physical objects on earth and in space were equally affected by the same
forces
 His big idea was linking motion in space with motion on earth
o Called the Law of Universal Gravitation
 Every object in the Universe attracts every object. The amount of attraction depends on the mass of the
object and the distance between them.
William Harvey—1600s
 Wrote On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
 Showed the heart acts as a pump to circulate the blood throughout the body
 Described the function of blood vessels
Processing:
Which innovation do you feel was the most import and why?
Word Bank
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geocentric
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geocentric
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observation
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pump
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Scientific Revolution
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think
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planets
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Space/Earth
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Astronomy, Physics,
and mathematics
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tools and
inventions
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Universal
Gravitation
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Blood vessels
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arrest
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sun
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elliptical
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heliocentric
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Aristotle/the Church
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heliocentric
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telescope
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accept