The
Enlightenment
What was the Enlightenment?
• The belief, put
forward by the
“philosophes,” that,
through the use of
reason, people and
governments could
solve every social,
political, and
economic problem
faced by humanity
Thomas Hobbes
• English (1588 – 1679)
• Wrote Leviathan (1651)
• Argued that people are
naturally cruel, greedy, and
selfish
• Only a powerful
government can ensure an
orderly society – a
government like absolute
monarchy
• Opinions had been
shaped by living through
the English Civil Wars
Thomas Hobbes
• “The life of man [is]
solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short”
• “The condition of
man... is a condition of
war of everyone against
everyone.”
• “It is not wisdom, but
Authority that makes a
law.”
John Locke
• English (1632 – 1704)
• Wrote Two Treatises of
Government (1689)
• Argued that people are born as a
“tabula rasa” (blank slate) and are
basically reasonable and moral
• People have certain natural
rights: the right to life, liberty,
and property
• People form governments to
protect their natural rights, but
those governments should be
limited in power
• The people have the right to
overthrow a government if it
violates or fails to protect their
natural rights
John Locke
• “All mankind…being all
equal and independent, no
one ought to harm
another in his life, health,
liberty or possessions.”
• “The end of law is not to
abolish or restrain, but to
preserve and enlarge
freedom. For in all the
states of created beings
capable of law, where
there is no law, there is no
freedom”
Montesquieu
• French (1689 – 1755)
• Full name: Charles de
Secondat, Baron de
Montesquieu
• Studied governments,
criticized absolute
monarchy
• Wrote The Spirit of Laws
(1748)
• Argued for separation of
powers into executive,
judicial, and legislative
branches and for system of
checks and balances
Montesquieu
• “In order to have liberty, it is
necessary that the powers of
the government be
separated.”
• “Useless laws weaken the
necessary laws. ”
• "In republican governments,
men are all equal; equal they
are also in despotic
governments: in the former,
because they are everything;
in the latter, because they
are nothing."
Denis Diderot
• French (1713 – 1784)
• Assembled the 27-volume
Encyclopedie
• Believed people had a
right to pursue truth and
knowledge
• His work was ruled
dangerous by the French
courts; Diderot was
forced to publish in Russia
Denis Diderot
• “Man will never be free until the
last king is strangled with the
entrails of the last priest”
• “Watch out for the fellow who
talks about putting things in
order! Putting things in order
always means getting other
people under your control.”
• “There are three principal means
of acquiring knowledge...
observation of nature, reflection,
and experimentation.
Observation collects facts;
reflection combines them;
experimentation verifies the
result of that combination.”
Voltaire
• French (1694 -1778)
• Real name: François-Marie
Arouet
• Wrote Candide (1759)
• Fought for freedom of
speech; campaigned against
corruption, religious
intolerance, and the slave
trade
• Imprisoned after offending
French monarchy and
Catholic Church; eventually
banished from France
Voltaire
• “I do not agree with a
word you say, but I will
defend to the death your
right to say it.”
• “It is better to risk saving
a guilty man than to
condemn an innocent
one”
• “Man is free at the
moment he wishes to be.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• French (1712 – 1778)
• Wrote The Social Contract
(1762)
• Believed that people were
born good but were
corrupted by society
• Wanted a limited, freely
elected government
• Believed that individuals
are less important than
the community
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• “Although modesty is natural
to man, it is not natural to
children. Modesty only begins
with the knowledge of evil.”
• “Man was born free, and he is
everywhere in chains.”
• “Each of us puts his person
and all his power in common
under the supreme direction
of the general will; and in a
body we receive each member
as an indivisible part of the
whole.”
Cesare Beccaria
• Italian (1738 – 1794)
• Wrote On Crimes and
Punishments (1764)
• Punishments should
deter, not horrify
• Opposed the death
penalty (hypocritical:
murder for murder)in
favor of imprisonment
Cesare Beccaria
• “For a punishment to be just it
should consist of only such
gradations of intensity as
suffice to deter men from
committing crimes.”
• “For a punishment to attain its
end, the evil which it inflicts
has only to exceed the
advantage derivable from the
crime; in this excess of evil,
one should include the
certainty of punishment and
the loss of the good which the
crime might have produced.
All beyond this is superfluous
and for that reason tyrannical”
Thomas Jefferson
• American (1743 – 1826)
• Wrote The Declaration of
Independence (1776)
• Argued for “selfdetermination,” or the
right of a people to
govern themselves rather
than subject themselves
to rule by outsiders
• Generally opposed to
slavery (although he
owned hundreds of slaves
himself)
Thomas Jefferson
•
•
•
•
No man has a natural right to commit
aggression on the equal rights of
another, and this is all from which the
laws ought to restrain him.
When the people fear their
government, there is tyranny; when
the government fears the people,
there is liberty.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time, with the blood of
patriots and tyrants
We hold these truths to be selfevident, 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.
Mary Wollstonecraft
• English (1759 – 1797)
• Wrote A Vindication of the
Rights of Man (1790) and A
Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792)
• Argued for the abolition of
monarchy and hereditary
nobility
• Argued that women are not
inferior to men (they only
appear so due to less access
to education) and that
women should have the
same rights as men
Mary Wollstonecraft
• “The divine right of
husbands, like the divine
right of kings, may, it is
hoped, in this
enlightened age, be
contested without
danger.”
• “No man chooses evil
because it is evil; he only
mistakes it for
happiness, the good he
seeks.”
Outside Responses
•
•
Governments and the Church tried
to suppress the Enlightenment
through censorship and political
oppression
Some “Enlightened Despots” used
their power to bring about social
and political change
– Frederick II (the Great) of
Prussia – agricultural reforms,
encouraged religious tolerance
– Catherine the Great of Russia –
extended rights to the nobility
and made small efforts to end
serfdom
– Joseph II of Austria – abolished
serfdom, encouraged religious
tolerance, even for Jews