Locke
Voltaire
Rousseau
Lesson Plan on:
The Age of
Enlightenment &
Reason (1715-1800)
Prepared by: Mr. Bierschbach
Jefferson
Hobbes
Diderot
Mozart
Franklin
Bach
1651
Enlightenment or Age of Reason
Hobbes writes
Leviathan
Terms to define:
1690
Locke’s
Second Treatise of
Government
 Natural laws (tabla rasa)
 Social contract
 Philosophe
 Laissez-faire
 Free market
People to meet:
 Franklin
 Delacroix
 Hobbes
 Locke
 Rousseau
 Montesquieu
 Jefferson  Voltaire
 Delacroix  Diderot
 Bach
 Mozart
 Catherine the Great
1748
Montesquieu
writes
The Spirit of the Laws
1759
1762
Voltaire’s
Candide
Rousseau writes
The Social Contract
1751-1789
Denis Diderot
distributes his
Encyclopedia
Baroque &
Rococo
Diderot
Encyclopedia
Voltaire
Candide
Philosophers
& Writers
Arts
Hobbes
Leviathan
Montesquieu
Spirit of the Law
Enlightenment
Music:
Bach & Mozart
Franklin
Poor Richard's
Almanac
France, England &
America
Writers,
Diplomats, &
Inventors
Locke & Rousseau
Social Contract
Jefferson
Declaration of
Independence
What caused the age of enlightenment ?
Enlightenment grew out of the
scientific revolution of the 1500s and
1600s. Scientific successes created
great confidence in the power of
reason. If people could use reason
to find laws that governed the
physical world (physical sciences),
why not use reason to discover
natural laws --- or laws that govern
human nature. Why not use reason
to change human society? Through
reason, insisted enlightenment
thinkers, they could solve every
social, political, and economic
problem.
Thinker
Hobbes
Major Ideas
Quotation
People are driven by
selfishness & greed.
To avoid chaos, [a
‘brutish’ life], people
enter a social
contract --- giving up
their freedom to a
gov’t that will
ensure order. Such
a powerful gov’t
[absolute monarchy]
must be strong &
able to suppress
rebellion.
“People are
naturally cruel,
greedy, & selfish.
Life in a state of
nature would be,
“solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish &
short.”
Publication
Leviathan
Connection
to US
Social concept
but NOT
absolute
monarchy.
Thinker Major Ideas
Quotation
Locke People have a
natural right to
life, liberty, &
property. Rulers
have a responsibility
to protect those
rights. People have
the right to change
a gov’t that fails to
do so.
“Men being… by
nature all free,
equal, &
independent, no
one can be put
out of this estate
& subjected to
the political power
of another without his own
consent.”
Publication
Treaties of Gov’t
Connection to US
Ideas influenced
authors of the
Declaration of
Independence.
.
Thinker
Major Ideas
Quotation
Montes- The powers of
quieu gov’t should be
separated into
executive,
legislative, &
judicial
branches, to
prevent
any one group
from gaining too
much power.
“In order to
have…
liberty, it is
necessary that
gov’t be set up
so that one
man need not
be afraid of
another.
Publications
Persian Letters &
Spirit of the Laws
Connection to US
His ideas about
separation
of powers greatly
influenced
the Framers of the
U.S. Constitution.
Thinker
Major Ideas
Rousseau
People are
basically good
but become
corrupted by
society. In an
ideal society,
people would
make the laws
& would obey
them willingly.
Quotation
“Only the
general will can
direct the
energies of the
state in a
manner
appropriate to
the end for
which it was
founded --i.e., the
common
good.”
Publications
Social Contract & Emile
Connection to US
Rousseau has
been hailed as
the champion
of democracy for
his idea that
political
authority lies
with the people.
-- Also, pushed
social contract.
Three views of the Social Contract (Hobbes, Locke & Rousseau):
Social Contract Theory: “ Beginning in the 1600s, Europeans
challenged the rule of sovereigns who ruled by divine right. They
were often supported by the writings of philosophers
(philosophes), who believed that the origin of the state was in a
social contract.” Thomas Hobbes: “Nasty, brutish & short.”
“Thomas Hobbes in England was one of the first to theorize how the
social contract came about. He wrote that in a ‘state of nature’, no
government existed. Without an authority to protect one person from
another, life was ‘cruel, brutish, and short.” Hobbes wrote his ideas
in a work entitled Leviathan. Hobbes argued that people were
naturally cruel, greedy, & selfish. If not strictly controlled, they
would fight, rob, and oppress one another. To escape this, people
entered a social contract, an agreement by which they gave up the
state of nature for an organized society. Hobbes believed that only a
powerful government could ensure an orderly society. Such a gov’t
was an absolute monarchy, which could impose order and compel
obedience. Not surprisingly, Hobbes supported the Stuart kings in
their struggle against parliament. ---- Was this an enlightened view ?
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS --- HOBBES
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes also
stressed governmental power. In his political
treatise Leviathan (1651), the English philosopher
Thomas Hobbes compares the state, with its
innumerable competing members, to the largest of
natural organisms the whale, or leviathan. By
this analogy Hobbes argued that the state, like
the whale, requires a single controlling intelligence
to direct its motion. His major work, Leviathan,
argued that the sovereign's power should be
unlimited, because the state originated in a socalled social contract, whereby individuals accept
a common superior power to protect themselves
from their own brutish instincts and to make
possible the satisfaction of certain human
desires.
Two views of the Social Contract:
John Locke:

John Locke took the social contract a step further.
 John Locke had a more optimistic view of human
nature. People were basically reasonable and moral, he
said. Further, they had natural rights. Or rights that
belonged to all humans from birth. These included the
right to life, liberty, & property.
Two views of the Social Contract:
John Locke:
In Two Treatises of Government, Locke argued that people
formed governments to protect their natural rights. The
best kind of government, he said, had limited power and
was accepted by all citizens. Thus, unlike Hobbes, Locke
rejected absolute monarchy. In 1688, the British Parliament
forced King James II to flee & invited William & Mary
of Orange to rule. Locke defended Parliament’s overthrow
of the King. Locke, then, formed a radical idea. A
government, he said, has an obligation to those it governs.
If a government fails its obligations or violates people’s
natural rights, the people have a right to overthrow the
government. This right to revolution would echo through
Europe, in Britain’s North American colonies, and around
the world in the centuries that followed.
Three views of the Social Contract
(Hobbes, Locke & Rousseau):
Jean- Jacques Rousseau
 In 1762, Rousseau set forth his ideas about government in
The Social Contract.
 It begins, Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
The chains are those of society, which controls the way people
behave.
 Rousseau extended the concept of rights to encompass all the
people and not the narrow propertied class of citizens included by
Locke.
 In Rousseau's state, political authority reflects the "general
will" or will of the majority. The majority should always work
for the common good. Moreover, Rousseau felt that the
individual should be subordinate to the community.
Three views of the Social Contract
(Hobbes, Locke & Rousseau):
Rousseau also had ideas that extended
beyond government & the politics of the times.
For example, Rousseau believed that people in their
natural state were basically good. This natural innocence,
he felt was corrupted by the evils of society, especially
the unequal distribution of property. This view was later
adopted by many reformers and revolutionaries. In
literature & the arts, writers described the American
Indians as ‘noble savages’. Indians were seen as
‘uncorrupted’ by the evils of civilization.
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS --- MONTESQUIEU:
In the 1700s, France saw a flowering of enlightenment
thought. The 18th-century French political theorist Baron
Montesquieu studied the governments of Europe, from
Italy to England. He read all he could about ancient and
medieval Europe and even learned about Chinese and
Native American cultures. His sharp criticism of absolute
monarchy opened the doors for later debate. In 1721, he
published Persian Letters, a satire on French institutions.
Supposedly written by Persian travelers in Europe and their
friends, the book was a comment on French society, politics,
and religion. Montesquieu argued in his study, The Spirit of
the Laws (1748), that the best way to provide a check
against the abuse of power by monarchs was through
intermediary bodies that the monarch could not abolish,
such as the church, guilds, and professional associations.
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS --- MONTESQUIEU:
The dispersion of power to these institutions outside of
government would make it more difficult for the
government to abuse its authority. Montesquieu, along with
many theorists before him, assumed that balance
could succeed only in a society with a relatively small
and homogeneous population. James Madison argued
that the larger the society, and the more diverse the
interests of its inhabitants, the more likely each faction was
to block and thwart the interests of other factions seeking
control. This would prevent the formation of a permanent
majority that could oppress minority groups
or interests. Madison’s understanding was central to the
writing of the Constitution of the United States, which
incorporated a separation of powers and many checks and
balances.
The World of the Philosophes
Voltaire
In France, a group of Enlightenment thinkers
applied the methods of science to better
understand and improve society. These thinkers were
called philosophes, which means ‘lovers of wisdom’.
Arguably, the most famous ‘philosophe’ was
Francois-Marie Arouet, who took the name Voltaire.
Voltaire used biting or satirical wit as a weapon to
expose the abuses of the day. He targeted corrupt
officials and idle aristocrats.
The World of the Philosophes
Voltaire
Voltaire’s most famous work was a book
entitled, Candide. Candide, the hero of the
humorous novel travels across Europe, the
Americas, & even the Middle East in search of, “the best
of all possible worlds”. Candide ended with the phrase, ‘We
must cultivate our garden.’ According to Voltaire, lasting
happiness is, essentially, derived from hard work --- or
cultivating one’s garden, (metaphorically speaking).
Voltaire’s outspoken attacks offended the government & the
Catholic church. He was imprisoned and forced into exile
He saw his books censured & burned, but he continued to
defend freedom of speech. One of his famous quotations
was, “I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will
defend to the death your right to say it.”
The World of the Philosophes
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot, another French philosophe, published
a 28-volume encyclopedia --- it took him 25 years.
As editor, Diderot did more than just gather articles
on human knowledge. His purpose was, ‘to change
the general way of thinking’ by explaining the new
thinking on government, philosophy, and religion.
Diderot’s Encyclopedia included articles by leading
thinkers of the day, including:
Montesquieu & Voltaire.
The World of the Philosophes
Denis Diderot
In their Encyclopedia articles, the ‘philosophes’
denounced slavery, praised freedom of expression,
& urged education for all. They attacked divine
right theory and traditional religions. The French
government argued that the Encyclopedia was an
attack on public morals, while the Pope
threatened to excommunicate Catholics who
bought or read the volumes. Despite the
opposition… 20,000 copies were printed between
1751 & 1789.
Ben Franklin --- An American Philosophe
Enlightenment ideas influenced many American
colonists, among them Benjamin Franklin, a writer &
scientist. He was known in Europe as an American
philosophe. Among his many practical inventions were
the bifocal glasses & electricity. His most famous
publication was Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Ben Franklin --- An American Philosophe
A compilation of practical information,
anecdotes, maxims, and proverbs by Benjamin
Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac appeared
annually between 1732 and 1757. Franklin
founded and owned the almanac and did much
of the writing before 1748. He sold it in 1757,
and it continued under an altered title until
1796. The almanac contained such maxims as
"God helps those who help themselves" and "A
penny saved is two pence clear, " but not all its
maxims preached temperance, frugality, and
independence. "There's more old drunks than
old doctors," for example, implies quite the
opposite. Selections from the almanac are
available in various modern editions.
Thomas Jefferson: Inventor, diplomat, & writer
Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration
of Independence, a document that clearly
reflects the ideas of John Locke, in lines
such as these:
“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 top secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the
governed.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Probably the greatest genius in Western musical history,
Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, Jan. 27, 1756. He
began composing minuets at the age of 5 and symphonies
at 9. When he was 6, he and his older sister, Maria Anna,
embarked on a series of concert tours to Europe's courts
and major cities. Both children played the keyboard, but
Wolfgang became a
violin virtuoso as well. Mozart's greatest success was The
Marriage of Figaro (1786), composed for the Vienna
Opera. The great piano concertos and the string quartets
dedicated to his "dear friend" Josef Haydn were also
composed during this period.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's fame began to wane after Figaro. The nobility and
court grew increasingly nervous about his revolutionary ideas
as exemplified in Figaro. He sank into debt. His greatest
operatic success after Figaro was Don Giovanni (1787). In
1791, Mozart was commissioned to write a requiem
(unfinished). He was, at the time, quite ill. He had never
known very good health and imagined that the work was for
himself, which it proved to be. His death, on Dec. 5, 1791,
which gave rise to false rumors of poisoning, is thought to have
resulted from kidney failure. After a cheap funeral at Saint
Stephen's Cathedral, he was buried in an unmarked grave at
the cemetery of Saint Marx, a Viennese suburb. Mozart
perfected the grand forms of symphony, opera, string quartet,
and concerto that marked the classical period in music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 Seranade in G ‘Eine Kleine’Nachtmusik or (A little night Music)
 Symphony # 40 in G Minor
 The Marriage of Figaro
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 -1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest
composers in Western musical history. He created
masterpieces of choral and instrumental music --both sacred and secular. A devout German
Lutheran, Bach wrote more than 1,000
compositions, including works in virtually every
musical form and genre.
The art of the fugue #1, 2, 11
The Brandenburg Concerto # 3 & 4
Compton’s
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 -1750)
During his lifetime he enjoyed greater renown
as an organist than as a composer, and although
such later composers as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and Ludwig van Beethoven held his work in great esteem
was not until nearly a century after his death that the
broader musical public came to appreciate the level of
craftsmanship his works embody. Bach's music is now
regarded as the high point of the baroque music era,
which lasted from 1600 to 1750 --- the year of his death.
The art of the fugue #1, 2, 11
The Brandenburg Concerto # 3 & 4
Compton’s
Salons
Salons/Baroque/Rococo
Marie-Thérèse Rodet
Geoffrin (1699-1777)
French hostess whose
salon in the Hôtel de
Rambouillet was an
international meeting
place of artists and men
of letters from 1749 to
1777. Madame Geoffrin's
salon was also a center
for the Encyclopédistes,
whose vast project she
subsidized.
Baroque
In the age of Louis XIV,
courtly art & architecture
were either in classical
style, in the Greek and
Roman tradition or in the
grand, complex style
known as baroque.
Baroque paintings were
huge, colorful, & full of
excitement. They glorified
historical battles or the
lives of saints.
Salons/Baroque/Rococo
Rococo
By the mid-1700s, architects and designers developed
the rococo style. Unlike the heavy splendor of the
baroque, rococo art was personal, refined, elegant, and
charming.
Fragonard (below) & Watteau (right) are
two of the most renowned rococo artists.
Enlightened Despots
Some monarchs did accept Enlightenment ideas. They
became enlightened despots, or absolute rulers who used
their powers to bring about political and social change.
Frederick the Great:
As King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, Frederick II
(‘the Great’) exerted extremely tight control over his
subjects. Still, he saw himself as the ‘first servant of
the state,’ with a duty to work for the common good.
Frederick admired Voltaire and lured him to Berlin to
develop a Prussian academy of science. When the king
was not busy fighting wars, he had swamps drained &
forced peasants to grow new crops such as potatoes.
He tolerated religious differences, welcoming victims of
religious persecution.
Enlightened Despots --- Catherine the Great:
Catherine II of Russia read the works of the
philosophes and exchanged letters with Voltaire and
Diderot. She praised Voltaire as someone who had,
“fought the united enemies of humankind: superstition,
fanaticism, ignorance, trickery.” Catherine, who became
empress in 1762, experimented with Enlightenment
ideas. Early in her reign, she made limited reforms in
law and government. She granted nobles a charter of
rights and spoke out against serfdom. Still, like
Frederick the Great, Catherine did not intend to give
up any power. When a serf revolt broke out, she
ruthlessly suppressed it. She also allied herself with
the Russian nobles who opposed change. In the end,
Catherine’s contribution to Russia was not reform but
an expanded empire.
Catherine ‘the Great’ became Czarina in 1762
Maria Theresa & her son Joseph II
Marie Antoinette was Maria Theresa’s daughter
Joseph II:
The most radical enlightenment despot was the Hapsburg
emperor Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa. An eager student
of the Enlightenment, Joseph traveled in disguise among his
subjects to learn of their problems. His efforts to improve
their lives won him the nickname the ‘peasant emperor.’
Maria Theresa had begun to modernize Austria’s
government. Joseph continued her reforms. He chose
talented middle-class officials rather than nobles to head
departments & imposed a range of political & legal reforms.
Despite opposition, he granted toleration to Protestants and
Jews in his Catholic empire. He ended censorship and
attempted to bring the Catholic Church under royal control.
He sold the property of many monasteries & convents,
which he saw as unproductive and used the proceeds to
build hospitals. Joseph even abolished serfdom. Like many
of his reforms, this measure was canceled after his death.
Enlightened Despots Joseph II (Continued --- More details):
 Joseph II, b. (1741-1790), became emperor and
co-regent of the Hapsburg monarchy with his
mother, Maria Theresa, after the death of his
father, Francis I, in 1765. He tried unsuccessfully to
reform and unify the Austrian Hapsburg domains.
When his mother died in 1780, he inherited the
crowns of Bohemia and Hungary. Ruling by
himself from then on, Joseph pursued a policy
of centralization and reform designed to enhance
the power of his state and the welfare of his
subjects.
Enlightened Despots Joseph II (Continued --- More details):
 Driven by a passion for reason and order,
Joseph was intolerant of opposition. He created a
secret police and employed military force to
implement the thousands of laws and edicts that
flooded out of the Vienna court. With his
curious blend of humanitarian ideals and
autocratic methods, Joseph II exemplified all of
the characteristics usually associated with 18thcentury enlightened despotism.
Enlightened Despots Joseph II (Continued --- More details):
 Joseph's reform program included the abolition of
serfdom, freedom of the press, the elimination of torture
and the death penalty, and an attempt to establish equality
before the law. He tried to ease the fiscal burdens of the
lower classes by introducing a single tax based on land.
He granted official toleration to Protestants and Jews and
dissolved the monasteries of contemplative Catholic
orders, earmarking their revenues for the support of
hospitals. In his relentless efforts to unify the
administrative structure of his monarchy, Joseph sought
to diminish the influence of provincial diets (legislatures)
as well as the special privileges of the aristocracy. He
decreed the use of German for governmental business
throughout his domains, including his distant possessions
in Italy and the Austrian Netherlands.
Enlightened Despots
Joseph II (Continued):
Fourteen years before the French Revolution,
Joseph warned his sister Marie Antoinette,
queen of France: "The revolution, if you fail to
avert it, will be an atrocious one." His own
actions, however, provoked widespread
discontent among the peoples he ruled. At the
time of his death he faced mounting unrest
in his Austrian and Bohemian lands and open
revolt in Hungary and the Low Countries.
Joseph's reforms met with resistance in many
quarters, and before his death in Vienna on
February 20, 1790, he was forced to rescind
many of them. While some of his reforms
survived, many were revoked by his brother
and successor, Leopold II.
Maria Antoinette
Laissez-faire (Capitalism)
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
In his famous treatise, The Wealth of
Nations, Adam Smith argued that private
competition free from regulation
produces and distributes wealth better
than government-regulated markets.
Since 1776, when Smith produced his
work, his argument has been used to
justify capitalism and discourage
government intervention in trade and
exchange. Smith believed that private
businesses seeking their own interests
organize the economy most efficiently, “as
if by an invisible hand.”
Adam Smith
Thinker Major Ideas
Quotation
Connection to US
Quotation
Connection to US
Hobbes
Publication
Thinker Major Ideas
Locke
Publication
Thinker Major Ideas
Quotation
Connection to US
Quotation
Connection to US
Montesquieu
Publications
Thinker Major Ideas
Rousseau
Publications
Enlightenment
France, England &
America