L6 | VIEWS

• ENLIGHTENMENT

  • Intellectual and cultural movement in Europe
  • Took place in 17th and 18th centuries
  • Known as the "age of reason"
• ENLIGHTENMENT

  • Ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into worldview, gained wide assent in the West and instigated revolutionary development
• VIEWS ON GOVERNMENT

  1. Thomas Hobbes
  2. John Locke
  3. Baron de Montesquieu
  4. Jean Jacques Rousseau
  5. Cesare Bonesana Beccaria
  6. Francois Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
• VIEWS ON EDUCATION

  1. Mary Astell
  2. Mary Wollstonecraft
• THOMAS HOBBES'S SOCIAL CONTRACT

  • Work: Leviathan (1651)
  • Horrors of English Civil War - humans were naturally selfish and wicked
  • Without government, there would be war of every man against every man
  • Life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short
• THOMAS HOBBES

  • To escape such life, people had to hand over their rights to a strong ruler
  • Gain law and order
  • Ruler needed total power
  • Best government: Absolute monarchy
  • Impose order and demand control
• JOHN LOCKE | NATURAL RIGHTS

  • All people are born free and equal
  • Purpose of gov: protect rights
  • If fails to do so, citizens have a right to overthrow it
• 3 NATURAL RIGHTS:

  1. Life
  2. Liberty
  3. Property
• JOHN LOCKE

  • Government's power comes from the consent of the people is the foundation of modern democracy
• BARON DE MONTESQUIEU | SEPARATION OF POWERS

  • Book: The Spirit of Laws (1748)
  • Proposed that separation of powers would keep any from gaining total control of government
• BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

  • Checks and balances
  • "Power should be a check to power"
  • Ideas became basis for US Constitution
• JEAN JACQUE ROUSSEAU | CHAMPION OF FREEDOM

  • Civilization corrupted people's natural goodness
  • Good gov was one freely formed by the people and guided by general will of society
  • People give up their freedom in favor of the common good
• JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

  • "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"
• HOBBES VS ROUSSEAU: SOCIAL CONTRACT

  HOBBES:

  • Agreement b/w society and government
  • Absolute sovereign w/o giving value to individuals
  • Sovereign and government are identical

  ROUSSEAU:

  • Agreement among free individuals to create society and government
  • Supports individual than the state
  • Sovereign (people) and government (agent that executes general will) are distinct
  • Government is accountable to the people
• LOCKE VS ROUSSEAU: DEMOCRACY

  ROUSSEAU

  • Direct democracy
  • Concept of general will; represents collective good and guide all laws and decisions
  • Impractical for large, complex nation-states; required a small, homogenous population capable of direct participation
• DIRECT DEMOCRACY

  • People as a collective exercise sovereignty and make laws directly
• LOCKE VS ROUSSEAU: DEMOCRACY

  LOCKE

  • Representative democracy
  • Emphasized natural rights
  • Government with limited powers, subjective to the rule of law and with checks and balances
• REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

  • Citizens elect representatives to make laws and govern on their behalf
• CESARE BONESANA BECCARIA | CRIMINAL JUSTICE

  • Father of modern criminal law
  • Father of criminal justice
  • Laws existed to preserve social order, not avenge crime
• FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET | INTOLERANCE

  • Pen name: Voltaire
  • Wit and criticism of Christianity and slavery
  • Advocate of:
  • Freedom of speech
  • Freedom of religion
  • Separation of church and state
• MARY ASTELL | FEMINIST PIONEER

  • Argued for women's right to independent intellectual life
  • Known for groundbreaking methods of negotiating the position of women in society by engaging in philosophical debate
• MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT | WOMEN'S RIGHT

  • Book: Vindication of the Rights of Women (1972)
  • Disagreed with Rousseau, argued that women like men need education to become virtuous and useful
• MAJOR IDEAS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

  1. Locke: Natural rights
  2. Montesquieu: Separation of Powers
  3. Voltaire: Freedom of thought and expression, religious freedom
  4. Beccaria: Abolishment of torture
  5. Astell & Wollstonecraft: Women's equality
• NATURAL RIGHTS

  • Fundamental to US Declaration of Independence
• SEPARATION OF POWERS

  • France, US, and Latin America nations use this in new constitution
• FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION

  • Guaranteed in US Bill of Rights and French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
  • European monarchs reduce censorship
• ABOLISHMENT OF TORTURE

  • Guaranteed in US Bill of Rights
  • Torture outlawed or reduce in nations of europe and america
• RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

  • Guaranteed in US Bill of Rights and French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
  • European monarchs reduce persecution
• WOMEN'S EQUALITY

  • Women's right groups form in europe and north america
• IMPACT

  1. Challenged status quo
  2. Led to revolutionary developments
  3. Influenced the Founding Fathers of US and Declaration of Independence
  4. Contributed to French Revolution
  5. Renewed interest in deciphering ancient scripts