Unit #2 - The Enlightenment

• principle(s) - basic truth(s) that serves as the core/foundation of belief(s)
• laissez-faire - government's non-interference in the economics of a country (hands-off)
• natural rights - rights given to people from god or nature.
• democracy - rule by the people as equals
• philosopher - a person who seeks wisdom or enlightenment (a thinker)
• Enlightened Despots - a monarch who retains absolute control of their country while also enacting reform based on Enlightenment ideas.
• "Consent of the Governed" - Term coined by John Locke to explain that it is the people who should decide how they want to be governed, and that the people give the consent to the government to rule them. An unjust government can be overthrown by the people.
• Enlightenment - a movement in Europe from about 1650 until 1800 that advocated the use of reason and individualism instead of tradition and established doctrine.
• Social Contract - an agreement that results in the organization of society.
• Leviathan - book written by Thomas Hobbes in which he argues that Absolute Monarchy is the best form of government because people needed to be controlled because life is "Nasty, Brutish, and Short".
• Two Treatises of Government - essays written by John Locke in which he argues that a government needed the consent of the governed to rule, and that a governments job is protect its citizen's natural rights.
• Philosophes - a philosopher who uses logic and reason to discover the world around them and how it works or should work.
• The Social Contract - book written by Rousseau which argues that it is the people's general will which guides a society and its government.
• Vindication of the Rights of Women - an essay written by Mary Wollstonecraft in which she argues for education rights for women and argued against Rousseau in which he believed women should be secondary to men.
• secular - non-religious thought and ideas, usually pertaining to government.
• Separation of Powers - Montesquieu's ideas that a government would need to have checks & balances with each co-equal power
• "Life, Liberty and Property" - Locke's idea of how natural rights were supposed to allow people to have these things automatically without government interference.
• capitalism - an economic system explained in detail by Adam Smith in which the means of production are privately owned without government interference "Laissez Faire"
• Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen - written in 1791 by Olympe de Gouges to explain equality among French citizens. It does not explain the same themes expressed by women during the 1800s and early 1900s.
• bureaucracy - The administration portion of the government
• tyranny - an unjust ruler or government