Note handout

 Scientific Revolution used science to find laws that governed the physical world.  natural laws: laws that governs human nature.  Through the use of reason, Enlightenment thinkers believed they could solve political, economic, and cultural problems.

 Thomas Hobbes:  People are cruel and greedy; need strong government; enter into a social contract  Social contract: an agreement by which people give up the state of nature for an organized society.  John Locke:  People are good and have natural rights, which the government protects.  natural rights: rights that belong to all humans from birth.

 Montesquieu: separation of powers is the best way to protect liberty.

 philosophe : French Enlightenment thinkers who tried to apply scientific methods to improve society.  Voltaire:  Critic of corruption and injustice; defender of free speech.  Diderot:  Spread philosophes’ ideas; encouraged education for all.  Rousseau:  Common good over the good of the individual.

 Wollstonecraft:  Equal education for boys and girls  Smith:  Laws of supply and demand should control the economy  Physiocrats: Enlightenment thinkers who searched for laws to govern economics.  Laissez-faire: allows business to operate with little or no government influence.