Intellectual movement typically associated with the 18 th Century. Certain thinkers believed they were more enlightened than their compatriots and set out to enlighten them. Believed that human reason could be used to combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny.

Most were practicing Catholics Argued the proper worship of involved admiration of His creation, particularly humanity. Some claimed to be like God, sharing some of His creative power. Their goal was to recapture some of the pride, spirit, and creativity of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Born on February 15 th, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Was an inventor, astronomer, and a physicist. Went to the University of Pisa in Converted and improved the spyglass into a telescope. First person to look at the moon through a telescope.

Catholic Church opposed Galileo and his beliefs of a heliocentric universe. He was accused of being a heretic because of his beliefs. Wrote a book on his theories and observations in Was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Church in Died on January 8 th, 1642.

John Locke – believed in natural laws, natural rights, and social contracts. Natural laws – “...the moral standards that govern human behavior are, in some sense, objectively derived from the nature of human beings and the nature of the world.” Human rights - “certain moral guarantees.” Social Contract- Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live

Thomas Hobbes believed in materialism, normalism, and empiricism. Materialism- “The philosophical theory that regards matter and its motions as constituting the universe, and all phenomena, including those of mind, as due to material agencies.” Normalism – “The doctrine that general or abstract words do not stand for objectively existing entities and that universals are no more than names assigned to them.” Empiricism – “The the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience.”

Was born on June 28 th, Jean-Jacques Rousseau – “...Rousseau was active as a composer and a music theorist, as the pioneer of modern autobiography, as a novelist, and as a botanist.” Spent some time learning how to be a Catholic priest. Also had a brief career as a traveling musician, music copyist, and a music teacher. Rousseau's appreciation of the wonders of nature and his stress on the importance of feeling and emotion made him an important influence on and anticipator of the romantic movement.

Rousseau believed in General Will. General Will – “...the collective will of the citizen body taken as a whole. The general will is the source of law and is willed by each and every citizen. In obeying the law each citizen is thus subject to his or her own will, and consequently, according to Rousseau, remains free.” 

Consisted of witch-hunts, religious wars, and conquests. Catholics and Protestants accused each other of being followers of Satan People were imprisoned for believing the wrong thing, attending the wrong church, or not going to church at all. Slavery was in practice, especially in the Western Hemisphere in the plantations, and was defended by leading religious figures.

Natural law Inherent freedoms Self-determination Became the foundation for the American beliefs Was the language of the Enlightenment that influenced the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson George Washington Benjamin Franklin Thomas Paine