1. Chapter 5: The Enlightenment Section 1 - Philosophy in the Age of Reason
Objectives:
Explain how science led to the Enlightenment.
Compare the ideas of Hobbes and Locke.
Identify the beliefs and contributions of the philosophes.
Summarize how economic thinking changed during this time.
What effects did the Enlightenment philosophers have on government and society?

2. Section Overview
In the 1500s and 1600s, the Scientific Revolution changed the way Europeans looked at the world. People began to make conclusions based on experimentation and observation instead of merely accepting traditional ideas. (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton)
During the 1600s and 1700s, belief in the power of reason grew. Writers of the time sought to reform government and bring about a more just society. Despite opposition from government and church leaders, Enlightenment ideas spread. Some absolute rulers used their power to reform society. Over time, concepts of democracy and of nationhood developed from Enlightenment ideas and contributed to revolutions.

3. Terms and People natural law – rules discoverable by reason
Thomas Hobbes – seventeenth-century thinker who wrote Leviathan
John Locke – seventeenth-century thinker who wrote Two Treatises of Government
social contract – Hobbes’ proposal for an organized society in which people enter into an agreement accepting a powerful government in exchange for their freedom
Diderot – philosophe who edited and published the Encyclopedia
Rousseau – philosophe who wrote The Social Contract
laissez faire – an economic system allowing business to operate with little or no government interference
Adam Smith – author of The Wealth of Nations; proponent of the free-market system

4. Natural law governed forces such as gravity and magnetism.
By the early 1700s, European thinkers felt that nothing was beyond the reach of the human mind.
The discoveries of the Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason.
Natural law governed forces such as gravity and magnetism. 4

5. Main Question:
Could HUMAN REASON be used to better understand social, economic, and political problems?
This approach had been used to understand natural forces such as gravity and magnetism.
In this way, the Scientific Revolution led to a new revolution in thinking, known as the Enlightenment. 5

6. Two English thinkers, Thomas Hobbes and John
Two English thinkers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, used reason to examine social structures. They came to very different conclusions.
ABSOLUTISM
Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan.
Favored absolute monarchy. People formed social contracts because only a powerful government can ensure social order.
John Locke wrote Two Treatises of Government.
Favored limited government. Only governments with limited power, which are accepted by all citizens, protected the natural rights of the people.
CONSTITUTIONALISM

7. In France, the philosophes applied the methods of science to understand society.
Diderot
Edited and published the Encyclopedia to “change the general way of thinking”
Voltaire
Defended freedom of thought through his writings. (Freedom of speech)
Montesquieu
Published The Spirit of Laws
Advocated the idea of separation of powers in government.
Rousseau
Wrote The Social Contract
Promoted the idea that people in their natural state were essentially good.

8. Voltaire was imprisoned and forced into exile. His books were banned.
The French government and Catholic Church opposed the ideas of the philosophes Why do you think?
Keep power, Maintain influence
Voltaire was imprisoned and forced into exile. His books were banned.
Still, he continued to defend freedom of speech.
“My trade is to say what I think.”
—Voltaire

9. The philosophes did not apply their ideas of freedom and equality to women.
Mary Wollstonecraft, an English writer, called for equal education for girls and boys in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women.
The idea of women’s equality was ridiculed and sharply condemned.

10. French thinkers known as physiocrats focused on economic reforms based on natural law. Physiocrats:
Rejected mercantilism, the idea that government regulation is needed to produce a favorable trade balance.
Advocated laissez-faire policies, which suggested that business should operate with little or no government interference.

11. The Scottish economist Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations.
He argued that the free market should regulate business activity.
All economic factors were related to the market forces of supply and demand.
Although Smith supported laissez faire, he also believed that the government had a duty to protect society, administer justice, and provide public works.

12. What effects did the Enlightenment philosophers have on government and society?
The spread of Enlightenment philosophers’ ideas sparked changes in governments and society throughout Europe.
Encouraged by ideas such as natural law and social contracts, people challenged the structure of governments and society in existence since the Middle Ages.