1. THE ENLIGHTENMENT

2. THOMAS HOBBES English Philosophe lived through the English Civil War
Wrote Leviathan – Social Contract – the exchange of individual liberty for group safety and social order

3. THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
Definition: The idea of the social contract is one of the foundations of the American political system. This is the belief that the state (government) only exists to serve the will of the people, and they are the source of all political power enjoyed by the state. They can choose to give or withhold this power.

4. JOHN LOCKE
English Philosophe – he accepted the social Contract theory but he felt there were some rights people did not give up
Two Treatises of Government –
Man has individual, natural rights that must be protected and are superior to laws and governments
Governments exist only to protect those rights
Those rights are life, liberty, and the ability to own property
Believes man is inherently good
Ruler who denies individuals’ natural rights could be overthrown

5. BARON DE MONTESQUIEU
The Spirit of the Laws – He describes the perfect government:
3 branches – Legislative, Executive, and Judicial
Checks and Balances

6. VOLTAIRE Francois-Marie Arouet – French writer Philosophical Letters
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
Freedom of Speech

7. JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
The Social Contract
People are naturally good
Government should be based on popular sovereignty—this is the idea that power lies with the people and a country’s government should be created and controlled by the people

8. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
Enlightenment ideals of equality should be extended to women

9. WHY THEY’RE IMPORTANT: U.S. CONNECTION
Which ideas within the Enlightenment show up in American Revolutionary Thought?
Montesquieu’s checks and balances and 3 branches of government
Locke’s ideas of natural rights (modified by Thomas Jefferson to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)
Voltaire’s ideas of personal freedoms
Rousseau’s ideas that government should be created and controlled by the people
Much later, Wollstonecraft’s women’s rights appear, though not during the American Revolution
Some women’s rights begin to be fought for in the mid 1800s
In 1920, women in the U.S. earn the right to vote
The concept of a social contract, especially as stated by Locke