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Age of Enlightenment
How did Enlightenment thinkers influence society around them?
What were the major ideas of the Enlightenment?
Enlightenment
• Age of rational thinking to solve human problems.
• Followed up on the Scientific Revolution.
• Led by Philosophes – intellectual thinkers of Enlightenment
• Social commentators
Enlightenment Philosophes
Modern-Day Philosophes?
Philosophes
• Social Commentators of The Enlightenment
• Intellectual leaders who led the movement
• Influenced many societies and governments throughout Europe
• Many Philosophes had a direct influence on the American style of government
John Locke
• Belief that everyone was born a blank slate – tabula rasa
• People are formed by their beliefs and experiences
• Belief in natural rights of man – life, liberty, property
Baron de Montesquieu
• Belief in 2 major concepts for government
• Separation of Powers
• Checks and Balances
Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Belief in the social contract and popular sovereignty
• Rule should be based on good of the people
• Favored an enlightened despot as a leader
Voltaire
• Satirical writer of the Enlightenment
• Criticized organized religion
• Exposed evils of society through comedic social commentary
Diderot
• Editor of 1st Encyclopedias
Adam Smith
• Enlightenment Economist• Wrote Wealth of
Nations, 1776• Believed in invisible hand
of free enterprise• Laissez-faire economics
– people should do what they want to do
Mary Wollstonecraft
• Pushed for women’s rights
• Believed women have same rights as men
Spread of Enlightenment Ideals
• Explosion of printed works – magazines, books, journals, newspaper articles
• Salons – entertaining rooms for the wealthy where enlightenment ideals were discussed and debated