The Enlightenment

Context

Caffeine and the Printing Press

A new “public sphere” – understanding that individuals were part of a larger “imagined community”

Thomas Hobbes

Born 1588

Wrote Leviathan

Thought humans were “naturally in a state of war” with one another

Favored a strong monarch

To control people

Queen Elizabeth and King Louis XIV

Both favored monarchy – rule by king or queen

Both believed monarch’s power came for god – divine right

John locke

Born: 1632

Wrote Two Treatises of Government

Thought humans had ability to reason

That government’s got their power from the people (not God)

That people can replace their government if it doesn’t protect their life liberty and propety

Inspired Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence

Charles de Montesquieu

Born in France 1689

Wrote On the Spirit of Laws

Believed that governments should contain a separation of powers to keep any one branch from getting too much power

Influence the U.S. Constitution

Jean Jaques Rousseau

Born 1712

Wrote The Social Contract – an agreement between the people

Believed humans were naturally good and compassionate

Believed in direct democracy

Mary Wolstonecraft

Born in 1759

Wrote Vindication of the Rights of Women

Believed in the equality between men and women as long as women had the same rights (right to education)

“Society will not whole until the last king is strangled with the guts of the last priest.”

Cesare Beccaria

Born in 1738

Wrote On Crimes and Punishment

Influenced the 7th and 8th Amendments right to trial and protection against cruel and unusual punishment

Believed criminal punishments should fit the crime and not be done for revenge but to prevent further crime

Voltaire

Born 1694

Wrote On God and Human Beings

Believed in freedom of speech and religion

Influenced the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution