U4--Enlightenment Thinkers

Governments exist to protect our natural rights

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

People give up their freedoms to a ruler who promises to protect them; this is called the social contract

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

Power should be divided in governments into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

A ruler needs to follow the "general will;" rulers need to listen to the people; popular sovereignty

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

People are naturally cruel and selfish, so they need an absolute monarch to rule them.

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

His ideas about separations of powers into 3 branches and checks and balances formed the basis for the US Constitution

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

Thomas Jefferson turned his natural rights of "Life, Liberty, and Property" into "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" in the US Declaration of Independence

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

Argued for the importance of free speech

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire

Fought for freedom OF religion and freedom FROM religion

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Voltaire