The Enlightenment - Amy Elizabeth Robinson

​ (a)   was the author of this article called the Enlightenment.

• Amy Elizabeth Robinson
• Trevor Getz
• Eman Elshaikh

Answer explanation

This is an image of Ms. Robinson. As we continue to develop our close reading and note-making skills it's important to note the author of each source you read, watch or listen to. This is a habit of mind that will become increasingly important as you start sourcing documents for our research project. So be sure to always know who the author of your piece is and pay attention to what gives them credibility.

Dorinda Outram, a historian referenced in your reading on the Enlightenment argued that the Enlightenment took place in which of the public spheres of the 18th century world? (There may be more than one correct answer)

• Public Lectures

• Salons

• Coffeehouses

• Lending Libraries

Answer explanation

Each of these is correct. Dorinda Outram talks more about eighteenth-century social context, and the rise of a “public sphere.” They met at public lectures, salons, coffeehouses, and new lending libraries, where they could cast “light” on questions that had lurked in darkness for centuries.

Following Newton, Enlightenment thinkers believed that a ​ (a)   could be discovered underneath all aspects of life.

• “natural law”
• Scientific truth
• Spiritual Truth
• Underlying Moral

This political event that took place in 1688 in England was highlighted in the reading as a pivotal moment in the development of Enlightenment thought.

• The English Civil War

• The French Revolution

• The American Revolution

• The Glorious Revolution

Answer explanation

As a political movement, some historians trace the Enlightenment to the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. That’s when King James of England, Ireland, and Scotland was deposed and replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. William was the stadtholder (ruler) of the Dutch Republic, a flourishing economic and intellectual center.

This thinker (who were referred to as philosophes or natural philosophers in the Enlightenment) was mentioned again in this source after having been highlighted in Sal Khan's video as an important originator of Enlightenment thinking. He wrote the Two Treatises of Government (1690) two years after the Glorious Revolution.

• Voltaire

• Jean Jaques Rousseau

• John Locke

• Adam Smith

Answer explanation

Soon after the Glorious Revolution, the philosopher John Locke published Two Treatises of Government (1690), arguing that government should be formed through a contract between people and their ruler, rather than through ideas of religious hierarchy or divine will.

John Locke's major argument concerning what made a government fair and just was:

• Government should be formed through a contract between people and their ruler, rather than through ideas of religious hierarchy or divine will.

• Government should be formed with a strong but fair leader who would agree to rule morally over his people.

• Government should be formed by the people's will and every decision should be voted on by the people.

• The best form of government was where an Enlightened leader would rise to absolute power based on his willingness to protect Natural Law at all costs.

Answer explanation

John Locke, although considered one of the most important of all Enlightened thinkers, was very scared of democracy and of course felt that one person should never have absolute power. He also government should not rely on religious teachings or morals as a guide to making law. He believed all laws should follow Natural Law not church law or the law of a King.

Today John Locke is very important but many historians point to some mistakes Locke made as a thinker. Which below are mistakes he made during his age - mistakes other philosophers like Adam Smith and Jean Jacques Rousseau did not make.

• Locke argued that the American Revolution was too idealistic.

• Locke embraced the idea that there were intrinsic differences between humans from different places, with different religious beliefs or skin tones.

• Locke argued that Nicolaus Copernicus was wrong when he theorized that the sun was the center of our universe.

• Locke was a shareholder in the Royal African Company, which was profiting from the enslavement of Africans. He argued that slavery was okay if it resulted from “just war”

Answer explanation

While Locke definitely helped rationalize the horrors associated with the Chattel Slavery that developed in the 1600s and 1700s, Locke rejected the idea that there were any intrinsic differences between humans from different places, with different religious beliefs or skin tones. Locke was a victim of his time and we should remember that we have the benefit of looking back at history at the inhumane nature of the African Slave Trade, a point of view that Locke would not have enjoyed when he was alive. We need to remember that we don't have that same benefit - we must act more responsibly when it comes to the legacy of racism and patriarchy that persists in our country but also in countries around the world.

When we think of who is celebrated and studied when it comes to the Enlightenment - which of the following characteristics fit? (Multiple answer question)

• Typically White

• Male

• Well off (Wealthy)

• From the Colonies

Answer explanation

Who could participate in the networks that made up the Enlightenment, and who could benefit from them? More and more people may have been involved in the conversation, but there were still voices that had trouble being heard. Many philosophes believed that women, children, working people, and people from colonies or conquered territories were less developed than white European men, and not ready for full inclusion.

These thinkers were exceptions to the general rule that we framed in the last question - please match each person to the correct description.

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• This English intellectual woman wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792.

• Olaudah Equiano

• Another abolitionist and French female playwright , wrote a Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791

• Olympe de Gouges

• This thinker rejected the rigid “natural laws” supposedly “discovered” by European philosophers. Instead, he argued that indigenous people had a better understanding of natural law and how to establish a fair society.

• José Antonio de Alzate y Ramirez

• This black man had been both an enslaved laborer and a sailor, who became a leading voice in the abolitionist movement

Answer explanation

Who were these rebels pushing the Enlightenment to become more radical? “What was most vigorous” in Enlightenment debates, historians Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker say, “did not come from any single national experience.” They argue that a transnational, multiracial working class—meeting on ships and in port cities across the Atlantic—played an important role in demanding radical change. They call this a “universalism from below.”

Do you feel that this assessment is helping you better understand what was important in the reading?

• Yes

• No