1.3 Cool Down: Enlightenment Philosophers

What was the goal of the Enlightenment philosophers?

• To corrupt society

• They wanted to apply the laws that ruled nature to people and society

• They wanted to take over Europe with their ideas of government

According to Thomas Hobbes, why would people be willing to enter into a social contract with a leader?

• People felt that they were uncapable of ruling themselves and needed a strong government to keep order and peace

• In return, the government/leader would grant them life, liberty, and proerty

• In return for giving up freedoms, the government/leader would protect their rights

What did Machiavelli’s arguments in his book, The Prince, support?

• That it was safer for a ruler to be feared than loved

• That no one man should have all the power & govt needed to be checked

• People are born good & society corrupts them with competition for scarce resources

What did Locke believe about people?

• That they were born equal with certain God-given rights, called natural or unalienable rights

• People are born bad and require a strong authoritarian government to maintain order

• People should live life as if it were survival of the fittest

Which philosopher’s ideas influenced our founding fathers to limit government by creating branches that would use their powers to “check and balance” one another?

• Machiavelli

• Montesquieu

• Hobbes

Time period in Europe where traditional ideas about power/government were questioned

(a)  

an agreement among people in a society with a government

(a)  

freedoms people possess relating to life, liberty, and property

(a)  

A time period in Europe where traditional ideas about power and government were questioned:

• The Scientific Revolution

• The Glorious Revolution

• The Enlightenment

A period of using reason rather than superstition to explain things about the natural world:

• The Enlightenment

• The Glorious Revolution

• The Scientific Revolution