III. The Enlightenment (c. 1685-1789)

The Enlightenment was the application of scientific reasoning to human affairs. Eighteenth-century thinkers asked: if the natural world is governed by knowable laws, what are the natural laws governing human society, government, and morality? Their answers fueled every major revolution that followed.

Core Enlightenment ideas

• Reason: human beings can understand the world and improve their condition through rational thought

• Natural rights: all people are born with rights (life, liberty, property) that no government can legitimately violate

• Social contract: government legitimacy comes from a hypothetical agreement between rulers and ruled, not from divine right

• Popular sovereignty: ultimate political authority rests with the people

• Separation of powers: government power should be divided among branches to prevent tyranny

• Religious toleration: the state should not enforce religious uniformity

• Progress: through reason and education, human societies can be perfected over time

• Universalism: these principles apply to all people, in all places, at all times (an idea that would be both inspiring and, when violated, hypocritical)

Key thinkers

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

English philosopher, often classified as a precursor to the Enlightenment. In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes argued that in the "state of nature" (life without government), human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." To escape this, rational people would consent to surrender their freedom to an absolute sovereign in exchange for security. Hobbes is the Enlightenment's defender of strong government.

Central claim: Human nature is selfish and violent. The social contract requires people to surrender freedom to an absolute ruler in exchange for security.

Why Maria needs to know this: Hobbes is the contrast case. He used a similar social contract framework but reached the opposite political conclusion from Locke. Regents questions often pair them.

John Locke (1632-1704)

English philosopher whose ideas became the most direct intellectual foundation of the American Revolution. In Two Treatises of Government (1689), Locke argued that human beings are born with

natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Government exists by the consent of the governed to protect those rights. If government violates those rights, the people have the right to overthrow it.

Central claim: Government's only legitimate purpose is to protect natural rights. When it fails, the people may revolt.

Direct influence: Thomas Jefferson borrowed almost directly from Locke in writing the Declaration of Independence. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is Locke's "life, liberty, and property" with a small substitution.

Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

French political philosopher. In The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Montesquieu studied governments throughout history and argued that liberty was best protected when government power was divided among separate branches that checked each other. He admired the English constitutional system.

Central claim: Separation of powers (executive, legislative, judicial) prevents tyranny.

Direct influence: The structure of the U.S. Constitution, with its three branches and system of checks and balances, comes directly from Montesquieu.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Genevan philosopher. In The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau opened with "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." Rousseau argued that legitimate government must rest on the "general will" of the people. Where Locke focused on individual rights, Rousseau emphasized collective self-government.

Central claim: Sovereignty rests with the people as a collective. Government must reflect the general will.

Direct influence: Rousseau's ideas would inspire the more radical phase of the French Revolution, particularly the Jacobins.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Pen name of François-Marie Arouet. French writer, the most famous Enlightenment figure in his own time. Voltaire was less a systematic philosopher than a brilliant polemicist who championed freedom of speech, religious toleration, and reason against superstition. He was imprisoned in the Bastille for offending the French government and spent years in exile in England, where he absorbed admiration for English constitutional liberty.

Famous quote (often misattributed but capturing his views): "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Central contribution: Vigorous defense of civil liberties, particularly freedom of speech and religious toleration.