Which document best reflects the ideas of the enlightenment

Rousseau traveled in France and Italy, educating himself. In , he won an essay contest. His fresh view that man was naturally good and was corrupted by society made him a celebrity in the French salons where artists, scientists, and writers gathered to discuss the latest ideas.

A few years later he published another essay in which he described savages in a state of nature as free, equal, peaceful, and happy. When people began to claim ownership of property, Rousseau argued, inequality, murder, and war resulted. According to Rousseau, the powerful rich stole the land belonging to everyone and fooled the common people into accepting them as rulers.

Rousseau concluded that the social contract was not a willing agreement, as Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu had believed, but a fraud against the people committed by the rich. In , Rousseau published his most important work on political theory, The Social Contract. Rousseau argued that the general will of the people could not be decided by elected representatives. He believed in a direct democracy in which everyone voted to express the general will and to make the laws of the land.

Rousseau had in mind a democracy on a small scale, a city-state like his native Geneva. All political power, according to Rousseau, must reside with the people, exercising their general will. There can be no separation of powers, as Montesquieu proposed. The people, meeting together, will deliberate individually on laws and then by majority vote find the general will. Rousseau was rather vague on the mechanics of how his democracy would work.

There would be a government of sorts, entrusted with administering the general will. Rousseau believed that religion divided and weakened the state. Rousseau realized that democracy as he envisioned it would be hard to maintain. Of the four philosophers discussed in this article, which two do you think differed the most? Which of the democratic forms government proposed by Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau do you think is the best?

How do you think his words relate to American democracy today? Divide the class into four groups, each taking on the role of Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, or Rousseau. The members of each of the role group will need to research why their philosopher would agree or disagree with the debate topics listed below. The groups should then debate the topic from the point of view of the philosopher they are role playing. Follow the same procedure for the rest of the topics. After all the debates are finished, class members should discuss which one of the four philosophers they agree with the most and why.

The best form of government is a representative democracy. Only the president should have the power to declare war. A good way to make laws is for all the people to directly vote on them. Religion should be a part of the government. Wikipedia: Thomas Hobbes. Wikipedia: Leviathan. Term Which of the following was the first to place definite limits on the power of the English monarch? Definition Magna Carta. Definition English Bill of Rights.

Term The following principles describe what? Definition English common law. Definition It is best divided into three separate branches. Term How are the U. Definition protected the natural rights of the people. Term According to Plato, who should run governments?

Definition philosopher-kings. Term What Renaissance belief helped prepare the modern world for democracy? Definition Individuals should help society by developing their potential and creativity. Term What characterizes the Industrial Revolution? Definition Fewer goods were made by hand as production shifted to machines.

Term Which factors led to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in England? Definition New machinery; rushing streams and rivers; availability of coal and iron ore.

Term Which document outlines a plan for government that has served as a model for new governments around the world? Definition U. How did the opinions of Jefferson and Hamilton regarding the public debt differ? What branch of government gave Jefferson trouble? What is the Amendment Process? Where did the Second Continental Congress first meet in? What famous event proved that the Articles of Confederation were weak and prompted the See all questions in The Constitution and Founding Fathers.

Impact of this question views around the world. Enlightenment writers include Hobbes, Locke, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Rousseau — the French writers were sometimes called the philosophes. The leading representatives were religious skeptics, political reformers, cultural critics, historians and social theorists Zeitlin, p. The writings of the Enlightenment profoundly affected politics and the development of sociology.

The French Revolution and the American Revolution had many causes but many Enlightenment ideas and ways of thinking had a great effect on these political and social changes. The slogans of "liberty, equality, fraternity" and "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" state the political ideals of these revolutions and reflect the ideas of Enlightenment thought.

Thomas Hobbes , English "contribution was the suggestion that the social order was made by human beings and therefore could be changed by human beings" Adams and Sydie, p.

Hobbes looked on the individual as selfish, concerned with self-preservation, searching for power, and potentially at least at war with others. For Hobbes, in the state of nature, there was a war of all against all and life is nasty, brutish, and short. Since individuals are rational, they agree to surrender their individual rights to the sovereign in order to create a state whereby they can be protected from other individuals.

Locke and Rousseau further developed this idea of a social contract, although in a somewhat different form than Hobbes. Contributions of Hobbes include the recognition of the existence of the individual and individual rights along with the concepts of rationality, self-interest, competitiveness, and calculation as individual attributes. Adams and Sydie also point out p.

John Locke , English had a more optimistic view of human nature than did Hobbes, looking on humans as good, rational, social, cooperative and tolerant, at least in a state of nature. He believed in a certain original equality of all individuals, male and female, in the state of nature, where everyone had a right to autonomy and freedom.

Locke believed that if each individual rationally pursues happiness and pleasure, this promotes cooperation so that in the long run individual and the general welfare coincide. In terms of the mind and knowledge, Locke looked on the individual mind as beginning blank and empty, but gaining ideas through experience. Knowledge could be increased by further experience, and the mind collects these impressions. Locke looked on women as having "natural differences" from men, one that justified domination of women by men.

While property rights were an extremely important individual right for Locke, because of what he regarded as the natural differences between men and women, he did not believe property rights should be extended to women — thus denying women equality. One of the major influences on western thought, and an important Enlightenment writer was Jean Jacques Rousseau , French.