2. Ideas Before the Turmoil
• The later part of the 18th century, new ideas were generating
throughout Europe.
• People were desperate for change-many calling for reforms
• Radicals called for limits on the king’s powers.
• Ideas were not new
• English Revolution
• American Revolution
3. Thinkers of the Enlightenment
• Philosophes- were the intellectuals of the
18th century Enlightenment.
• They were men who applied reason to the
studies of politics, economics, science, and
social issues.
• They looked for weakness
and failures that needed
improvement.
4. Thomas Locke
• An English philosopher and physician
• He believed that everyone had the
natural right to to defend his life,
health, liberty and possessions.
• Known for his anti-authoritarian
theory of state and advocacy of
religious tolerance and theory of
personal identity.
• He was famous for arguing that the
divine right of kings is supported
neither by scripture nor by the use of
reason
5. Voltaire
• Name: Francois-Marie Arouet
(French)
• Had issues with the Catholic
Church and spoke out for
religious freedom.
• He argued that the Catholic
Church kept its members in the
“dark” and robbed them of what
money they possessed.
• He especially felt this way about
the peasants (Third Estate)
6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Voiced that the king (King
Louis XVI) was not doing his
job.
• Rousseau advocated that a
ruler should rule according
to the wishes of the
citizens.
• His political philosophy
influenced the French
Revolution as well as the
overall development of
modern political,
sociological, and
educational thought.
7. Baron de La Brède et de
Montesquieu
• Felt that there should be a balance of
power.
• The government should be divided
into three separate, but equal parts.
• He believed the governmental powers
should be separate yet dependent
upon each other so that the influence
of any one power would not exceed
that of the other two.
• The ruler should rule along side the
citizens
• They should share power, not one
group calling all the shots.
8. Thomas Hobbes
• English philosopher best
known for his work on political
thought.
• He advocated for the
absolutism of the sovereign.
• Hobbes portrays the
commonwealth as a gigantic
human form built out of the
bodies of its citizens, the
sovereign as its head.
• Hobbes calls this figure the
"Leviathan”.
• The image constitutes the
definitive metaphor for
Hobbes's perfect government.
