Essay about Enlightenment outline notes

Submitted By ArcaneElementz
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THE ENLIGHTNMENT Path to the Enlightenment
John Locke
Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke argued that everyone was born with a blank mind
Isaac Newton
Isaac believed that entire world and all that was in it was part of a “world machine “and operated to natural laws that can be uncovered by systematic investigation.
Enlightenment thinkers reasoned that if Newton was able to discover the natural laws of the physical world, there would also be laws to human society, a Utopia.
Ideas and Philosophes
Philosophers come from the French word philosophe, and they were writers, professors, journalists, economists, and social reformers. They came from the nobility and Middle class.
The Role of Philosophy
To the philosophers philosophy’s role was to change the world
A spirit of rational criticism was to be applied to everything including religion and politics
As philosophers disagreed each generation became more radical as it built over the old one, however Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot dominated the land.
Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat, the baron de Montesquieu was a French noble.
His famous work The Spirit of Laws(1748) was a study of governments
Discovered three basic governments, Republics (Small), Despotism (Large), and Monarchies (Medium), each corresponded with the size of the states.
Stated that England had a 3 branch government with split powers and checks and balances to make sure there is freedom in the security of the state.
The ideas of Montesquieu were used in the US Constitution
Voltaire
Greatest figure of Enlightenment, François-Marie Arouet a Parisian from a prosperous middle class family.
Known for the criticism of Christianity and his strong thought in religious toleration
In 1763 he wrote Treatise on Toleration in which he reminds governments that we are all brothers under God.
Deism, an eighteenth century religion on philosophy and natural law.
It built on Newton’s “World Machine” stating that God had set the world in motion, and let it run without interference on natural law.
Diderot
Denis Diderot went to the University of Paris, who became a writer and knew many languages.
Diderot added the Encyclopedia or Classified