Enlightenment Philosophers and Ideals

Enlightenment Philosophes and Their Ideals

• The Scientific Revolution influenced political thinkers to examine human behavior using natural laws.
• This examination led to the concepts of "natural law" and "natural rights," which became the foundation for modern political change towards democracy and equality.
• Natural law enabled humans to use reasoning to discover fairness, justice, and what is "natural" in political and social realms.
• Customs, traditions, or edicts of kings cannot override natural rights.
• Classical liberalism emerged during the time of absolute monarchs, asserting government is necessary to protect natural rights.
• The American and French Revolutions prompted political theorists to advance classical liberalism.
• Classical liberals rejected the privileges of favored classes and the injustice and inequality in society.
• Political theory should manage change in the best interests of society.
• Liberals advocated for Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality to raise standards of morality and increase prosperity.
• They favored republican governments with elected representatives and a social contract guaranteeing freedom and equality.
• The main philosophers, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, differed in their views on how government should be organized.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Hobbes examined natural law and the justification of absolutism.
• His political philosophy was influenced by his experiences during the Scientific Revolution and the English Civil War.
• In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes asserted humans are born into a "state of nature," which is a constant state of war.
• Humans engage in violent struggle to survive, competing for gain, glory, and security.
• The natural state of man is selfish and evil, resulting in constant warfare without government.
• If humans are equal, they have the ability to destroy one another.
• The solution is for individuals to agree to a social contract with a sovereign, forming a commonwealth through relinquishing their freedom.
• A Leviathan (all-powerful ruler) would impose authority from the top down, ensuring security and order through fear.
• Hobbes supported dictatorship to protect people from each other.
• Life without government is "nasty, brutish, and short."
• The people have the authority to rebel and overthrow the ruler if the ruler loses power.

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Locke's Second Treatise on Government (1689) defends limited government based on natural law to justify the Glorious Revolution.
• The natural state of man is reasonable and rational.
• People are born free and equal with natural rights of life, liberty, equality, and property.
• These inalienable rights existed before the development of human society.
• Although humans are rational, they conflict over property in the state of nature, causing insecurity and limiting liberties.
• To prevent such a situation, individuals enter into a social contract to secure property and natural rights.
• Government power is limited to arbitrating disputes and providing order.
• Government rules with the consent of the governed (popular sovereignty) and the will of the majority.
• People are free when they are governed the least, exchanging some freedom for more security through government.
• Locke's ideas influenced the English government, stopping short of advocating for mass democracy.
• Society can rebel against governments that abuse their power by not protecting life, liberty, and property.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Rousseau believed the natural state of man was neither good nor bad, rational nor irrational.
• People originally lived outside of civilization as noble savages.
• Society corrupted people, as Rousseau stated, "man is born free but everywhere is in chains."
• Rousseau's Discourses on the Arts and Sciences and Discourses on the Origin of Inequality Among Men portrayed civilization as corrupting humans.
• Society is corrupt, artificial, and unlikely to progress.
• In The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau argued that members of a society were collectively sovereign.
• In an ideal society, all individuals would participate in policy formulation and law creation without royalty, aristocracy, or other elites.
• The general will, or the common good, is followed to protect individuals and their freedom, despite it not necessarily reflecting the majority decision.
• By submitting to the general will, people will be free.
• The social contract is a constitution between the government and the people.
• The social contract was made by the people themselves with each other.
• Each individual surrendered his or her own liberty to combined General Will, regardless of what the government may want.

Philosophes

• Most philosophes were writers, social critics, and publicists who pursued an intellectual study using reason and natural laws.
• They advocated progress through gradual acceptance of the Enlightenment message of reform rather than revolution.
• Most believed the state was the agency of progress, though they disputed the form it would take.
• Montesquieu favored constitutional monarchy.
• Voltaire advocated for enlightened absolutism.
• Rousseau was a proponent of direct democracy.

Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

• Montesquieu was a French Protestant and a member of the Bordeaux parlement.
• His most important work was The Spirit of Laws (1748), based on his understanding of history and contemporary nations.
• He concluded that geography, climate, and history influenced the forms of government and laws of each nation.
• Large nations tended toward despotism (Russia), medium nations toward monarchy (France), and smaller nations toward republics (Switzerland).
• Montesquieu favored a government like Britain's, incorporating a separation of powers with checks and balances to prevent absolutism.
• Government functions should be divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches to limit each other's power, preventing political abuse.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

• François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, advocated Enlightenment ideals through sarcasm, witty style, and intellectual freedom.
• His writing criticized religious fanaticism and hypocrisy.
• He argued for freedom of thought and against censorship, emphasizing religious tolerance and freedom of speech and the press.
• Voltaire claimed that revealed religion made people stupid and cruel, best expressed through the cry to “Crush the infamous thing!"
• Voltaire voiced his admiration for Britain's balanced government and relative religious tolerance in Philosophical Letters on the English.
• Despite his Enlightenment ideals, Voltaire distrusted the masses and favored enlightened top-down reforms implemented by monarchy.
• He was an elitist, not a democrat.

Explore the profound influence of the Scientific Revolution on political thought and the emergence of classical liberalism. Understand how thinkers used natural laws to examine human behavior, leading to the concepts of natural law and natural rights. Learn about the core advocacy of liberals for Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality.