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Locke offered a new idea of thought.

Encouraged religious tolerance.

Advocated for education (and not just for the rich!).

During the 1600s, political and moral thought was dominated by the English Church and later Monarchy (not sure why the word comes to mind, but I keep thinking about antidisestablishmentarianism).

An example of this is how the church believed people were born sinful and with preexisting ideas that were curbed by religion. Locke argued that people are born as a “blank slate” that was impressionable.

Locke also believed in religious tolerance, and tolerance for other beliefs in general. This was a new and unheard of idea.

Locke’s view of knowledge placed value on education and experience in shaping the human understanding, rather than suggesting that humans were born innately knowing things like the idea of God and the difference between good and evil, as well as the idea that humans were not inherently evil, but that evil came from faulty systems.

Furthermore, this means that human beings are not born with original sin, as Christians believed. Locke’s work also implied that less focus should be put on deep, unsolvable theological questions, and more should be put on knowledge that increases human happiness, enlightenment, and control.

Locke believed in a social contract: the government should have limited power and work for the good of the people

Valued reason as a way to find truth (rather then steeling for the leader's opinion as accepted truth or being superstitious), determine the function of institutions, and optimize society

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English- born in Wrington to Puritan parents who were middle class (meaning he is where he is based solely on merit).

Westminster school in London (the most important London school)

Studied science and medicine at Oxford (Christ Church - the most important Oxford school)

Medicine involved him in scientific aspect of the Enlightenment

Professor at Oxford

Robert Boyle = scientific mentor

His work with Anthony Ashley Cooper (First Earl of Shaftesbury) led him to become a government official in charge of trade/colonies

Influenced by French philosopher Descartes, Newton, Francis Bacon

Lived with Lord Ashley in London as a friend, personal physician, secretary, researcher, and political operative

Economic writer

Wrote Two Treatises on Government

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- 1724 - 1804
- German philosopher

- born into an artisan family, however their trade was slowly declining so they weren't financially stable

- attended a Pietist school, the Collegium Fridericianum, at 8-15 years old where they studied religious, Lutheran beliefs
- however he disagreed with these beliefs
- went to University of Konigsberg where he studied logic, metaphysics, ethics, and natural law, geography

- was a tutor for children and lecturer
- got a well paying job as a chair in logic and metaphysics at Albertina

- published multiple philosophical books and arguments against God (wrote over 15 essays/books in Latin)
- won multiple prizes and gained recognition and a bigger reputation

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John Locke believed that the secret to a stable society was through something called a social contract. In this social contract, “men” had to give up their unlimited rights to the government. In return, the government was obligated to protect man’s natural rights: life, liberty, and property.

He also believed in something called the “state of nature”. In the state of nature, people had total control over their lives and fortunes, and also the lives and fortunes of others. For instance, in the state of nature, people can steal and kill with no repercussions. "...cannot be an absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes, which are as much as possible to be preserved; but a power to make laws and annex such penalties to them..." (Second Treatise on Government).

The four principles of governing, according to Locke, were created to curb the government’s power. They were 1) The government must follow pre-established laws that are the same for everyone, regardless of their income or social status, 2) Laws must be solely for the good of the people, 3) The government cannot raise the people's taxes unless they allow it, and 4) The government cannot give power to anyone or place it in anything. Basically, they can't opt out once they've been chosen by the people.

If “legislature” or a “supreme executive”, like a president or politician, creates laws based on their own self-serving desires, they must forfeit their power. If this supreme executive appoints corrupt representatives, enforces laws unjustly, or misuses finances, they also must forfeit their power.

Locke believed that human knowledge came from experience. It was formed by two things: sensation and reflections. Sensation is our perception of physical things in the world. Reflection is how the mind interprets  sensations (look above). Locke referred to reflection as “internal senses”.

Locke argued that for a society to be successful, the government needs to educate its people. Only when the people are educated will their ideas and minds be able to grow to the fullest potential. Countries are successful because of their people, and people are successful because of their country. Locke also believed that certain countries did not innately have more capable or intelligent people than other countries. Rather, those governments had better resources to awaken those qualities within their people.

Locke referred to the human mind as a “blank slate” without predetermined knowledge or ideas. Those were added through experience and education.

Locke also believed that religion didn’t justify persecuting people just because of their beliefs or ideas.

Wanted people to use their reason to find out the truth, instead of trusting authority and accepting their word as truth

Quotes:

“... Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust that it shall be employed for their good, and the preservation of their property…”

“Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.”

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Voltaire believed that society should be guided by reason and not by tradition, authority, or superstition. He fought against all forms of fanaticism and censorship, in favor of civil liberties, especially freedom of speech and religion. His strongest belief was in religious toleration. He asked, for example, should he “call a Turk, a Jew, and a Siamese, [his] brother? Yes of course; for are we not all children of the same father, and the creatures of the same God?” His beliefs in equality and freedom led him to fight against the church, traditions, superstitions, fanatics, government censors, and all forms of persecution. He called “a persecutor” one “whose wounded pride and furious fanaticism arouse princes ... against innocent men, whose only crime is that of being of a different opinion.” Even when others disagreed with him, he defended their right to their own opinion in all political, economic, and religious matters.

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Freedom of speech

Freedom of religion

Freedom from persecution for one’s beliefs

Prevention of all censorship by government or religion

Ending religious superstition and fanaticism

Vigorous free speech will lead to the develop of the best ideas

Freedom of thought and religion maximizes people’s individual liberty and choices, and therefore their happiness

A free society will be more prosperous because people will do what they love and are good at

People will be free economically, politically, and socially, leading to prosperity and happiness

His key ideas emphasized liberty and equality, which were Enlightenment key ideas

He fought against old religious superstitions and historical traditions, which held back progress, which was another key Enlightenment idea

He did not, however, develop any specific ideas about how the government should be set up

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Voltaire was the most widely accomplished of the Enlightenment thinkers, producing works in every literary form, including philosophy, plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, scientific articles, more than 20,000 letters, and more than 2,000 books and papers. Born François-Marie d’Arouet in 1694, Voltaire came from a family of aristocratic royal officials that were part of the elite of France and gave him an excellent education. In addition to his writing, Voltaire was a public activist who campaigned against religious intolerance, fanaticism, government censorship, and persecution of all kinds, even when his public beliefs caused him to be threatened with prison or exile. Which he was, to England, where he could communicate because he read John Locke to learn English.

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To have a significant and valuable government/court/society, it is needed to get rid of people that abuse its power for themselves and to make laws that hold the belief of general will. This will then make it so the people have a say in the laws and others things that are happening in their empire so that in time the people will not rebel against a government or ruler because they are happy with having their own individual thoughts and power in their community. He also wanted people to have freedom and rights, and now, people are born with equal amounts of rights, including to vote. He also stated that people are born morally good, but society turns some of their thoughts and ideas corrupt.

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In the modern world, human beings come to derive their very sense of self from the opinion of others, a fact which Rousseau sees as corrosive of freedom and destructive of individual authenticity

Protecting freedom:

constructing political institutions that allow for the co-existence of free and equal citizens in a community where they themselves are sovereign;

A project for child development and education that fosters autonomy and avoids the development of the most destructive forms of self-interest.

he is consistently and overwhelmingly pessimistic that humanity will escape from a dystopia of alienation, oppression, and unfreedom

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human beings are good by nature but are rendered corrupt by society

a state can be legitimate only if it is guided by the “general will” of its members

Fundamental problem: the reconciliation (negotiation) of the freedom of the individual with the authority of the state

General will

the general will is simply what the citizens of the state have decided together in their sovereign assembly, and an alternative interpretation where the general will is the transcendent incarnation of the citizens’ common interest that exists in abstraction from what any of them actually wants

citizen legislators will be led to converge on laws that correspond to their common interest

in order for the general will to be truly general it must come from all and apply to all

The law cannot name particular individuals and it must apply to everyone within the state

Rousseau believes that this condition will lead citizens, to favor laws that both secure the common interest impartially and that are not burdensome and intrusive

“The general will is always right and tends to the public advantage”

“If the general will is to be able to express itself, that there should be no partial society (fractions) within the state”

“But if there are partial societies, it is best to have as many as possible and to prevent them from being unequal”

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- Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712

- His mom died just 9 days after his birth, and soon, his father was exiled
--> Rousseau lived with a Pastor
- He left the city at the age of 16 and trained to become a Catholic priest
--> Eventually converted to Catholicism
- He spent 14 months in Staffordshire, and moved back to France in 1767
- In Paris he continued to work mainly on music and began to write contributions to the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert.

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- All humans no matter their race come from the same creator and when it comes down to it, they are the same ("All human beings anywhere on earth belong to the name natural genus, because they always produce fertile children with one another even if we find great dissimilarities in their form")

- "Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity"
- "All that is required for this enlightenment is freedom"

- One should use their intelligence without the guidance of another
- "Have the courage to use your own intelligence!"

- There are 4 races: (* disclaimer)
1. "The white race"
2. "The Negro race"
3. "The Hun race (Mongol or Kalmuck)"
4. "The Hindu or Hindustani race"
- Believed that Europeans (white people) were superior over all other races

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- was a scientific theorist
-  interested in life sciences
- knowledge should be written down so it could be passed down
the purpose of the gov. is for the good of the people
-learn from past mistakes
-freedom is the most important thing a person can have
- all are free and all are equal

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- French philosopher, art critic, and writer
- Principle editor of the encyclopedia
- He went to the University of Paris
- He had many religions which were Roman Catholicism, Deism, and Atheism
- Born 1713 in Langres, France
- Died in 1784 in Paris, France
- Only married once to Anne-Antoinette Champion
-they had one child Angelique Diderot

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-showed that the government should be working for the good of the people and not ruled by a monarch that cared only for himself
- argued for freedom of the press a new concept that would spread liberty and truth

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-  advocate of social/educational equality
- Women appear to be inferior, not because they are but because they lack education
"truth must be common to all, or it will be ineffective".
- social order founded on reason
- god made all things right, cause of all evil by man (Christianity)
- "Vindication of the Rights of Woman" works of feminism
- Education system for women = corrupt, biased view of women, gender roles imposed on them
"I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body"
- education of women is affected by political change, enlightenment would benefit society
- radical reform of education systems
- liberty of conscience as a sacred right

- people must be ruled and governed w/ reason to follow duty
- disregards politeness as its a facade of hypocrisy and hidden by egotism, and festered unchecked greed
-Universal benevolence

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- My ideas challenged those
- Most people for answers and My ideas challenged those answers

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- Emphasized role of affections in creating new social relations
- A thinker of the "radical enlightenment, believed nothing could be accomplished through gradual reform, progress must be made quickly
- All people could pursue virtue, a divine gift
- Alludes to reformation of education systems, everyone deserves education so that they could progress as a more advanced society, more enlightened people
- Being enlightened leads to less disputing, helps them advance
- Women should strive for more than to "inspire love"
- Liberty of conscience is a sacred right

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- Born in Spitalfields, London in 1759, second of seven children
- Only her brother received a formal education, went on to become a lawyer
- Grandfather left significant legacy, but her father was irresponsible with money and their social status gradually declined
-Her rather haphazard education was very common for women in her position, still taught her a considerable amount, as seen in her writing
- Educated herself through literature, social thought, and philosophy
- Her work received minimal support from her peers

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-Advocated for equality

-Introduced the idea of race, individualism, natural rights,