Political Thinkers of the Enlightenment

Annotations:

• The Enlightenment was a time in Europe when people started to question their governement and everything they knew about their world.
• Previously, people used to:     - Base their beleifs off of previous assumptions made in the past      - Be afraid of speaking out against the church or government because they feared persecution
• These political thinkers were some of the people who sparked the idea of the Enlightenment, which greatly affected the entire world. The Enlightenment started the French and American Revolution because people started to question government and speak out so they had a voice.

1. We need a government that listen's to the people because our ideas matter. We have our natural rights after all: life, liberty, and property.

   Annotations:

   • This is in the Declaration of Independence.  Natural Rights = life, liberty, and property because we are born with these rights 
2. Thomas Hobbes
3. John Locke
4. People are so selfish and violent. Without a protecting King to rule us, we will get out of hand!
5. Voltaire
   1. I demand that we, as the people, should have the freedom of thought, speech, and religion! The King should not be able to take this away from us.

      Annotations:

      • This inspired the 1st Amendment in the US Constitution. 
6. Baron de Montesquieu
   1. Why don't we have a government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. This seperation of powers would make it so that no branch would have more power over other branches.

      Annotations:

      • This idea of government is used in many modern governments such as the U.S.'s government.
7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
   1. Power corrupts people and people should give up their power to be ruled by the "general will of authority."

      Annotations:

      • He had the idea of having a social contract. Social Contract = when people of a community make an agreement to give up a state of nature for an organized society
8. Mary Wollstonecraft
   1. Woman should be more respected! We should have the same rights as men. We may seem inferior, but it is only because we are not given education like men.