Warm up 5/10

• What did people look to for answers during

the Scientific Revolution?
The Enlightenment

Important people of the

Enlightenment
 Origins of Enlightenment
• Has its origins in the Scientific Revolution

• Reason proved it could work in science

• People wanted to apply it to society and humans

natural laws.

• Natural Laws- laws that govern human nature

 Social Contract
• social contract- an agreement by which
people gave up the state of nature for an
organized society

• Two views on the social contract

1. Thomas Hobbes
2. John Locke
 Thomas Hobbes
• Hobbes believed all people were naturally
“nasty, brutish, and short”

• Wrote the book Leviathan

• Only a powerful government like an absolute

monarchy could impose order
 John Locke
• People were naturally reasonable and moral

• All people have natural rights that a government

needs to protect

• natural rights- rights all people have from birth

• If a government does not protect their rights they

can revolt and form a new government
 Montesquieu
• Wrote the Spirit of the Laws in 1749

• Studied governments of Europe

• Hated absolutism and loved limited monarchies

• Separation of powers protected peoples’ rights

 Rousseau
• People were naturally innocent, but society
corrupted people

• Believed in the “will of the majority”

• Individual needs need to be subordinate to the

community
 Economy
• Reason was also applied to economics

• Rejected mercantilism

• Favored laissez faire economics

• Laissez faire- business operates with little or no

government interference
 Adam Smith
• Wrote The Wealth of Nations and in it he argued
for a free market

• Free Market- natural forces of supply and

demand should operate and regulate business

• His views on economics influenced governments

and their economies throughout the Industrial
Revolution