Enlightenment people

Catherine the Great

-Catherine II ruled Russia from 1762-1796 and was the most admired ruler by the philosophes -ruled with absolute authority but also sought to reform Russia -formed a commission to review Russia's laws, which she presented with a brilliant proposal for reforms based on the ideas of Montesquieu and Beccaria -recommended allowing religious toleration and abolishing torture and capital punishment -her commission accomplished none of these lofty goals -put in place limited reforms, but did little to improve the life of the Russian peasants -a massive uprising of serfs changed her views about enlightened ideas, and she had her army crush the rebellion -she had previously favored an end to serfdom but the revolt convinced her that she needed the nobles' support to her throne so she gave the nobles absolute power over the serfs. As a result, Russian serfs lost their last traces of freedom -in two wars with the Ottoman Turks, her armies finally won control of the northern shore of the Black Sea -Russia also gained the right to send ships through Ottoman controlled straits leading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea -expanded her empire westward into Poland

Jonathan Swift

-Irish author, clergyman and satirist -wrote "A Modest Proposal" -said that the Irish should eat the children in poverty to actually make them useful and the aristocracy and rich people already devoured their parents -said Ireland needs to decrease its population by having less children so there is enough food -made the aristocracy realize they were the ones who were at fault for the poverty through his satire -advocated awareness of the poor -"Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want"

Beccaria

-Italian philosophe who turned his thought to the justice system -believed that laws existed to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes -regularly criticized common abuses of justice, like torturing of witnesses and suspects, irregular proceedings in trials, and punishments that were arbitrary or cruel -argued that a person accused of a crime should receive a speedy trial, and that torture should never be used -he said the degree of punishment should be based on the seriousness of the crime -believed that capital punishment should be abolished -based his ideas about justice on the principle that governments should seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people -his ideas influenced criminal law reformers in Europe and North America -disliked the death penalty -"The punishment of death is the war of a nation against a citizen whose destruction it judges to be necessary or useful"

Voltaire

-Most brilliant and influential philosophe -Francois Marie Arouet used the pen name Voltaire to publish over 70 books of political essays, philosophy, and drama -Used satire against his opponents and made frequent targets of the clergy, aristocracy, and government -Sent to prison twice and was exiled to England for over two years after his second jail term -Never stopped fighting for tolerance, reason, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of speech, even though he made powerful enemies -Fought against humanity's worst enemies: intolerance, prejudice, and superstition -Said "I do not agree with a word you say but will defend to the death your right to say it"

John Locke

-believed that people could learn from experience and improve themselves -believed that because humans are reasonable beings; they had the natural ability to govern their own affairs and to look after the welfare of society -criticized absolute monarchy and favored the idea of self-government -all people are born free and equal, with three natural rights: life, liberty, and property -believed the purpose of government was to protect these rights and if a government didn't, the people could overthrow it -his ideas are the foundation of modern democracy and ideas in Europe and the Americas -"The mind is a blank slate" -believed that people should give up some rights so the government can protect the natural rights, but if the government didn't, they could revolt -believed in education

Denis Diderot

-created a large set of books to which many leading scholars of Europe contributed articles and essays that he called "Encyclopedia," and he began publishing the first volumes in 1751 -Enlightenment views expressed in the articles angered the French government and Catholic Church so their censors banned the work and said that it undermined royal authority, encouraged a spirit of revolt, and fostered "moral corruption, irreligion, and unbelief" -Diderot continued publishing his Encyclopedia despite this

Thomas Hobbes

-expressed his views in a work called "Leviathan," written in 1651 -horrors of English Civil War convinced him that all humans were naturally selfish and wicked -said without governments to keep order, there would be "war... of every man against every man," and life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" -his social contract was an agreement between a society and its government and said that people needed to give up some of their rights and have an absolute ruler -Hobbes argued that to escape a bleak life, people had to hand over their rights to a strong ruler and in exchange they gained law and order -believed in an absolute monarchy because he thought it would impose order and demand obedience and compared the monarch's power to a leviathan, or a sea monster -"Individual desires lead us to 'the war of each against all'"

Philosophes

-one of the groups of social thinkers in France during the Enlightenment -beliefs based on: reason, nature, happiness, progress, liberty

Rousseau

-passionately committed to individual freedom and won recognition as a writer of essays -strange, brilliant, and controversial figure who strongly disagreed with other Enlightenment thinkers on many matters -argued that civilization corrupted people's natural goodness and he disagreed with the idea of most philosophes that science, reason, and art would improve life for all people -said "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" -believed the only good government was one that was freely formed by people and guided by the "general will" of society- a direct democracy, where people agree to give up some of their freedom in favor of the common good -he explained his political philosophy in a book called "The Social Contract" -his view of the social contract was different from Hobbes because for it was an agreement among free individuals (to create a society and a government) -argued that legitimate government came from the consent of the governed, but he also believed in a much broader democracy than Locke had promoted -argued that all people were equal and that titles of nobility should be abolished -inspired many of the leaders of the French Revolution who overthrew the monarchy in 1789 -believed in man's freedoms; man is born free -emphasized popular sovereignty so citizens had an extent of power

Mary Wollstonecraft

-published an essay in 1792 called "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," where she disagreed with Rousseau that women's education should be secondary to men's, and she argued that women, like men, need education to become virtuous and useful -she urged women to enter the male-dominated fields of medicine and politics -argued for women's right for education, involvement in politics, job opportunity, and freedom in personal life, such as marriage decisions -believed that without education, the female race would slow the progress of knowledge -thought men and women should be allowed to choose their spouses through love and affection -said that justice was not administered to one-half of the human race -questioned where men get their power from and said they do not have reasons for why they are more dominant -said that both men and women should take care of families -men should not be forceful towards women, and once this force is abolished, women will be able to rise up and act to their fullest capability -"The Rights may be respected, if it be fully proved that reason calls for this respect, and loudly demands justice for one-half of the human race"

Montesquieu

devoted himself to the study of political liberty and believed that Britain was the best-governed and most politically balanced country of his own day -Montesquieu called Britain during this time period a division of power among different branches separation of powers -believed in a legislative, executive, and judicial branch -even though he oversimplified the British system, his idea became a part of his most famous book, On the Spirit of Laws, from 1748, that proposed that separation of powers would keep any individual or group from gaining total control of the government -said that no one person should be in charge of more than one branch in order to avoid absolutism -said "Power should be a check of power", and this idea would later become checks and balances -his ideas about separation of powers and checks and balances became the basis for the US Constitution -protect liberty