The Enlightenment in Action

The Enlightenment in Action

Chapter 6 of Enlightenment, French Revolution, and Romanticism

Multiple Choice

Descartes encouraged people to doubt everything except

• The word of the Church

• A monarch's right to rule

• Their own existence

• The law

Multiple Choice

Which type of government did Thomas Hobbes support?

• An absolute monarchy

• a monarch whose power is limited by a parliament

• Democracy with government officials elected by the people

• no government

Multiple Choice

According to Locke, which of the following is true?

• People are born naturally greedy and selfish

• People are born with no rights whatsoever

• Some people are born good while others are born evil

• People develop their ideas through life experiences

Learning Objectives

1. Explain how ideas of the Enlightenment helped inspire American leaders to declare independence.

2. Recognize specific Enlightenment ideas reflected in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

3. Explain how the American patriots Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison each embodied the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Chapter 6 Vocabulary

• Tolerate: To accept different beliefs or practices

• Institute: To establish or start something new

• Derive: To get something from a source

• Diplomat: a person who represents a government in its relationships with other governments

• Delegate: A representative

American Revolution

• 1776 - American colonists decided they could no longer tolerate Great Britain's rule

• Tired of paying taxes while having no voice in the Government

• Had previously demonstrated and protested with no results

• Colonists then declared their freedom from Great Britain with Declaration of Independence

Multiple Choice

Which of John Locke's ideas influenced the American patriots' decision to fight a war for independence from Great Britain?

• People are the way they are because of their experiences in life

• One's mind at birth is like a blank sheet of paper

• People should rebel agains a government that does not protect their rights

• People learn about their world through their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch

"I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

• Chosen to write the formal demands for freedom

• Believed that Bacon, Locke, and Newton were "the three greatest men that have ever lived."

• Began the Declaration of Independence by stating that all men are entitled to certain natural rights

Thomas Jefferson

• Locke's natural rights: life, liberty, property

• Natural rights in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

• In America, even those with limited means (little property) have a right to seek happiness

"...to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and institute new Government..."

-Declaration of Independence, 1776

Multiple Choice

According to the Declaration of Independence, where does the government get its power?

• From its Constitution

• From its military

• From the elected representatives

• From the Consent of the Governed

Multiple Choice

According to the Declaration of Independence, where does the government get its power?

• From its Constitution

• From its military

• From the elected representatives

• From the Consent of the Governed

Benjamin Franklin

• Spent much of his life seeking knowledge

• Known as the American philosophe

• Spent time in Edinburgh with Scottish Enlightenment thinkers

• In Philadelphia, would write back and forth with European Enlightenment thinkers and philosophes

Benjamin Franklin

• Helped Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence

• Experimented with electricity

• Invented the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, and others

• Helped found the American Philosophical Society as a place for discussion

Benjamin Franklin

• Served as a politician

• Worked as a diplomat in France

• Sought French support for America's revolution against the British

Multiple Choice

Who was known as an American philosophe?

• James Madison

• Thomas Jefferson

• George Washington

• Benjamin Franklin

James Madison

• One of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention

• Known as the "Father of the Constitution"

• Studied other governments and Enlightenment thinkers

• Big fan of John Locke and Montesquieu

James Madison

• Agreed with Locke about the role of the government and that a government's power comes from the people

• The U.S. Constitution is considered one of the American Enlightenment's most significant products

• Constitution used Montesquieu's separation of powers to create the federal government

• 3 branches of government (Legislative, Executive, Judicial)

• System of checks and balances so no branch gets too powerful

Multiple Choice

Which of Montesquieu's ideas greatly influenced the organization of the U.S. government, as outlined in the U.S. Constitution?

• A government needs strict laws to keep people in order

• The use of reason helps people understand the world

• A separation of powers will keep any one branch of government from becoming too strong

• People must question everything except their own existence.

The U.S. Constitution

• Been in operation since 1789

• Outlines a government that gave more power to its people than any other government in the world at the time

• U.S. Constitution put the Enlightenment ideas of a government created by the people for the purpose of serving the people into action

• American and European Enlightenment ideas would spread to France where the French Revolution was about to begin

Open Ended

In what ways did Europe's Enlightenment thinkers inspire America's Founding Fathers to create a government by the people, for the people?