2. REASON AND POLITICS
• During the 1700’s Europe’s thinkers were
impressed by advances in science that
incorporated reason to solve problems.
• They believed that this new thought could
change politics and society.
• They saw reason as a “light” that showed a
new path. This is why we call the 1700’s the
“Age of Enlightenment”
3. THOMAS HOBBES
• 1651: wrote The Leviathan where he argued that
an absolute monarchy was the best form of
government
• Hobbes believed humans were naturally violent
and selfish, and therefore could not be trusted
to make good decisions.
• He felt that only a ruler with complete power
could give the people direction and order, and
required people to be loyal to their ruler.
• His theory is called absolutism, since it supports
a ruler with absolute, or total, power.
4. JOHN LOCKE
• Locke believed in Natural Rights: The right to
life, liberty (freedom), and property.
• He believed that it was the job of government
to protect the natural rights of the people.
• He said that government should be based on a
social contract between the people and their
ruler. The government had to answer to the
people.
• If the government took away these natural
rights, the people had a right (and duty) to
rebel against that government and set up a
new one.
5. BARON MONTESQUIEU
• 1748: wrote The Spirit of the Laws where he
argued that England’s government was the best
due to a Separation of Powers which did not
allow any branch to become too powerful.
• Separation of Powers: power should be equally
divided between different branches of
government: Legislative (make the law),
Executive (enforce the law), and Judicial
(interpret the law)
• Separation of powers is seen in our own
Constitution and many other governments in
6. DISCUSSION
Discuss with the people next to you and then
answer on the interaction page of your
interactive notebook:
If you were to set up your own government,
what parts of these thinkers’ ideas would you use
and why? (you will not be the head of the
government, you will just be a person who is a
part of the country)
