The age of enlightenment

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

4.2 The age of enlightenment

Do you know what an encyclopedia is?

At the end of the lesson, you can...

• explain in your own words what the enlightenment was
• place the enlightenment in time and place
• name five enlightened thinkers and summarize their ideas

What is the white thing in the symbol for this age

1. An axe
2. The gallows
3. The guillotine
4. don't know

What dates belong to this Age?

1. the 18th century
2. the 1800s
3. 1800 - 1900 AD
4. the 17th century

the Time of Wigs and Revolutions

1701 - 1800

Typical Aspects:

-the Enlightenment

-the American Revolution

-slavery and abolitionism

-the French Revolution

the 18th century

The age of Reason

1. In general the time between 1700 and 1800 can be seen as the time in which citizens take power from kings
2. Lots of our modern ideas about rights/education/freedom are formed here

So why does all this happen in this age

Several reasons, main ones:

• Absolutism --> kings got more powerful, this pissed people off
• Absolutism 2 --> kings had made normal citizens more powerful instead of nobles, new group in society, rich educated citizens
• Enlightenment --> new ideas about how the world should work.

The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment = De Verlichting
  
• It was a new way of thinking that spread across Europe in the 18th century
  
• It is also called "The Age of Reason"
  
• It evolved from the Scientific Revolution (17th century)
  
• Bright thinkers believed that with the use of reason, they could solve all problems and rid the world of "dark ideas".
  
• if they were succesful the world would be "enlightened".
  

Enlightened thinkers (philosophers) used reason to hopefully improve:

• politics ( the divine right of kings? Does that make any sense?)
• religion ( does God exist? Can this be proven by science?)
• economy (what economic system can make everybody wealthy, not just a small group?)
• social issues ( poverty, inequality, criminality. Can we solve these problems by using reason and science?)

Lots of different thinkers, lots of different ideas

Reason

• In general the enlightenment stresses the importance of reasons
• Everyone has a brain, everyone can think logically
• The problem is that some people don't train and use it
• The church and absolute rulers also make people lazy thinkers: "we will tell you what to think"
• Most enligtened thinkers say that this has to stop.

Get to work

Form groups of 5 

Each group will be assigned one enlightened thinker

Research with your group and write a short summary on the following themes:

When  | Their ideas | Successful? | Legacy 

Present in two minutes and share on Teams

Voltaire

• wrote more than two thousand books and pamphlets on all sorts of topics
• was very critical towards the catholic church and the French king.
• because of this he was put in prison and later exiled from France
• his ideas were important in the French Revolution

website

John Locke:

All people have natural rights that nobody can take away, not even a king.

Montesquieu

• He is famous for his theory of the Separation of Powers (Trias Politica):
• The power of the state should never be in the hands of one person.
• therefore power should be split up into three seperate parts, being:
• the legislative (making laws), executive (carrying out the laws) and judicial (providing independent judgement) branch.
• his ideas are still used in most constitutions all over the world.

website

Adam Smith

• Scottish economist. Wrote the book "Wealth of Nations"
• Believed that the economy works best if there is Free Trade.
• A government should not interfere in the economy.
• He was against mercantilism.

website

Mary Wollstonecraft

• 
  
• English writer
• Educational and social equality for women
• wrote 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women'

Next lesson...

We'll be discussing trade, colonies and slavery

Read 3.2, 4.1 and 4.5

Make a word web for these keywords

(I will check if you've done this)