1. Enlightenment: discovery of the physical world affected philosophies. It was related to the Scientific Revolution because the enlightenment began to apply scientific principles to the government and society. All the philosophers emphasized the need / use of reason. They believed people should use reason to free themselves from ignorance and superstitions, thereby becoming enlightened. 2.
The was also known as the imaginative period, philosophers believed in feeling, thought, and behavior, social and democratic behavior, individualism, sense of isolationism, everything is from nature, questioning of authority, introduction to a democratic society, “existence is feeling” quoted by Rousseau. The romantic period was a radical change of how people viewed themselves and nature, opened an emotional and sentimental side of humanity. The Romantic Movement was both a positive and negative reaction to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. It was a reactionary period going against what happened during the enlightenment. It was not a political reformist movement.
The romantic period was a new form of art and political thought. Philosophers believed in the power of man to create, conquer, transcend, and discover himself. 3. Rousseau was a democrat who spoke for the common people, prophet of modern democracy and nationalism. He thought that humans should return to nature and trust there untaught feelings.
Hobbes believed that the government needed to be strong to keep down uprisings. He believed the government should be organized. He thought that a strong monarchy would keep control and peace. He was ready to accept any government enough to maintain civil peace. He did not believe in people’s representation. Hobbes’s main concern was peace and order to England; he was inclined to accept a strong monarchy.
Locke believed in natural rights such as life, liberty and happiness. He believed that the government should have limited power. He was against absolute monarchy. 4.
By the philosophical term “optimism” Voltaire means reflected in enlightened philosophy, god exists and is good and perfect, so the world must be the same. Candide was completely innocent in the beginning of the story. The story was full of satire and irony. He believed that people should focus on the things that really matter.
a. Burke was in favor of aristocracy, he opposed the French Revolution, and he saw it as an attack on the social fabric, that the radical policies would lead to anarchy and military dictatorship. He was very conservative. Believe masses could not be trusted. He thought that the low class were weak creatures who needed to be restrained by organized society. He opposed to individualism of the enlightenment.
He was also against social and democratic reforms. His work became the bible of conservatism, fronted the arguments against social and democratic reform. Condorcet was an Aristocratic and intellectual and reformer. He was a religious doubter, outspoken enemy of the church. Fought influence of hereditary nobility.
Nothing dimmed his faith in the progress of the human mind as the means to human perfectibility. He believed there were ten stages of human development, beginning with the first tribal stage of hunters and fishers.