EDIE ESPEJO

21 October 2010
History – 1

Enlightenment Book Questions

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(3) What are the natural rights with which people are born, according to John Locke?
According to John Locke, every human is born with three natural rights. These rights
were to life, liberty, and property. This meant that humans all had the right to survive,
act with their own will, and possess items. If these natural rights were violated, in
example, if someone were murdered, then citizens had the right to overthrow the unfair
government. “The purpose of government, said Locke, is to protect these rights.”1
Locke's political ideas inspired nations other than his homeland, England, to rebel
against unjust rulers. The natural rights with which people were born, life, liberty, and
property were, by the government, to be protected.

(4) Who were the philosophes and what did they advocate?
The philosophes, during the Age of Enlightenment, revealed a strong reccomendation
to society. In France, the philosophes were enlightened thinkers. Some famous
philosophes were Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Wollstonecraft. Philosophes advocated
reasoning and logic to discover truth rather than letting religion explain everything. They
also advocated that natural occurences were good, happiness should be saught on
earth, improvements could always be made in politics and society, and citizens should
be permitted liberty. In example, Montesquieu provided his insight for the
improvement of government. He said that government should be split into three
branches and each of the branches should posses one-third of the government's power.
He wrote, “Power should be a check to power.”2 He believed in this because it would
prevent any branch from gaining total control of the government. This idea later was
used as the basis of the United States Constitution. Montesquieu was a great
philosophe, a social critic during the enlightenment, who, like other philosophes,
advocated the use of logic and reasoning amongst other topics like happiness.

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(5) Why were several rulers in 18th century Europe known as enlightened despots?
In 18th century Europe, several rulers were called “enlightened despots.” Monarchs, like
Frederick II of Prussia, considered the Enlightenment spirit while governing. Frederick
II, also known as Frederick the Great, reformed Prussia in order to make his country
stronger and to make his rule more effective like other enlightened despots. He
nicknamed himself “the first servant of the state”3 meaning he'd try his very hardest to
keep the nation strong. To reinforce Prussia, he began to grant more religious freedom,
promote less censorship, and improve education. These reforms were in favor of the
philosophes and definitely strengthened Prussia. Frederick the Great was known as an
enlightened despot because he accepted new ideas from the enlightened thinkers and
made reforms according to those new ideas in 18th century Europe.