Enlightenment Ideas Flashcards
Grade 7 · Social Studies · Flashcards
Key thinkers, terms, and concepts from the Age of Enlightenment.
Flashcards
- Enlightenment (Age of Reason)
- 17th–18th century intellectual movement arguing that reason, not tradition or religion, should guide politics, science, and society.
- John Locke
- English philosopher who identified natural rights (life, liberty, property) and argued for government by consent of the governed.
- natural rights
- Rights that all people possess simply by being human, including life, liberty, and property, according to Locke.
- social contract
- The agreement between citizens and government; if the government breaks it by violating rights, citizens may revolt.
- Montesquieu
- French philosopher who advocated separating government power into three branches to prevent tyranny.
- separation of powers
- Division of government into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as proposed by Montesquieu.
- Voltaire
- French Enlightenment writer who championed tolerance, free speech, and critiqued religious and political oppression.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Enlightenment philosopher who argued for popular sovereignty — the idea that political power comes from the people.
- popular sovereignty
- The principle that political authority belongs to the citizens, who delegate it to government representatives.
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- British writer who extended Enlightenment logic to advocate for women's rights and equal education in 1792.
- philosophes
- French Enlightenment thinkers and writers who discussed new ideas in salons and publications.
- Encyclopédie
- A massive French reference work edited by Diderot that collected Enlightenment knowledge and was a tool for spreading rational ideas.
- salon
- Informal social gathering, often hosted by educated women in France, where Enlightenment ideas were discussed and debated.
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