The Enlightenment Webquest

From LearnSocialStudies

INTRODUCTION

Imagine that you are a peasant living under the suffocating rule of absolute monarchs like King Louis XIV of France or Czar (King) Peter the Great of Russia. Your life is very difficult. You work all day to pay takes to the king and you cannot criticize him at all. One mistake and you will be thrown in jail or, even worse, killed.

But then, something happens. You learn about enlightenment thinkers, brave men and women who are challenging the idea that humankind has to live under the harsh rule of absolute rulers (people who rule with all of the power). They call for democracy and freedoms of speech and thought. Kings and other rulers all over the world feel the pressure and try to change their ways. Some successfully reform themselves and become enlightened rulers, or rulers who use their power to bring about positive political and social changes for the people. Others, however, do not change and get swept out of office in revolutions, like in France.

You are working as an assistant to the President in the Executive branch of the American government. The President has asked you to research a social problem affecting the world today and to come up with a solution to that problem using the writings and thoughts of the enlightenment thinkers. In other words, how can the beliefs of the enlightenment thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Smith, or Wollstonecraft be used to justify your solution to this problem?

Enlightenment Thinkers

Thinker Major Ideas

Thomas Hobbes

People are greedy and selfish. To avoid chaos, a government needs to ensure order

Mary Wollstonecraft

If men are born free, then women should be free also.

Adam Smith

Free market. The natural forces of supply and demand should be allowed to regulate business (not government).

Denis Diderot

All men are born free and equal in rights, so no man may buy or sell the person of another

Voltaire

Freedom of speech and thought

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Ideally, people would make their own laws and obey them, but since people become corrupted by society, some form of government is necessary.

Baron de Montesquieu

Government should be separated into executive, legislative and judicial branches, to prevent any one group from gaining too much power.

John Locke

People have a natural right to life, liberty and property.