Enlightenment Thinkers
Who wrote Two Treatises of Government and argued that all people are born with natural rights?
John Locke
Enlightenment thinkers believed human behavior and society were governed by these—just like the natural world.
Natural Laws
Enlightenment ideals inspired which 18th-century revolutions?
The American and French Revolutions
The Enlightenment grew out of which earlier intellectual revolution?
Scientific Revolution
Which Scottish economist promoted the idea of free markets and laissez-faire economics?
Adam Smith
The belief that knowledge comes from observation and experience rather than faith or tradition.
Empiricism
The Enlightenment idea that government authority should be divided among different branches to prevent tyranny.
Separation of Powers
What method, used by scientists, was adopted by philosophers to study society?
Scientific Method
This philosopher criticized organized religion and promoted freedom of speech.
Voltaire
What is the term for the idea that government exists only by the consent of the governed?
Social contract
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman argued for this major social reform during the Enlightenment.
Women's Education
This astronomer’s heliocentric theory helped spark rational inquiry that influenced Enlightenment thinkers.
Niclaus Copernicus
Who wrote The Spirit of the Laws and proposed separating government powers?
Baron de Montesquieu
The view that God created the universe but no longer intervenes in its affairs.
Deism
The Enlightenment encouraged this movement that separated religion from science and government.
Secularism
Newton’s discovery of this concept inspired the idea that natural laws govern both the universe and human behavior.
Gravity
Which English writer argued for women’s equality in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?
Mary Wollstonecraft
Enlightenment thinkers often opposed this economic policy that emphasized government-controlled trade and colonial wealth.
Mercantilism
This Russian empress applied Enlightenment ideas to her rule.
Catherine the Great
Enlightenment philosophers argued that human progress depended on the use of these two guiding principles.
Science and Reasoning