Ideologies Flashcards
medieval europe
religious worldview
devine right of kings
absolutism
strict class system (birth)
(feudalism)
the renaissance
⬆️trade, wealth, and population
starts and intellectual and cultural transformation
increasing sense of individualism
skepticism, rational inquiry
● → Protestant Reformation
○ Challenge to authority
○ Decentralized power
england (16 century)
Big debate: King must be advised by his subjects (Parliament)?
● → Civil War (1642-51)
● Parliament wins
● Absolutist King Charles I
beheaded.
thomas hobbes
Writes Leviathan (1651)
Pessimistic (!) view of human nature
● Social contract - we should agree
● Powerful government needed
● Prevent war of “every man against every man.”
● King’s power is near absolute.
● In some respects, expresses Classical
Conservativism
○ however, first mention of a “Social Contract.” People should
desire govt. to avoid chaos, not just because God ordains it.
the restoration
Charles II is invited to be King (1660), and then his brother James II (1685)
● Continue to fight with Parliament about power
● Eventually…
glorious revolution
Parliament invited a new monarch
○ agrees to share power (limits) with an
elected Parliament
○ Origins of Constitutional Monarchy
(Canada’s Government)
john locke
● Considered the “father of Liberalism”
● Two Treatises on Government (1689), An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (1690)
● We are born “tabula rasa” (Latin: a blank slate). 100%
nurture over nature
● There are natural laws which should govern human
existence
○ ex. all humans are born with a right to their lives, freedom, and
property
Government therefore:
● exists only to protect these rights
● should have limited power
● should be overthrown if it abuses its power
the enlightenment
Scientific Revolution thinking
● Laws that also governed human societies? (see
Locke)
○ Rational basis for Govt., Justice, Economy, etc.?
○ Skeptical of tradition, “do as I say” authority
● Age of inquiry, questioning, use of reason & reasoned argument.
physiocrats
Group of French Economic Thinkers ● critical of Mercantilism
○ Monarchies manage their economies ● Similar perspective to Adam Smith
● “Laissez-faire”
adam smith
Writes The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Pursuit of individual, economic self interest ironically leads to the best
results for the collective.
Competition (Economics) as producing best results for the whole
voltaire (philosophie)
“I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” (falsely attributed)
“Think for yourselves, and allow others the privilege to do so, too.” “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
“The supposed right of [religious] intolerance is absurd and barbaric. It is the right of the tiger; nay, it is far worse, for tigers do but tear in order to have food, while we rend each other for paragraphs.”
baron de montesquieu
Writes The Spirit of the Laws (1750)
● Critical of Centralized Power in Govt. (i.e.
Absolute Monarchies)
● Argued for a Separation of Powers
○ Legislative, Executive, (Judicial*) branches of
Govt.
○ Powers could then police one another
■ “Checks & balances”
jean-jacques rousseau
● Highly critical of existing society
○ unequal, too stuck in its ways, fake/inauthentic
● “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”
● Advocates for equality, freedom, education
○ For men (sexist)
● Idea of “the General Will” that will manifest in a
non-factional society
○ True individual freedoms → Collective unity in what is right?
denis diderot
● Atheist, highly critical of the Church
● Enlightenment project: The Encyclopedie
(1751)
● Radical Liberalism?
○ (see also Robespierre and the Committee of Public
Safety, the Terror).
“Man will never be free until the last King is strangled by the entrails of the last Priest.”
edmund burke
● Intelligently, moderately articulates a Classical Conservative position
● Reacts to some of the early excesses of the French Revolution
● Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
○ Immediately attacked by Liberals
○ Exs. A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) by Mary
Wollstonecraft
○ The Rights of Man (1791) Thomas Paine.
