Notes on The European Enlightenment
Enlightenment DBQ
Historical Context
The discoveries made in science during the 1500s and 1600s led European thinkers to raise questions about the conditions of human life itself. Many of the thinkers of the European Enlightenment moved away from medieval thinking toward more modern thoughts regarding government and the role of women in society.
Document 1 Second Treatise on Government - John Locke
. Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust, that it shall be employed for their good and preservation of their property…
. . . So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man's hands in the state of nature . . . it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the member of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes…
1. Based on this document, what is the reason for political power? What does Locke say political power cannot be? How is this a change from past governments in Europe?
Document 2
The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu
In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive, in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law.
By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies; establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other simply the executive power of the state.
The political
Historical Context
The discoveries made in science during the 1500s and 1600s led European thinkers to raise questions about the conditions of human life itself. Many of the thinkers of the European Enlightenment moved away from medieval thinking toward more modern thoughts regarding government and the role of women in society.
Document 1 Second Treatise on Government - John Locke
. Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust, that it shall be employed for their good and preservation of their property…
. . . So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man's hands in the state of nature . . . it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the member of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes…
1. Based on this document, what is the reason for political power? What does Locke say political power cannot be? How is this a change from past governments in Europe?
Document 2
The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu
In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive, in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law.
By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies; establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other simply the executive power of the state.
The political