15 Questions: The Enlightenment Multiple Choice Quiz | History

Answer: Mid-seventeenth to late eighteenth centuries

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were two early Enlightenment thinkers, both living in the seventeenth century. Despite the fact that they both lived and worked in England pretty close in time, their theories about human nature are almost the complete opposite of one another.

Answer: Hobbes: "Leviathan"; Montesquieu: "Spirit of Laws"; Smith: "Wealth of Nations"

All of these thinkers were actual Enlightenment philosophers. The works mentioned were also real. However, each of the choices contained a work by John Locke, even if his name wasn't in there. He wrote over a dozen pieces, about half either never published or only published posthumously.

The works by Locke were "Of the Conduct of the Understanding", "An Essay Concerning Toleration", and "First Tract on Government". All the other answers were correct.

Answer: Rights for women

Wollstonecraft was an early advocate for women's rights. Locke's idea of 'natural rights' did not completely apply to women. Females' natural rights only applied in the context of home and family. Wollstonecraft argued that the only reason that women did not seem to be as intelligent as men was because of their lack of education. She said that if girls were provided with free education as boys were, there would be no noticeable difference in their natures. At the same time, she admitted that women's first duties were in the home and with family.

One fun fact: Her daughter was Mary Shelley, the author of "Frankenstein".

Answer: Hobbes

Hobbes' view of human nature greatly conflicted with the other Enlightenment philosophers'. He thought that people, by nature, were violent and out of control. He was one of the few who thought that an authoritarian type of government would be the best for society as a whole.

Answer: False

Smith was one of the strongest supporters of laissez-faire and the free market. In fact, his book argued for it, and against mercantilism, the economic philosophy employed by most European powers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The "Wealth of Nations" (published in 1776) is acknowledged as first modern work on economics, and is still a classic econonomic text.

Smith was Scottish, and also wrote "Theory on Moral Sentiments". One of his mentors was Frances Hutcheson, at the University of Glasgow.

Answer: Locke

Locke's exact words were "life, liberty, and property". Many reasons have been suggested as to why Jefferson replaced 'property' with 'pursuit of happiness'. One says that he wanted to emphasize that the people have the right to rebel against their government if they don't like it.

Another popular theory is that some members of the Continental Congress felt that property might be somehow linked to slavery.

Answer: checks and balances

In "The Spirit of Laws", Montesquieu introduced the idea of checks and balances. Separation of powers was also praised by him.

Montesquieu was French. He did extensive research on many different governments. Interestingly, he misunderstood the British system of government, crediting it with a much greater degree of separation of powers than it had and with 'checks and balances' that were largely fictitious. He was a propagandist as well as a philosopher.

Answer: Ben Franklin

Franklin was an example to the people of Europe of the fact that one did not have to be high-born to be intelligent. He was almost entirely self-taught, and was well regarded by politicians and philosphers in Europe.

When he was asked after the Continental Congress what kind of government would have, he answered, "A republic, if you can keep it." These words showed that he truly believed that the people needed to take an active part in their government if it was to succeed.

Answer: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This idea was very different from the ideas of other philosophers. They were arguing that individual rights should always come first.

Rousseau was also a firm believer in the will of the majority. He thought that dissenters could always be made to understand what the majority had said because of the majority's larger numbers.

Answer: Kant

Immanuel Kant lived from 1724-1804. He defined Enlightenment as "man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity" in an essay published in 1784, "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?". He went to say, "Sapere aude!" (Latin, meaning: "Dare to know!").

Some of his most important works came out after a ten-year period when he published almost no pieces. He spent this time researching and trying to answer questions about human nature and the meaning of enlightenment.

Answer: Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Rousseau thought that people were basically good, but the evils of society corrupted them. Those are the 'chains': the chains of society. However, he said that if the controls are placed on people with their consent--by a freely formed government, for example--then they are good, because the people choose to give up some of their rights to help the common good.

The other quotes:
"Custom, then, is the great guide of human life." -David Hume
"Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination." -Immanuel Kant
"Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it." -Rene Descartes

Answer: Physiocrats

The physiocrats were basically trying to combat mercantilism. They were arguing a policy of laissez faire that would get the government out of the economy. The physiocrats were greatly admired by Adam Smith, and they influenced his book, "The Wealth of Nations".

Answer: the French Revolution

The French Revolution obviously could not have influenced the Enlightenment, because it occurred at the end of the Enlightenment! In fact, it's the other way around: the French Revolution was influenced by the Enlightenment. After the American colonists had shown the world how Enlightenment ideas could be applied to real life, citizens of many other countries, such as France, Haiti, and Ireland revolted.

Answer: Denis Diderot

The Encyclopédie was worked on for a quarter-century by Diderot and was twenty-eight volumes. It contained articles by many of the leading philophers of the time. It was translated into many other languages, and helped spread Enlightenment ideas around the world.

The French government and the Roman Catholic Church were not pleased by this monumental work. The Pope threatened to excommunicate Catholics who bought the book, and the French government tried to ban it.

(The first encyclopedia of the Enlightenment period was that published by Johann Heinrich Zedler in Halle and Leipzig in 1732-54. With supplements it ran to 68 large volumes. It was published in two of the Protestant states of Germany, Prussia and Saxony).

Answer: Voltaire

This quote appeared in the "Dictionnaire Philosophique".

Voltaire was born François-Marie Arouet. He used the name Voltaire throughout his life. He was a fierce proponent of freedom of speech. One man, describing Voltaire's general attitude, said "I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire's attacks on the government and the Catholic church ended up getting him forced into exile, and his books were either censored or burned.