The Enlightenment Notes

1. Gottfried Leibniz- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz
• Theodicy- attempt to justify the imperfections in the world
• Why do bad things happen to good people?- If God is all good and all knowing
• The world is the best of all possible worlds
• Believed that because God is "omnipotently" powerful, nothing that God creates can go against that
• Anything that happens is the will of God
• Therefore there is no imperfection in the world
2. Voltaire is the great French Enlightenment thinker- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
3. Denis Diderot- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_diderot
4. Baron de Montesquieu- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montesquieu
5. Jean Jacques Rousseau- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rousseau
1. The Social Contract
2. Looked at the nature of inequality
3. The opposite of Thomas Hobbes
6. Jonathan Swift- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnathan_Swift
1. A Modest Proposal
7. Adam Smith- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_smith
8. David Hume- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume
9. Immanuel Kant- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant
1. categorical imperative- philosophy of ethics: if you create a rule for one person, it applies to all
1. Doesn't allow for choice
2. forces legislatures to be more thoughtful on the way they legislate law
3. allows have to consider how a blanket statement can cause more harm than good

• Jeremy Bentham- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
• utilitarian choice- the idea that you have to do what is best for the most people