Starter quiz
- Elected officials are chosen by the ...
- people. ✓
- monarch.
- government.
-
- The 'social contract' is the idea that people must give up some __________ for a just society.
- freedoms ✓
- responsibilities
- earnings
-
- The social contract is a __________ concept, not a real document.
- philosophical ✓
- religious
- scientific
- economic
-
- A ______ of Rousseau’s social contract and general will theories is that it will benefit everyone in the long-run.
- 'strength' ✓
- A weakness of Rousseau’s social contract and general will theories is that people may not feel their individual ______ are met.
- 'needs' ✓
- Rousseau’s views on the role of elected officials are that they should represent the general ______.
- 'will' ✓
Exit quiz
- Match the keywords to the correct definitions.
- deism⇔a belief that God created the universe but no longer intervenes ✓
- empiricism⇔a theory that knowledge comes from sensory experience and observation ✓
- superstition⇔an illogical belief based on fear or misunderstanding of the unknown ✓
- Which of the following statements is true?
- All Enlightenment thinkers believed in God.
- The Enlightenment was a complete rejection of Christianity.
- The Enlightenment challenged traditional religious views. ✓
-
- Which thinker developed empiricism during the Middle Ages?
- Hume ✓
- Aristotle
- Galileo
-
- Which of the following is not a way that the Enlightenment challenged traditional religious views?
- science could explain miracles and natural phenomena
- science could prove that God does not exist ✓
- science could show that the sun was at the centre of the universe, not the earth
-
- What analogy was used to illustrate deism?
- a watch or clock ✓
- Leonardo da Vinci’s art
- Dante’s ‘Inferno’
-
- What did Hobbes and Rousseau argue that political laws should be based on?
- reason ✓
- empiricism
- religion
-
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- To understand religious and philosophical views from a different time period, context is very important.
- Enlightenment thinking was influenced by changes in approaches to the arts and by religious reform.
- Enlightenment philosophers used empiricism to challenge superstitious religious views.
- This made it possible to move away from the worldview of the Middle Ages. One example of this, was deism.
- The Enlightenment shifted to advocating for a separation of religion and politics.
Common misconception
The Enlightenment was a complete rejection of Christianity.
While it challenged traditional religious views, most people remained Christian, and many Enlightenment thinkers still believed in God, such as those who supported deism.
Keywords
Deism - the belief in a creator God who does not intervene in the universe after creating it
Empiricism - the philosophical theory that knowledge comes from sensory experience and observation
Superstition - a belief based on fear or misunderstanding of the unknown, which goes beyond what is logical
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