THE SPIRIT OF LAWS
By Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
“When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person,or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; becauseapprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enacttyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated fromthe legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, thelife and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control;for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to theexecutive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression.
There would be an end of everything, were the same man or the same body,whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers,that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and oftrying the causes of individuals.”
- What is Montesquieu’s main point?
- What is his explanation for his ideas?
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS
Adam Smith
“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.”
“The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.”
“The great object of the political economy of every country is to increase the riches and power of that country.”
“The rich ... divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal proportions among all its inhabitants.”
“Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left
perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both
his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man
or order of men."
- What do you think is Adam Smith’s main point?
- What are some of the key words that helped you answer question #1
Voltaire
Philosophical Dictionary
“WHAT is tolerance? it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly--that is the first law of nature.
It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster. That admits of no difficulty. But the government! but the magistrates! but the princes! how do they treat those who have another worship than theirs?
Of all religions, the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. The Christian Church was divided in its cradle, and was divided even in the persecutions which under the first emperors it sometimes endured. Often the martyr was regarded as an apostate by his brethren, and the Carpocratian Christian expired beneath the sword of the Roman executioners, excommunicated by the Ebionite Christian, the which Ebionite was anathema to the Sabellian.
This horrible discord, which has lasted for so many centuries, is a very striking lesson that we should pardon each other's errors; discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.”
Voltaire Quote
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
- What are the 2 main ideas Voltaire is stressing?
- What do you think Voltaire would have to say about people in the state of nature?
Rousseau: “.....This habitual restraint produces a docility which woman requires all her life long, for she will always be in subjection to a man, or a man’s judgment, and she will never be free to set her own opinion above his. What is most wanted in a woman is gentleness…A man, unless he is a perfect monster, will sooner or later yield to his wife’s gentleness, and the victory will be hers.
Once it is demonstrated that men and women neither are nor, and should not be, constituted the same, either in character or in temperament, it follows that they should not have the same education…Boys want movement and noise, drums, tops, toy-carts; girls prefer things which appeal to the eye, and can be used for dressing-up-mirrors, jewelry, finery, and specially dolls. The doll is the girl’s special plaything; this shows her instinctive bent towards her life’s work. Little girls always dislike learning to read and write, but they are always ready to learn to sew…The search for abstract and speculative truths for principles and axioms in science, for all that tends to wide generalizations, is beyond a woman’s grasp.”
Wollstonecraft responds: “What opinion are we to form of a system of education, when the author (Rousseau in Emile) says...‘Educate women like men, and the more they resemble our sex the less power will they have over us.’ This is the very point I am at. I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves. The most perfect education, in my opinion, is …to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent. In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.
This was Rousseau’s opinion respecting men: I extend it to women…To reason on Rousseau’s ground, if man did attain a degree of perfection of mind when his body arrived at maturity, it might be proper, in order to make a man and his wife one, that she should rely entirely on his understanding; and the graceful ivy, clasping the oak that supported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty would be equally conspicuous. But, alas! husbands, as well as their helpmates, are often only overgrown children; nay, thanks to early debauchery, scarcely men in their outward form - and if the blind lead the blind, one need not come from heaven to tell us the consequence…
To be a good mother a woman must have sense, and that independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers…
If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot…make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives, and mothers; that is-if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.”
- What is Mary’s main idea?
- List some of the Enlightenment vocabulary you notice in this conversation.