Professor Brophy
History 102

Fourth Discussion Section:  The Enlightenment

1. For Locke, what is the source of knowledge and why was his viewpoint politically radical for the time?

2. What is Hume’s critique of existing knowledge?  What is the relationship between reason and human nature?

3. For Beccaria, what is the function of punishment and why is torture irrational?

4. What is so potentially radical about Rousseau's notions of social compact and the general will?  How would an absolutist monarch respond to Rousseau's ideas?

5.   What are some common themes and assumptions found in all of these writers?  What similarities and differences do you see between these writers and those studied earlier for the Scientific Revolution?