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Enlightenment Thinkers (Thomas Hobbes (Empiricism ((Viewed reason as…

- - - - Viewed reason as summation of consequences rather than an innate, originative source of new knowledge
        
        Wrote one of the sets of objections to Descartes's "Meditations"
        
        Disagrees with Rationalists
    - - Published "A Short Treatise on First Principles", which presents those ideas
  - - - Believes that people are fundamentally weak, but have the capacity of reason
    - - Individuals give up individual rights so they can gain rights as members of a society
- - - - Thought that the impulse of self-interest would work toward the public welfare
        
        Objects to government control but agrees there must be restrictions
        
        The capitalist, in fulfilling their own interests, will actually promote the general welfare of the people
    - - He insisted that the wealth of a nation is to be gauged by the number and variety of consumable goods it can command
      - Division of labor was a result of the desire to barter with others to get the desires outcome
        
        Produces wealth by saving time, increasing specialization, and promoting inventive technology
  - - - Thought that moral principles have sympathy as their basis, though sympathy is felt through one's thought of the situation that the other person is going through; one must approve of the other's passions and situation
      - Said that one's conscience and sympathy work together to provide moral guidance
        
        People are self-interested, but they also care about the fortunes of others
    - - Resentment of malice provides the basis for order
- - - - Belief in Natural Laws
        
        Formal recognition of natural rights did not mean that all men had positive rights
      - Believed in the separation of the powers of the government to avoid despotism
        
        Believed that punishments should be proportional to the severity of the crime
    - - A system of checks and balances would help prevent tyranny.
      - He thought that all societies rest on the solidarity of interests