Studio Aletheia · World Builders Academy
6.3.CCSC 6th Grade World Civilizations
If Nature Has Laws, Why Not Government?
Lesson 5.12 · The Enlightenment, Applying Reason to Government
If Newton could use reason to uncover the laws that govern planets, Enlightenment thinkers wondered, could reason also uncover the laws that should govern people?
Learning Targets and Success Criteria
Build the vocabulary and evidence needed to meet standard 6.3.CC.
What I will learn
- I can describe John Locke's ideas about natural rights and government.
- I can describe Montesquieu's idea of separating government power.
- I can describe Rousseau's idea of the social contract.
- I can explain how Voltaire and Adam Smith each applied reason to a different area of life.
What success looks like
- I explain Locke's natural rights, including life, liberty, and property.
- I explain Montesquieu's idea of separating power into different branches.
- I explain Rousseau's idea that government's power comes from the people's consent.
- My exit ticket names at least one Enlightenment thinker and their specific idea.
Analyze the intellectual, political, and social changes in relation to the idea of individual rights from Humanism to the Enlightenment.
Pulling twenty-four lessons into one argument.
These terms will be used throughout the mini-lesson, evidence lab, hands-on activity, journal, and exit challenge.
Natural Rights
Rights, such as life, liberty, and property, that John Locke argued belong to every person simply for being human.
Social Contract
The idea, developed by thinkers like Rousseau, that government's authority comes from an agreement with the people it governs.
Separation of Powers
Montesquieu's idea that government power should be divided among different branches to prevent any one group from becoming too powerful.
Capitalism
An economic system, described by Adam Smith, based on private property, free markets, and limited government interference, marking a shift away from mercantilism.
Where this shows up in the real world.
History is not just something that happened. It is training for how you will read evidence, weigh sources, and make decisions in a career.
Designing Systems of Government
Political philosophers today still build on Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau when designing or evaluating systems of government.
Studying Markets and Government's Role
Economists trace the modern debate over how much government should control the economy directly back to Adam Smith's shift away from mercantilism.
Applying Reason to Power
If Newton could use reason to discover the laws that govern planets, could reason also uncover the laws that should govern people?
John Locke argued that people possess natural rights, life, liberty, and property, even before government exists. Government's job, he claimed, is to protect those rights, and if it fails, people have a right to change it.
Montesquieu proposed separating government power among different branches to prevent any one group from becoming too powerful, directly countering the absolutism of rulers like Louis XIV. Rousseau argued government's power flows from a social contract with the people, an agreement that can be broken if government fails to serve the common good.
Voltaire applied reason to advocate for freedom of speech and religious tolerance, criticizing absolute monarchy and the Church's overreach. Adam Smith applied reason to economics, arguing free markets, not mercantilist government control, would produce wealth more effectively, marking a broader shift from mercantilism toward capitalism. Together, these thinkers built the intellectual case that would fuel the revolutions still to come.
Adapted from Studio Aletheia's World Builders Academy curriculum library, synthesizing Enlightenment history resources on Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Adam Smith.
Materials for the continuity and change lab.
- A. Your complete the intellectual revolution timeline materials, provided
- B. Highlighters, 2 colors minimum
- C. Notebook or chart paper
- D. A pencil for annotating
- E. Your Evidence Log for this unit
Every session this unit: identify the evidence, cite where it came from, connect it to the day's vocabulary, write a one-paragraph explanation.
Trace the Shift
Practice identifying which Enlightenment thinker's idea each piece of evidence represents.
Complete the Intellectual Revolution Timeline
Add your final entry to the timeline before tomorrow's formal synthesis.
Evidence Log
Accountability Checklist
Exit Challenge
In two to three sentences, explain one Enlightenment thinker's idea and how it challenged absolute monarchy.
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