WGU C963 (19) Questions with Verified Answers (Correct Update)
Question 1: Social Contract
Answer: An agreement between people and government in which citizens consent to being governed
so long as the government protects their natural rights.
Question 2: Natural Rights
Answer: the idea that all humans are born with rights, which include the right to life, liberty, and
property
Question 3: State of Nature
Answer: A theory on how people might have lived before societies came into existence. is a condition
in which all of us live individually and solitarily, prior to the existence of society. We are physically
and mentally capable of achieving our own survival.
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,Question 4: Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Answer: contribution in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) regards the structure of political institutions. He
argues for a separation of powers: legislative, executive, and judicial. Each will serve as a check on
the power of the other, limiting the harm each might do. separates power to offset the power of
different social interests: ordinary people, the aristocracy, and the monarch.
Question 5: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679):
Answer: One of the first individuals to contribute to the idea of the social contract was a
pre-Enlightenment English philosopher. Hobbes argues that society is not something natural and
immutable, but rather it is something created by us. We do this to resolve problems we collectively
face, to make our lives better. State of Nature: it's "a war of all against all." Basically, the state of
nature is a pretty nasty place where lives are perpetually insecure.
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,Question 6: John Locke (1632-1704)
Answer: we are autonomous individuals, capable of using reason, and are driven to advance our
personal interests. Our primary interest is survival, which we want to make secure and comfortable.
To achieve this security and comfort, we acquire property. Two Treatises of Government, disagrees,
saying the state of nature is a relatively decent place. All its inhabitants are rational people, mindful of
the basic law of nature to not harm another, and people will get along okay. But our relationship in the
state of nature is "inconvenient," implying an incentive for us to devise a better, more convenient
arrangement.
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, Question 7: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Answer: A French man who believed that humans are naturally good and free and can rely on their
instincts. He also advocated a democracy because he believed the government should exist to protect
common good. Like other Enlightenment thinkers, he was passionately committed to individual
freedom, but he attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying, rather than liberating, the
individual. He also called for a rigid division of gender roles, believing women should be subordinate
in social life. His ideals greatly influenced the early romantic movement, which rebelled against the
culture of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century. Rousseau was both one of the most
influential voices of the Enlightenment and, in his rejection of rationalism and social discourse, a
harbinger of reaction against Enlightenment ideas.
Question 8: Constitution is influenced by the Enlightenment
Answer: (Separation of powers) embodies Montesquieu's principles by separating the legislative,
executive, and judicial power, placing each into the hands of different political actors.
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Question 1: Social Contract
Answer: An agreement between people and government in which citizens consent to being governed
so long as the government protects their natural rights.
Question 2: Natural Rights
Answer: the idea that all humans are born with rights, which include the right to life, liberty, and
property
Question 3: State of Nature
Answer: A theory on how people might have lived before societies came into existence. is a condition
in which all of us live individually and solitarily, prior to the existence of society. We are physically
and mentally capable of achieving our own survival.
Page 1
,Question 4: Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Answer: contribution in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) regards the structure of political institutions. He
argues for a separation of powers: legislative, executive, and judicial. Each will serve as a check on
the power of the other, limiting the harm each might do. separates power to offset the power of
different social interests: ordinary people, the aristocracy, and the monarch.
Question 5: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679):
Answer: One of the first individuals to contribute to the idea of the social contract was a
pre-Enlightenment English philosopher. Hobbes argues that society is not something natural and
immutable, but rather it is something created by us. We do this to resolve problems we collectively
face, to make our lives better. State of Nature: it's "a war of all against all." Basically, the state of
nature is a pretty nasty place where lives are perpetually insecure.
Page 2
,Question 6: John Locke (1632-1704)
Answer: we are autonomous individuals, capable of using reason, and are driven to advance our
personal interests. Our primary interest is survival, which we want to make secure and comfortable.
To achieve this security and comfort, we acquire property. Two Treatises of Government, disagrees,
saying the state of nature is a relatively decent place. All its inhabitants are rational people, mindful of
the basic law of nature to not harm another, and people will get along okay. But our relationship in the
state of nature is "inconvenient," implying an incentive for us to devise a better, more convenient
arrangement.
Page 3
, Question 7: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Answer: A French man who believed that humans are naturally good and free and can rely on their
instincts. He also advocated a democracy because he believed the government should exist to protect
common good. Like other Enlightenment thinkers, he was passionately committed to individual
freedom, but he attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying, rather than liberating, the
individual. He also called for a rigid division of gender roles, believing women should be subordinate
in social life. His ideals greatly influenced the early romantic movement, which rebelled against the
culture of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century. Rousseau was both one of the most
influential voices of the Enlightenment and, in his rejection of rationalism and social discourse, a
harbinger of reaction against Enlightenment ideas.
Question 8: Constitution is influenced by the Enlightenment
Answer: (Separation of powers) embodies Montesquieu's principles by separating the legislative,
executive, and judicial power, placing each into the hands of different political actors.
Page 4
