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The Enlightenment was a European movement that emphasized reason and respect for humanity. Enlightenment thinkers thought reason could solve humanity’s problems and the literature created by these Europeans greatly influenced educated Americans, including founding fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Much of Enlightenment thought surrounded politics and how a proper political system should be structured. John Locke was an Englishman would argued that the state was obligated to grant natural, human rights to the people it governed. He wrote in his Two Treatises on Government that these rights included “life, liberty, and property.”
The Enlightenment was an era that challenged people to really think about government and society. Many writers, thinkers, and artists were influenced by this era. This quote from an Enlightenment thinker, John Locke, explains that all men are born equal and that freedom shouldn’t be harmed or limited; “All mankind… being all equal and independent, on one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” (Document 1) Jean Jacques Rousseau also had the same idea of a free man. He stated, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles.”
This belief in natural rights reflects the influence of Enlightenment thinkers such
During the 18th Century, the Enlightenment was introduced in Europe. This new movement brought about modernization of thinking about government and individualism, and reevaluated previous beliefs. The Enlightenment had many new Philosophers who helped spread their views on government. Philosophers were similar in ideas about the rights of citizens and people’s choice of which government they want, however they differed on the reason government existed and governmental power. Overall, the ideas were a substantial departure from previous ideas about human equality, absolute rulers, and the court system.
The Enlightenment period gave way to many great thinkers, known in this era as philosophes, who fought to improve society through reason and their influential statuses. The main idea of Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Mary Wollstonecraft, was to change perspectives on topics of interest, that were previously discredited, in society. John Locke, who wrote the Second Treatise on Civil Government of 1690, founded the ethical idea that all men were entitled to their natural rights. Natural rights, from John Locke’s point of view, could be defined as fundamental principles possessed by each man that is set forth by nature itself. The idea of all men being equal in “what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose [manage] of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of nature…
During this time period, the influence of Enlightenment had overpower some of the most important values of the church and absolute monarch. Thomas’s Paine’s Common Sense document illustrates many keys that Enlightenment thinkers were influenced by. In the document, one of the idea that he wrote about was the government system and how everything was structured in an unfair approach. The key example of how Enlightenment thinking influenced the unfairness of the government is the freedom and the rights of individuals by God’s desires. Like it was mentioned in the text, “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government …is but a necessary evil” (Paine, pg 69).
John Locke, also known as the Father of the Enlightenment, believed that everyone had natural rights: life, liberty, and property. These principles were adopted in the Declaration of Independence and is the foundation of the government today. Through the Enlightenment, new and improved ideas were founded, but one major part of Europe’s society took a major hit. Through logical reasoning, people began to question the teachings of the church. Despite these questionings, many religious figures reminded the people of who God is.
Part One: The Enlightenment was an influential time filled with new ideas and change. During this time, there was a shift in thought with how the government should act and with the religion of the people. These changes occurred because of inspiration from the Scientific revolution and past conflicts, like war, and made people want to stand up and adjust society. None of these innovations would have been made without the philosophers.
John Locke once said, "The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom."1 Throughout history, the fight for human rights has been an on going battle that has been reviewed and adjusted as time progresses. Before the Enlightenment, people believed the government was not protecting humans and their rights. In Europe during the 17th and 18th century, Enlightenment thinkers stepped out of boundaries and challenged the established order. The American Revolution and French Revolution were inspired by ideals of John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers.
The rights of “life, liberty, health, and possessions” are an essential key in having a balanced life. The Two Treatises on Government written by John Locke, influenced most ideas in the Declaration of Independence and The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This document influenced Enlightenment ideas such as religious toleration, the sovereignty of the people, press freedom, the right to rebel, and no taxation without representation. These documents helped create a better society in the word today.
Enlightenment was a concept that inspired a new way of thinking of the people. In the newly formed United States of America, enlightenment shaped the way the new government was run. Scientific reasoning was applied to politics, religion, and science. Enlightenment saved music, art, and literature programs in colleges. Enlightenment in Europe led to drastically altered views on philosophy, politics, and communications.
The Enlightenment was a period of time that stressed the importance of reason and individual ideas. Many philosophers published works criticizing a country’s monarch or divulging the flaws they saw in a system within the government, such as the justice system. The Enlightenment also stressed the importance of education, and as a result of this, literacy rates experienced a major upward trend. Now able to read the philosopher’s works, a larger sum of people now were educated on the corruptions within their government. This caused a questioning of traditional practices, and people began to believe they could revise their government.
The Enlightenment questioned authority and ordered for natural rights. There were important thinkers of the Enlightenment who impacted the way people think today. John Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Paine were all of the major thinkers. John Locke believed experiences will cause more knowledge which is how his idea of the blank slate is. He also believed everybody was born with natural rights.
The Enlightenment, a time period between 1600c. and 1800c. , emphasized using reason, logic, and science to solve problems within society. European thinkers, such as Baron De Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and J.H. Bernardin de Saint, used logic to question the authority of kings and queens. They also stressed freedom for all, humanism, and equality between rulers and their citizens.
The Enlightenment gave people power to make the changes they wanted for independence and politics using intellect and reason, their natural right. The norm of a society that is modelled today became reason over
