Throughout the American Revolution the colonists in America wrote many documents to declare their independence and establish the United States as a sovereign country. Despite the fact that they are all great, the US Constitution is the most influenced by the Enlightenment. The Constitution had countless ideas that express this. For instance in the first three articles (I- Legislative, II-Executive, III-Judiciary) the Founding Fathers made sure that the new government had separation of powers.
John Locke was a philosopher and political scientist. He had many interests and produced a number of writings that influenced future leaders. One of these leaders was Thomas Jefferson, who was involved with the aid of America and the act gaining independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence and Locke’s views on government contain many similar aspects. These ideas includes the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (natural rights); the protection that is provided by the government for these rights; and the altering or abolishment of government if it fails to provide and protect the rights of the people.
(Q4) As a scholar in 1789, looking at the United States Constitution I would see many ideas from the Enlightenment. There would be ideas from both Thomas Hobbes and John Locke reflected within the document. There are parts in the Constitution that explain how to build a powerful government to maintain control and keep the people in line. Thomas Hobbes believed that a strong government was a necessity. There are also parts that reflect classical liberalism however, which pushed for individualism and the government only having power that people allow it to have.
Locke believed that the citizens had a right and responsibility to overthrow an unjust government. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson says, "That whenever any form of
The Enlightenment served as an empowering movement and emancipated the colonists to embrace their beliefs in equality. John Locke set a standard on the basis of people having “personal” rights (privacy), which lead to a social contract that declared that as the government protected the people's natural rights, the people would allow the government to rule. Along with that declaration, Locke also said that if the government failed to abide, the people are allowed to revolt. All in all, because the colonists believed the British government had ignored their natural rights, the assumption was that the British had violated their promise in the contract which resulted in the American Revolution. After the colonial victory at the Battle of Saratoga
The constitution was a product of the Founding Fathers, who are the traditional American political elite, and therefore their ideology was translated into the document because the elite were held to the highest regard. The influences of the Enlightenment in the United States can be traced back to The Articles of Confederation and The Declaration of Independence, which were direct predecessors of the Constitution. The political elite created the Constitution of 1787, and outlined the ideals and laws of the United States. Abusing this power, the men of the Constitutional Convention wrote articles reflecting their personal and economic interests. The United States Constitution of 1787 represented an ideological and economic victory for the America’s
John Locke stated the ideas of the rights that people should have: life, liberty and the right to own property. He believed that governments should be there to protect those rights and should be overthrown if they did not do so. John Locke's ideas were spread through the early American colonies. During the revolution there was a paper written and handed out called Common Sense, that put his ideas out there again for the colonies. It expressed that the people were wrongfully being treated.
On the other hand, John Locke believed that if the government didn’t protect the natural rights of the people and if they didn’t do good by the people, then the people had a right to form a new government. These two ideas will linger in Europe affecting the way people in different countries view their government
The ideas of the Enlightenment influenced the American Revolution and the formation of the American Government. Firstly, The Enlightenment was a philosophical evolution that emphasized the aged ideas of the Greeks and Romans. In addition, the major philosophers of this time period were Voltaire, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau, Adam Smith and Isaac Newton. Their ideals include having an absolute monarch as a government (T.H), the separation of powers (Mont.), the government should not interfere with a free market economy (A.S), the freedom of speech (Volt.), the government could be overruled (J.L), and the government should rule according to the will of the people. Nevertheless, these ideals are important because they shaped the government that we have today.
The Enlightenment influenced the United States education, government, and citizen's rights. The Ideas of Enlightenment began with the concept of reason. The people began to think for themselves rather than accepting what nobility or rolyalty said. The idea of separation of powers and checks and balances, proposed by montesquie, is still used today in the united states. John Locke's Natural Rights, life, liberty, and protection of property, is the foundation of the United States Constitution.
Locke insisted, “that government was originally formed for the purpose of protecting man 's individual rights against the incursions of other individuals” (Sigler, 1998, para.1). Locke’s ideas on revolution supported the American Revolutionary war and his views of man’s natural rights shape our democratic government which are still relevant today. John Locke’s famous writing Two Treaties of Government claimed that all men have certain natural rights. Men have the right to be free and equal which went against the early rule of the monarchy. He believed some of our rights have to be given up in order to form a government that would protect every man but if the government failed or selfishly used
John Locke was a key figure in the Enlightenment (which was at its peak at the time of the revolution), who stated that the government’s duty was to secure the rights of the people with the consent of the governed. If the government fails to do its duty, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to create a new one. Essentially, this was what the American Declaration of Independence revolved around; it calls out King George III on his acts that violates their values of equality and their unalienable rights and declares the independence of the thirteen
Locke truly believed that citizens are capable of reasoning and governing themselves. He gravely warned that if people were continuously mistreated and denied their natural rights, they would rebel against the
Enlightenment was created by the English philosopher John Locke. The ideas that were influenced by enlightenment were life, liberty, and property. This also gave to the idea of natural right. Enlightenment influenced the way people finally realized that divine right wasn’t right and start to doubt it. Throughout time enlightenment has influenced a lot of important events in history.
The concept of natural rights has been the mainstay of American philosophy and is a founding principle in its identity. The Enlightenment period of human history was a European intellectual movement that emphasized the use of reason over superstition which caused advancement in philosophy, politics, the arts, and science. During this time period Enlightenment ideas eventually made their way to the west, bringing new democratic and political values to colonists. Natural rights, as conceived by European enlightenment thinkers, have fundamentally influenced the shaping of the United States by providing the foundation for the Declaration of Independence, the development of the constitution, and impacting the course of civil rights for the people
