His ideas were dominant over other philosophers' about how a government should be run during the beginning of the French Revolution. “Democratic and Aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to use it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.”
Locke’s ideas have given Frenchmen the courage to fight against the strict government. During the reign of Louis XIV, nobles’ power was strictly limited. By making the nobles live in Versailles, Louis could easily watch over his nobles. Later, Louis XVI took over the throne. He raised taxes then spent the money in whatever way he pleased (Doc 5).
“Life, without a dignity of an intelligent being is not worth having” said Louis Riel. Louis Riel a Canadian politician, the founder of the province of Manitoba and a political leader of the Metis people of the Red River Settlement . He was a knight and shining armor for the Metis people of the Red River Settlement for many reasons. Riel was to be on a quest to preserve Metis rights and culture. Over the years he has been a hero to the francophones.
He is considered to be "one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment. "(Smith 1). In the Wealth of Nations, he shares his opposing views on mercantilism and the importance of the "invisible hand" of competition and how it is a guide to an economic system based on individual self-interest, which is what he is all about. He ultimately believed in a free-market economy that would be controlled by the "invisible hand" of supply and demand and did not rely on government influence whatsoever. He hated strict government control of monopolies and everything that came with mercantilism, unlike Colbert.
Those who were considered as general leaders of the Enlightenment years were thought to be very intellectual and were held by most people in the highest regard throughout the colonial society. Some of the more common names spoken back then were of men such as “John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison” (Sage, 2013, para. 3). Jean-Jacques Rousseau was another prominent thinker as well. He believed that all “individuals had natural rights to life, liberty, and property, which even a king or pope could not deny” (Schultz, 2010, p. 69). Rousseau, along with countless others fought for the rights of the people while insisting that each person is afforded the lawful right to live their own life and to cast aside the authoritativeness of others if they saw fit in doing
This would allow freedom of religion (Enlightenment, Pearson). Rousseau was Swiss born, but lived in France. He was in favor of a direct democracy; this led to the idea that the people should vote on their congressmen and president (Enlightenment). Cesare Beccaria was an Italian who was influenced by the works of the Frenchman Montesquieu. From his writings
Rousseau, one of the most leading philosophers during the Enlightenment, had indeed left many of legendries behind. Not only his writings had caused many of the reactions at that time, but also influenced many writers’ aspects of the French Revolution and the overall understanding of inequality and the General Will. As one of the chief political theorists during the French Revolution who was also influenced by Rousseau’s ideas, Abbe Sieyes, published the pamphlet, “What is the Third Estate?” in 1789. This pamphlet was one of the documents that changed the world and lit the flame toward the French Revolution, as characterized by Joe Janes, a University of Washington professor (Janes).
He would write more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books with free self expression. He would usually talk or criticize about religion, intolerance, and French institutions and governments of his days. Also was one of those persons who will fight for their thoughts and won
He believes that your identity (political, social, religious, sexual, ect) defines everything that a person is, and the ones with the wrong identity (like homosexuals, liberals, the poor, ect) are not worthy of anything. His foil is Belize. Belize is the most morally sound and respectable character in the play. Like Roy, Belize is more of a symbol of a group than an individual character.
Edmund Burke was an English politician who disagreed with the principles of the French Revolution, taking then part on the British debate "Revolution Controversy" (1789-1795). One of the main reasons for this attitude is his criticism to those who insisted on implementing a regime of “liberty”, a term that involved different meaning for Burke considered. He was horrified by the anti-religious attitude in France and the triumph of atheism (Hampsher-Monk, 1996, p. 323 et ss). Moreover, he opposed to the influence by the Enlightenment movement on the French Revolution.
Waldeck-Rousseau believed that religious orders needed to be contained due to the role of the Assumptionists during the Dreyfus Affair.23 As a result, he requested that all religious orders should seek authorisation to practice. In making anti-clericalism government policy, Waldeck Rousseau unintentionally fulfilled the Radical program of separation of church and state, initiating ‘the golden age of Radicalism’.24 With the government becoming full of anti-clericals, Waldeck-Rousseau resigned in 1902 and Émile Combes took over as Prime Minister. After the separation of Church and state in 1905, the radicals were given a chance to demonstrate their capabilities outside anti-clericalism.25 However, by 1906, in Clemenceau becoming Prime Minister, he highlighted the failure of Radicalism as a ‘politically progressive force’.
Before commenting on Locke and Rousseau’s policies, one must examine their basis for property, inequality, and
During the Enlightenment, many intellectuals sought to understand society and its underlying mechanisms. People such as Hobbes theorized that society is necessary for people to escape the chaotic and brutal state of nature. However, Rousseau, in his Discourse on the Origin of Moral Inequality, opposes such arguments by stating that it is society that causes inequality and conflict. Additionally, in The Sufferings of Young Werther, the eponymous protagonist has similarly negative views on society, while simultaneously countering the rationalism of the other authors by being a radical Romantic. While both Rousseau and Werther criticize society, and censure its flaws, they do so from completely different perspectives.
The French Revolution was undoubtedly influenced by the political theorists of the Enlightenment. The ideas of two French political theorists in particular are easily seen throughout the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Baron Montesquieu. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thoughts and texts, such as the Social Contract, instilled the entitlement of basic human rights to all men. Rousseau’s concepts on rights combined with Baron Montesquieu’s ideas on government provided the backbone of a radical movement in the French Revolution known as the Terror. When one delves into the beginnings of the French Revolution, the motives and actions of the National Assembly, and the Terror of the French Revolution, one can obviously see the influence of two Enlightenment political theorists, Rousseau and Montesquieu.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes, two titans of the Enlightenment, work within similar intellectual frameworks in their seminal writings. Hobbes, in Leviathan, postulates a “state of nature” before society developed, using it as a tool to analyze the emergence of governing institutions. Rousseau borrows this conceit in Discourse on Inequality, tracing the development of man from a primitive state to modern society. Hobbes contends that man is equal in conflict during the state of nature and then remains equal under government due to the ruler’s monopoly on authority. Rousseau, meanwhile, believes that man is equal in harmony in the state of nature and then unequal in developed society.
