Shaping Of An Enlightened Democracy Essay

Kimberly McCauley

A00250630

Optional Essay Assignment

The Shaping of an Enlightened Democracy

Little credence was given to the nature of humans before the Era of the Renaissance. Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and even Sucrates viewed people as untrustworthy, and too uneducated to participate in a democratic form of government. A democracy was referred to as a “mob rule” due to the unstable foundation the government was assumed to be settled on, because of the doubtful beliefs about the natural behaviors of humans. It wasn’t until the resurrection of enlightenment during the Renaissance that people began to believe that a society could be ruled by the people.

The Era of the Renaissance transformed our society

One value would be the fact that everyone should be treated equally, without favors given to the elite, and fairly; despite any handicap. They had to believe that a single person had to be more significant than the society as a whole displaying the belief of individualism rather than organicism. People had to give their consent to be ruled upon in order to participate in this society by being held accountable for their actions, and agreeing to a contract that in order for their rights to be protected, they must give up certain rights for everyone to be treated fairly. Lastly, in order for the democracy to be a true democracy, the people in government must understand the rights that we all have as people to act as humans living in a society where our natural rights to religion, speech, trade, and expression was honored, and recognized. Knowing this, our forefathers had to decide just what kind of democracy was our government going to have, in addition to holding truth to these values that define the image of what a democracy is supposed to portray. The biggest questions for them to figure out was how were these values going to be carried out, and was this government to be a dependent democracy, or a representative