Thomas Jefferson Enlightenment Thinkers

"Enlightenment thinkers... questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change" (Enlightenment). The Enlightenment has been built upon the foundation of questioning and reasoning. The only way to improve the world is to raise questions about the problems that society faces everyday. The answers that these Enlightenment thinkers come up with can be tested and put into action to improve people’s everyday lives. The Enlightenment thinkers main focus was to help people, even those that are different and that have distance themselves because of their differences. The Enlightenment has not only transformed people but the city as well. The Enlightenment thinkers reflect the changing values

Jefferson had strongly believed reason and that “applied reason could lead to human progress and that such questions were of paramount importance” (Randall). Questioning problems is essential to answering all the unsolved problems in the world, once the potential answers are put into action, progress will be seen. The only way to know the facts is to apply reason and to question the situation or problem being observed and from this people can come up with a hypothesis. People will be able to improve their lives and the environment that they’re living in. Once people’s lives are improved they will be able to search for happiness which Jefferson believes that everyone should have the right to do. Jefferson believes that people should have “rights such as 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Granato). As the other Enlightenment thinkers, Thomas Jefferson thought the people should have rights such as to their life and freedom. The main point is the pursuit of happiness, people can’t improve themselves or others without searching for the good in life. People will not try to improve their lives especially if they don’t see anything positive at the end of the tunnel. Thus, the Enlightenment thinker, Thomas Jefferson, main goal was to improve people’s lives through the fundamental idea of

America is most known for giving rights to individuals as soon as they’re born, this is what attracts people to this country. The most influential Enlightenment thinker, John Locke believed that individuals should have "rights to life, liberty, and property" (Granato) which is known as natural rights. When people are born no one is to try and take away their life, their freedom, or their possessions or property. These natural rights that John Locke claimed has changed things for millions across the country. On the other hand people believe that some individuals don’t deserve these rights because they’re evil. Technically, the individuals aren’t born evil, the environment in which they grew up in made them evil. Everyone is born good and deserve natural rights. It’s the state's job to ensure that people's rights aren't infringed upon and “the state's failure to secure them gave men the right to revolution" (Granato). If people's rights are being taken away from them unlawfully they have the right to rebel or start a revolution to get those rights back or to gain more security for their rights. Citizens also have the right to replace their government if they feel that their government isn’t protecting their rights. With John Locke’s idea of natural rights people have more control over something in their lives, without natural rights the government would have