How Did John Locke Contribute To The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was an important movement that brought up the topics of reason and rationality rather than adapting plain tradition. It first spread through Europe, then traveled to America during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. These suggestions from some of the thinkers created foundation for the French and American Revolutions, eventually also being included into our Constitutions. Most people disagree on who were significant individuals, but in all honesty, John Locke, David Hume and Voltaire are big key players in having critical thinking skills and using them to their advantages.

To begin, Great Britain’s John Locke was very prominent in this time period. He was an English political theorist who specialized in the structure of government. He thought that a representative administration would best support all kinds of citizens. For instance, John created the idea of the ‘three natural rights’: life, liberty

He was a Scottish philosopher that worked hard in the field of skepticism, more so on his stance of religion. He asked why an ideal God would assemble an imperfect world from scratch. Usually around this century, religion, especially Catholic was never questioned or doubted by anyone. Though, Hume was the bravest soul to step forward and share his suggestion.

Finally, a vital character who was extremely crucial to this faction was none other than Voltaire. He was a writer who lived in France, who specialized in satire, which means the use of irony or exaggeration to expose people’s foolishness on political topics. Like Hume, Voltaire did criticize religion, but you could also compare him to Locke for their interest in government. He preached about republican objectives, despite the fact that ‘republican’ in France during the 1700s defines that power lies in the control of elected representatives with a voted president than using a