How Did The Enlightenment Affect Society

Women’s Suffrage Movement If you had lived in the 1800s, would you have fought for Women’s Rights or would you have decided to be a bystander? Throughout history women have always been ruled by men. At the start of the 1800s, women would have had only one right and that was being a housewife. Although women had no rights, women later raised their voices in the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke revealed his interests in new science, developing theories of education and knowledge (SMW, 34). One of the main points in his Treatise is that of the law of nature, where all men are in natural state of perfect freedom (SMW, 34). Locke argues, “Men being…by nature all free, equal, and independent,

I believe that the Enlightenment Thinkers would have the most impact on future governments because. Voltaire believed in freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression. Locke believed in natural rights, including life, liberty, and owning property. Montesquieu believed that one person should not have power.

Enlightenment Influence on American Government and Revolution The Enlightenment era was around the 18th century. A time where many different philosophers imputed many of their own thoughts and beliefs on religion, human rights, the government and other important situations involving our country today. Many figures associated with the Enlightenment were, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Baron Montesquieu, and Beccaria, to name a few.

independent”. According to the state of nature, no man should endanger another man’s life, well-being, freedom, or possessions. Everyone is “obligated by the laws of nature to respect the rights of every man”, according to Locke. 2. It is necessary for man to give up certain liberties under the laws of nature when entering into society.

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.

Women were subject to a wide-ranging discrimination that marked them as secondary citizens, which is what gilderlehrman.org says. “She had no right to own property in her own name or to pursue career of her choice.” In addition, the article states, “Women could not vote, serve on juries, or hold public office.” Women didn’t have any rights that they wanted and were mostly not allowed to do anything which is unfair. A married woman had no separate legal identity from that of her husband.

Another thinker from the Enlightenment is Francois Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. Voltaire was a french philosopher as well as an author. He believed in many freedoms such as: freedom of speech, freedom of

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.

John Locke, a 17th century philosopher from England, was a man who contained many ideas and theories on how particular civilizations should operate. John Locke philosophized “that there was an unspoken law amongst men known as “The Law of Nature” (“state of nature” Locke). The “law of nature” depicts a community in which there was only moral law. Thus the “law of nature” portrays a “state of perfect freedom where all men share their equality” (“state of nature”4). This statement basically states that “no one has power over another and are free (Locke 4)” to govern themselves accordingly.

Locke’s definition of liberty depends on whether the person is in the state of nature, in which people are “without subordination or subjection” (Locke 101) or if they have formed into a commonwealth, or whenever “any number of men are so united into one society, as to quit every one his executive power of the law of nature, and resign it to the public” (Locke 137-38). In the Lockean state of nature, men have a “freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons” (Locke 101). This freedom is still limited by what Locke refers to as the law of nature, or that “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (Locke 102). He also defines the liberty of the state of nature as “not to be under any will or legislative authority of man” (Locke 109). In his form of commonwealth, there is more limited freedom, in which liberty is to “be under no legislative power, but that established, by the consent of the commonwealth” (Locke 110).

25). Locke’s state of nature demonstrates a state which entails perfect freedom and the right to one’s own actions and possessions (Locke 2 sect. 4). He then

Women in England during the 1800s faced restrictions to participate in movements and were limited in their political speaking and voting capabilities. Although many women accepted their fate, some fought for a different social role. (“The Women 's Rights Movement”) Women such Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley inspired a new way of radical thinking towards human rights, specifically the rights of women (Surgis). Thanks to these inspiring individuals, there was a change in women’s attitude regarding their options to become part of the work force, gain an education, and have equal rights in marriage (Surgis).

The interest intensified during the Age of Enlightenment in the following century. Several 17th and 18th century European philosophers, especially John Locke, Thomas Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, developed the concept of natural rights, the notion that people are naturally free and equal. . The Enlightenment philosophers suggested a secular social contract between the rulers and the ruled, who deprive themselves of some rights to gain security and serenity at the cost of some of their liberties. In the same time some ‘Natural rights’ preexisting the authority must be respected by the authority, i.e. the government and the State, in order to keep its legitimacy.

The State of Nature, although a state wherein there is no civil authority or government to punish people for transgressions against laws, is not a state without morality. To Locke, persons are assumed to be equal to one another in such a state, and therefore equally capable of discovering and being bound by the Law of Nature. The Law of Nature, which is on Locke’s view the basis of all morality, and given to us by God, commands that we not harm others with regards to their life, health, liberty, or possessions. This is because we all belong equally to God, and because we cannot take away that which is rightfully His, we are prohibited from harming one another. So, the State of Nature is a state of liberty where persons are free to pursue their own interests and plans, free from interference, and, because of the Law of Nature and the restrictions that it imposes upon persons, it is relatively peaceful.