One Enlightenment Thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau

John Locke was a philosopher and political scientist. He had many interests and produced a number of writings that influenced future leaders. One of these leaders was Thomas Jefferson, who was involved with the aid of America and the act gaining independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence and Locke’s views on government contain many similar aspects. These ideas includes the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (natural rights); the protection that is provided by the government for these rights; and the altering or abolishment of government if it fails to provide and protect the rights of the people.

During the Enlightenment period, many thinkers shared their ideas about society, Thinkers like John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote books to spread their ideas against the Old Order. First, John Locke believed everyone had natural rights. These natural rights were life,liberty,and property. The main purpose of the government would be to protect these rights. Locke influenced important people such as Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Montesquieu believed in separation of power. All of the philosophers ideas had a great impact, but some had a greater impact than others. John Locke is an english physician known to be the most influential to the enlightenment. His ideas are based off of the education/educating others. He had a significant impact on the development

Locke's idea of natural rights and of the Two Treatises of Government, Voltaire’s idea of religious freedom that infringed on the people's rights and freedoms and set the basis for modern democracy. Along with Smith’s idea of freedom of economics and Wollstonecraft’s ideas on gender equality. John Locke was an Enlightenment philosopher and he

Many philosophers believed that the government had too much power over the people and they began to work to change that. For example, John Locke believed that people should have natural rights such as life, liberty, and property and that the government should not take away these rights and instead should protect them. If the government did not protect these rights the people could overthrow the government. This idea changed everything because in the end it influenced the English to use this idea in their Declaration of Independence to break away from Britain. Montesquieu was another philosopher who helped make the Enlightenment a turning point.

In particular, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison used enlightenment rhetoric in the country’s founding documents. For example, in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their power from the consent of the governed”. This was clearly inspired by the European philosophe John Locke, who believed governments are only legitimate if they are beneficial to the people. It is possible the colonies may have revolted without the Enlightenment, but a very different United States would have

By Jean-Jacques Rousseau coming up with the idea that limit citizens powers it led to less chaos. Many philosophers thought that politics change, could only come from the actions of a

The Federalist wanted a stable central government and an active executive branch, assuming it would maintain peace and order. The Federalist felt that central government should make all the rules and regulations for the whole country, instead of the states having individual power. The Federalists´ views are better described as those of nationalist. The Federalist wanted a stronger government but wanted to have freedom. The Anti-Federalist thought that the central government would abuse power and neglect the rights of the people.

How people act and what they believe in will lead to different approaches and opinions on how the government should function. This can be seen in the distinctions between how Madison and Jefferson viewed administrative policies. Madison was an institutionalist; he stressed the importance of establishing a centralized and representative government. In Federalist 10, he labeled the United States a republic over a democracy and highlights the necessity of government institutions by writing, “Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens”. Madison believed institutions were extremely important in providing for the population.

In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke argues that citizens have the right of revolution when the government acts against their interests. To Locke, revolution was an obligation, however, many other philosophers do not view it that way. Edmund Burke, for example, believed that gradual change was better than all out revolution. Other philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes believed that the people need to obey their government due to a ‘social contract’ between them and the state. This essay will argue that a right to revolution needs to be granted to citizens in the case of a tyrannical government because it is the government’s duty to serve its citizens, and if it fails to do so, the people need to replace it with an alternate form of

Thomas Jefferson’s works and ideas laid the foundation for several key aspects on the limits of the United States government, the idea of separation of church and state, and the importance of personal rights. Jefferson wrote many influential pieces of literature which pushed the concept of having limited government power. Jefferson wanted America not to be like the European monarchies that fell due to religious strife, so he emphasized a secular government. Jefferson, following closely with the ideas of John Locke, stressed the importance of the protection of individual rights against the government. Thomas Jefferson believed that a government should have limitations.

Jefferson is also once again seen as a contributor of this idea in his writing of the Declaration of Independence stating “all men are created equal.” Differences between the colonies and Europe on this idea were completely different in that the Kings and Monarchy used Christian doctorines to sustain their rule over their kingdoms. The third idea was that central government threatened polity and that a central government possessed too much power over man and many patriots rejected that notion and believed in a divided government unlike old European ways where there political theory was that god entitled political sovereignty to the Monarch’s rule. The fourth point that both deist and evangelicals believed was a cause of the revolution was the lack of virtue the English Government had shown.

They focused on life on Earth, rather than bettering themselves to please a god. The current democracy that is in place in America, although it is much more similar to rationalism than puritanism, hold traits from both governments that could be seen in colonist America. The colonial time period in America was a rather long time period lasting from when the first colony was established in 1607 and ended with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And during this time period Native American culture was being tampered with, and two very different forms of government, puritanism and rationalism, were being

Voltaire is most known for his philosophical ideas including, freedom of speech, love truth and pardon error, God is necessary for governments, the process of thinking logically, and the idea that we are all equal, but virtue separates us. Voltaire knew that it was dangerous to be right when the government was wrong, but governments need to permit freedom of speech among the people. This is, because the people of a country need to the government know when there needs to be a governmental change. François believed that virtue separates us from others, and so we are differentiated by how we treat one another. François Marie Arouet was sent to Tulle in 1715, and imprisoned twice, in 1717 and 1726.

Another important similarity between the two revolutions in France and America was their emphasis on Enlightenment thought. The first of these ideas is the idea of popular sovereignty. This is the idea that governments were only legitimate if they got their powers from the consent of the people. It also holds that the people should have the ultimate power over their government. Both the French and American Revolutions were based in large part on the desire to take power away from aristocratic elites and give that power to the people.