How Did John Locke Contribute To The Enlightenment

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is a well-known phrase in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was the one to draft the Declaration of Independence, however, he was not the first to come up with the idea. Thomas Jefferson was greatly influenced by John Locke who had died 71 years before the start of the American Revolutionary War. He leaves a legacy of thoughts on human understanding, religion, economics, and politics that still influence the structure, environment, and operation of public administration today.

The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was the root of many ideas of the American expansion; it was an era of intellectual ferment and prosperity that brought reasoning and political science over superstition and blind faith. Benjamin Franklin’s contrast in ideas from that of the puritans are a clear indication of morality and how it is being redefined. Enlightenment thinkers such as Franklin addressed acknowledged information and spread new thoughts regarding transparency, investigation and self-exploration that will create a major turning point in western advancement, an age of light replacing the age of the blind.

During the 17 and 18th century there was, the Enlightenment Period(a.k.a The age of Reason.) There were a lot of new ideas presented to the public that have changed the world. What was their main idea; and what were they asking? These philosophers were all talking about different things, but their focus was mainly on people and our traits. During this time period the philosophers (Voltaire, Locke, Smith, & Wollstonecraft) were really talking about the same thing. Things that these philosophers were talking about was that we should have the right to a freedom of economics. More ideas these philosophers had in mind was that people should have the freedom of religion and if in any cause the government fails the people should have the right to take over and recreate a new government.

Between the 17th and 18th century, Enlightenment ideas that originated from France spread to other parts of Europe. Prior to the Enlightenment, absolute monarchs ruled most of Europe. Over time, citizens began to question the monarch’s power with ideas from philosophes such as Voltaire and John Locke. The philosophers concluded that society’s problems could be solved using a method of logic and reason. Also known as the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment inspired societal change and evolution. Through the use of logic and reason, enlightened despots of the 18th century were influenced by the social, political, and economic aspects of the Enlightenment.

Influential figures of the late 18th century such as John Locke and Thomas Paine cemented Enlightenment ideas that would ultimately shape the founding of the United States of America. The enlightenment ideas were crafted around motifs such as liberation, challenges to politics, social mobility, and oppression. John Locke and Thomas Paine expressed their concerns around those ideas towards how much power the government should have, as well as calling for a reorganization of a new republic. These concerns were considered revolutionary at the time and therefore began to influence the building blocks of America and it’s identity. The rise of Enlightenment ideas in the late 18th century paved the path for the founding of the United States by laying the foundation for liberated thinking, the concept of consent in government, and a national identity based on freedom for man.

Has it ever crossed your mind to think about some important figures in history? Have you ever questioned who John Locke was or why he is important? For starter we can start thanking John Locke for some of the privileges we have today. Locke and Hobbes where two political philosophers who argued about whether government was a necessary evil or nothing more than a predatory protection racket that hindered peaceful cooperation. Locke said government was a criminal racket and was not needed, while Hobbs said that people would destroy themselves without government. John Locke influenced everything from politics to religion based concepts. If John Locke was to never existed then who would have came up with natural rights and every other theory John Locke had? Its simple no one was as influential as he was and no one would have probably had the same ideas as him. Our government system and our

After years of being subjected to Britain’s constant demands and constricting rules, America decided to pursue the future government and society they desired. They sent a letter to King John III, this letter contained a list of offenses the king had committed, and it also rallied up the colonists to fight for their freedom. This letter, called the Declaration of Independence, was ratified on July 4th, 1776. With the help of five colonists Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to voice the people’s concerns. This letter ended up impacting how the government developed. The American government was significantly influenced by the Declaration of Independence, which established freedom and more rights for the people, and equality

In the 17th and 18th Century, a new age erupted in Europe that shaped the world and it’s ideas to this day, called the Enlightenment Period or the Age of Reason. During the Enlightenment Period, hundreds of individual ideas were expressed between philosophers as well as the citizens of England and France. Interestingly enough, most of these ideas seemed to share one central theme together. This theme was around individual freedoms that people can and should have, and the natural rights they should also hold. In these discussions of individual freedoms, sprouted innovative ideas regarding politics, economics, religion, and social rights.

John Locke “proved to be the most influential philosophical and political thinker of the seventeenth century” (Kagen 213). He lived in a period of great political change; Locke’s upbringing came to influence his philosophies, and these ideas had much significance in regards to the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment was a period of learning and expanding. It was a shift in society and how people thought. John Locke and his ideas contributed in a major way towards the Enlightenment. Locke had three main philosophies, religious tolerance, all men are born a blank slate, and that the divine right to rule is incorrect. His influence on society helped shape the transition of religion to reason & questioning. Locke left a very powerful and positive impact on England during the seventeenth century.

The Enlightenment was a period characterized by the idea that people’s use of reason could unlock the mysteries of the world around them. Thinkers of the Enlightenment saw all aspects of the world—religion, wealth, and the earth itself—as being understandable through natural laws. The reliance on and application of reason on the different aspects of the world used by Enlightenment thinkers was directly informed by the Scientific Revolution. In essence the presentation of and descriptive power of Enlightenment theories and ideas would not have been possible without the strengthened exploratory and explanatory rigor established in the Scientific Revolution.

The Enlightenment period, also known as The Age of Reason, was a period of social, religious, and political revolution throughout the 18th century which changed the thoughts of man during this “awakening” time. It was a liberation of ignorant thoughts, ideas, and actions that had broken away from the ignorant perception of how society was to be kept and obeyed thus giving little room for new ideas about the world. Puritan society found these new ideas of thought to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed which was a belief of strong rational religion and morality. Enlightened society believed that the use of reason would be a catalyst of social change and had a demand of political representation thus resulting in a

The ideas from the Enlightenment and its thinkers greatly influenced the world today, everything from our ideas of modern government to our view of everyday life. Important Enlightenment philosophes such as Locke, Montesquieu, Hobbes and Voltaire established controversial ideas and theories on human nature, natural rights, and how government should be run and which form of it was superior. These ideas were all never even thought of before, and shattered many of the previous notions of ideas, such as ideas of how to run government, that had already been established and taken as a standard for several hundreds of years.

The Enlightenment theory philosophies of John Locke offered a future that could drastically change government, economic and social ideals. Thomas Jefferson borrowed liberally from the enlightenment theory from John Locke, specifically focusing on Locks theories of the equality of men, natural rights, and that people should have a say on how the government treated people. Jefferson created a draft document created a bold experiment, America. The enlightenment philosophy of John Locke theorized that that men were inherently equal, and Jefferson sought to prove this point. In the seventeenth century, Locke proposed a number of theories that would prove a force for change in how government treats their citizens. Locke’s theories of equality and natural rights of men propelled, enlightenment century revolutionaries to propose putting Locke’s enlightenment theories into practice. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Draft of the Declaration of Independence provided an active application of enlightenment theory. The Grand Experiment was about to begin.

The Enlightenment is also referred to as the Age of Reason. These names describe the period in America and Europe in the 1700s. During this period, man was emerging from the ignorance centuries into one that was characterized by respect for humanity, science, and reason. The people involved in Enlightenment had the belief that human reason was useful in discovering the universe’s natural laws, determining mankind’s natural rights, and thereby, unending knowledge progress, moral values, and technical achievement would be attained. John Locke and Isaac Newton are some of the people who played a great role during the Enlightenment period (Wuthnow 41). This paper aims at discussing the political, cultural, religious, intellectual, and economic impacts that were realized during the period.