Preview

Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, And Voltaire

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
183 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, And Voltaire
The ideas from the Enlightenment changed the world over time by causing revolutions. There were four main people whose ideas led to these revolutions: Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire. Locke said that people are born with three natural rights: life, liberty, and property. Locke thought that it was the government’s job to protect these rights. Montesquieu said that there should be a separation of powers. He talked about 3 main branches of government: the judicial, legislative, and executive. Rousseau thought that the government and and people have a “social contract” and when the government breaks that contract, people have a right to back out of it and start a new government. Voltaire stated that there should be a separation between

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    If only there were no infectious disease going around, then Friar John would have been able to go into Mantua. There, Friar John would give Romeo the letter telling him about Juliet’s fake death and what he has to do to get them both back to Mantua. Romeo would then go to Juliet’s tomb and wait until she woke up. They would secretly flee to Mantua where they would live peacefully. This, however, could have happened if there was no disease and Friar John was allowed to go into Mantua to give Romeo the letter. The city, “so fearful were they of infection,” not only didn’t let Friar John come into Mantua, but the letter could not go through either (Shakespeare 16). This event caused everything to go downhill and made Romeo think that Juliet was…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Revolution came from them-the middle class. They were just beginning to learn to read” (Document 4). Through this the middle class gained knowledge and ideas of the Enlightenment. They became philosophers. They started to believe and realized many things. Voltaire believed in freedom of speech but gone thrown in jail for making fun of a rich baron. This made the rest of the citizens to wonder about what they could say and why weren’t they allowed to talk about whatever they wanted?. John Locke was a believer of natural rights from birth and is famous for his writings on rights of life, liberty and property. His writings made people have an “oh yeah!why NOT?!” moment and questioned their rights and the other estates rights deciding that this was unfair and unjust. These people started to believe and agree with what these philosophers thought than what the king or the clergy…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    These questions helped me define terms such as philosophe, natural law and social sciences. This background information gave me a general understanding of the question I was to focus on during my analyzation of the ideas of John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft. After completing the questions coinciding with each document, I was ready to write my essay on what the main idea was of the philosophers during the Enlightenment Period. As a result, I learned that the main idea of the Enlightenment Philosophers was that; for society to function it’s best, individual freedom must be recognized. I learned that John Locke believed in the dangers of a government that has too much power. I learned that Voltaire believed that a government should use it’s powers to promote tolerance of other religions. I also learned that Adam Smith had greater confidence in the individual- rather than the government- when making economic decisions. Finally, I learned that Mary Wollstonecraft in the necessity of education and equal opportunities for…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After many years of absolute monarchy different philosophers, leaders, and writers idealized new forms of government to create the age of Enlightenment. Important Pre-Enlightenment people such as Queen Elizabeth,Thomas Hobbes, King Louis XIV, and Plato believed that the most successful way to run a country was with a single ruler. The philosophers and the leaders of the Enlightenment era believed that providing citizens with independence and freedom was the best way for a country to thrive and succeed.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment was a reaction against the current political and social frameworks in Europe. The enlightenment attempted to suggest the standards of sound judgment and motivation to the workings of ordinary life and in government while questioning humankind in society. It dismissed the celestial privileges of rulers even though it was not as much as an arrangement of thoughts as it was an arrangement of states of mind. At its center was feedback, a scrutinizing of conventional foundations, traditions, and ethics. Enlightenment philosophers, including Voltaire, David Hume, and John Locke each contributed, liberty, opposition against established religion and tabula rasa to western society.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Enlightenment’s Idea’s Influence on America The ideas from the Enlightenment included the philosophies of Voltaire, Baron de Montesquieu John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These ideas included inalienable rights such as freedom, life, privacy, etc. There is a social “contract.” In return of the government protecting the people’s rights, the people would let the government rule.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Enlightenment was based on reason and science. All hypotheses needed to be proven. Thinkers like John Locke, Baron Montesquieu, and Voltaire, had unprecedented ideas about the way a country should run. Voltaire believed in individual rights, and tolerance. Voltaire thought that upon birth, a person’s natural rights were bestowed upon them.…

    • 2079 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout time, the ideas of democracy have changed with the help of many philosophers. Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau were four of the most important founders of the ideals of democracy. Through the Enlightenment Period, these thinkers began creating new ideas that would forever change the way governments are run through time. Our own American government reflects the ideas in some way or another of each of the philosophers we studied. Through new ideas, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Montesquieu all changed the way government was run with the innovative ideas they created.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One major Enlightenment thinker in history is John Locke. Locke had a myriad of ideas that evolved into the American government and continue to thrive today. One right that Locke influenced is the “right to petition the government for redress of grievances” (US Constitution). Although Locke never directly stated that humans should petition the government, he took it a step further. Locke believed it was the right of the people to overthrow a corrupt government.…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The French Revolution began with the Bourgeoisie, ideals like equal rights that developed during the period of the Enlightenment led the Bourgeoisie to become upset with the way they were being treated under the government. Corresponding with the ideas of the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke, the Bourgeoisie essentially wanted life, liberty and property. The Bourgeoisie then created the National Assembly which published the Declaration of Man and Citizen. The Declaration included ideas of natural rights, social contract, freedom of speech as well as press, separation of government and church, and separation of powers these ideas all stemmed from several Enlightenment thinkers. In 1791 a new constitution was published around the ideas on…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Science In The 1860's

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the early 1860’s the French beverage industry was thriving. Pasteur was called upon to tackle some of the problems that were plaguing the industry. The special concern was the spoiling of wine and beer, which caused great economic loss and tarnished France’s reputation for fine vintage wines. He noticed that when aged properly, the liquid contained little yeast cells. But when the wine turned sour, he was a proliferation of bacterial cells which were producing lactic acid. Pasteur suggested that heating the wine gently at 120 degrees Fahrenheit would kill the bacteria that produced lactic acid and let the wine age properly. In 1862, Pasteur was approached and asked to help with a problem. Silkworms had been attacked by a mysterious…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment, which largely took place in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was an intellectual movement that focused on the development of reason and secularism, rather than spirituality. As a result, it directly influenced political and economic policy, especially within the British colonies. One very well-known philosopher was, John Locke; he argued the ideas of natural rights, social contract, and revolution. At their essence, these three concepts proved to be the philosophical basis for the colonies’ protest movement against imperial British policy. Natural rights are defined by a specific group of entitlements, such as freedom, privacy, and life, which are granted to every human being despite them not being written in law.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1700s women had little to no equality, so they started to try and reform society. The philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment used logic, reason, and observation to find truths in society. They used their theories to try and change society for the better, influencing not only regular citizens but other philosophers as well. However, not all the changes and ideas they had made were good; they also influenced people in France to start the French Revolution which ended the Age of Enlightenment. The main concepts of the enlightenment theorists were; Locke's idea of self-government, Voltaire's idea of equality in religion, and Wollstonecraft’s idea of gender equality.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Age of Enlightenment spanned from the Middle 18th century and on to the French Revolution. It is defined as the time when thinkers emerged believing in shedding the light of science and reason on the world in order to question traditional ideas and ways of society’s norms and established hierarchies. Many philosophers presented many theories and beliefs to form questions in the minds of people. These questions entertained elites and aristocrats to pass by the time. Eventually these thinking games evolved into more serious ideas emerged and began challenging those in power. Enlightenment thinkers created many concepts to question the status of the royals and gaining the fear of the upper class, afraid that it would lead to social chaos, and ultimately result…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The ideas from the Enlightenment influenced the actions of the Independence of United States and many other European colonies in the Americas, also the French Revolution, the widely spread ideas of rejection of the autocracy and the prevalence of human rights from the Enlightenment strongly influenced the leaders of this movement. The French Enlightenment was the one who had the major influence in the process of independence, its principles are based in the ideas of the human rights to have a peaceful life, liberty and property, in July 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence would be signed, being inspired by the ideas of Locke, as he “in his second treatise of government, Locke identified the basis of a legitimate government. According to Locke, a ruler gains authority through the consent of the governed. The duty of that government is to protect the natural rights of the people, which Locke believed to include life, liberty, and property. If the government should fail to protect these rights, its citizens would have the right to overthrow that government” (American…

    • 1667 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays