John Locke And Thomas Paine And The Enlightenment Ideas

The Influence of Enlightenment Intellectuals on American Government Intellectual and moral movements have been at the heart of human progression. These revolutions open minds and hearts and inspire those to work towards the betterment of the individual, community and society. Campaigns for justice, equality and change have sparked the creation of new laws and even new nations. Ideas from movements such as The Enlightenment have inspired and been reflected in the American Revolution, which resulted in the birth of the United States of America. Enlightenment thinkers have had the greatest influence on the development of American government.

The Lockean ideas are fundamental in the founding documents. In the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, it begins with a revolutionary phrase, “We the people.”The first three words of the preamble to the Constitution suggest one element unique to the American Revolution. First, its outcome was a government created by the people, and for the service of the people. The new American government was not one existing independently of them or, in some respect, over them. The idea of popular sovereignty in the United States predates the

These rights included life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He also believed in having a limited government. His ideas had a great impact on the U.S. government and the Declaration of Independence. John Locke’s influence was evident in the Declaration of Independence when it said, “…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The colonists believed they had these unalienable rights, therefore the Americans established a government where people would be guaranteed these rights. The Americans believed that Britain was “deaf to the voice of justice.” Britain refused to respond to the outcries of the colonists. John Locke believed selfishness would always get in the way of acting morally, and Britain’s selfishness was blinding them from the suffering the colonists faced. The Americans developed a government that would listen to the people and let them have a

In his Second Treatise on Government Locke focus’ on liberalism & capitalism, defending the claim that men are by nature free and equal against the idea that God had made all people subject to a king. He argued that people have ‘natural rights’, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that hold the foundation for the major laws of a society. He says, “…we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.” (2nd Treatise, Chapter 2, sec 4). John Locke used this claim, that all men were naturally free and equal, for understanding the idea of a government as a result of a social contract. This is where people in the state of nature transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better guarantee the steady and comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.

Constitution. John Locke’s belief of “life, liberty, and property” was the most influence on the American. Beside the Magna Carta, Petition of Rights, and English Bill of Rights, Locke also has a great influence of limit government. Locke’s Social Contract theory was to protect the basic rights of the people, it for the right of citizens to revolt against their king. Social contract is a convention between men that aims to discard the state of nature. According to Locke, the State of Nature is a state of perfect and complete liberty to behavior one's life as one best perceives fit, and free from the interfering of others. Also from Locke’s view of State of Nature, he believes it was given by

Throughout history, there have been many prolific philosophers and writers who have created works and writings that have advanced the way society thinks about their lives and what exactly they want from the world. What they presented ranged from something as simple as new ideas and theories, or as large as a revolution. There are some, although barring a few differences, that tried to present similar ideas and writings to cause a change in processes and a different mindset for the people. Take the theories from John Locke’s The Social Contract and Thomas Paine’s radical beliefs from The Age of Reason. Both of these men attempted to introduce a change in the way society thought and lived through both their own opinions and the idea that all people are entitled certain rights upon birth. The two had similar reasoning and ideals when they were describing their vision of an ideal society. Although the two presented their beliefs for different reasons, both John Locke and Thomas Paine’s writings resulted in a major impact on the minds of the people, as well as changes in society, for years to come.

The United States of America was established in the Enlightenment period. No other country has the imprint of this period like the United States. “The contributions of men like Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson to the founding and development of America and its ideals are inconceivable outside of an Enlightenment context,” (Staloff, 3). The ideals of liberty and equality echos the language of the Enlightenment and conveys the most intense thoughts about the political life and the rights of mankind. It was through this Enlightenment that they wrote the Declaration of Independence and founded the United States of America.

The Declaration of Independence uses many of the beliefs that are central to Locke’s Two Treaties of Government, which are all still very important to us today. Beliefs such as all people are equal, their natural rights, and the government’s role in its citizens lives was the foundation to building the United States the world knows today. The focal points in their two documents are almost exactly the same; Locke emphasizes people’s natural rights in the statement “that being all equal and independent, no one ought to hurt ones life, liberty, or property", while Jefferson highlights them by saying “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness." It is commonly speculated that Jefferson’s first draft of Declaration of Independence actually copied Locke verbatim by saying “life, liberty, and property”, rather than “pursuit of happiness”. While this has never been proven, it shows how Jefferson utilized Locke’s ideas.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and John Locke’s Second Treatise of the Government are the underlying influences of The Declaration of Independence. This gave Thomas Jefferson, the author, a basis for undeniable rights of men and a new formation of government. Although Jefferson and Paine’s works share the same rudimentary principles, their ideas are clarified in different ways. Paine promotes the use of a Continental Conference to commission a continental charter that will lay down laws for the land, ensuring its citizens undeniable rights. The Declaration of Independence was later commissioned by the Continental Congress and written by Thomas Jefferson. It is important to Paine and the Continental Congress that laws are documented. The Declaration of Independence can be described as a coming out for the United States as an independent nation to the world, while detailing their radical decision to split from Britain. The Declaration of Independence explains, “a decent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation”. Jefferson deemed it necessary to explain why this document is being created.

John Locke believed that everyone had a series of God-given rights—a natural moral law, and people gave rights to the government when it came to how they should be ruled. Locke is responsible for some of the most influential writings on liberty. His writings helped influence Thomas Paine’s ideas about revolution. James Madison, one of the writers of the bill of rights, was influenced greatly by Locke, and the French philosopher Voltaire called him “the man of great wisdom.”

“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” as stated in the Constitution as well as stated by the philosopher John Locke, is the basis for the United States of America as we know it today. The notion that all humans were created equal and that all people are entitled to basic human rights came from the various experiences the colonists faced through the Revolution, which was a vital influence in the creation of the Constitution. The revolution was a key turning point in American history, it was when the American colonies rejected the ideals of the British and battled for their independence.

Locke defended the belief that individuals are born with natural rights to life, liberty, and property in the “Two Treatises of Government” and used it to support the idea of a social contract between the people and the authority. He believed that to maintain a stable and safe society, the people should resign some of its power to its government. Since the legitimacy of the ruler is assigned by the governed they have the right to replace the government if it fails to protect the welfare of the people. His radical thinking ignited revolutionary thoughts that led to the American Revolution and consequentially to the French Revolution. He inspired the founding fathers to create the United States of America, a government based on Locke’s political philosophies like the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness in the Declaration of Independence or the concept of three branches of government that would keep each other balanced in the

John Locke believed that all people had the same natural rights of life, liberty, and property. As John Locke said, “...the power of the society or legislative constituted by them can never be supposed to extend farther than the common good...” (Two Treatises of Government, 1690). Locke means that the government doesn’t have any power to impose laws onto the people unless those laws are created for the common good of the people. John Locke also said that “...the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people, by this branch of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends...”

The Enlightenment of the 1600s and 1700s was a time of lasting change. Philosophers emphasized the use of human reason, natural laws were introduced, and perhaps most importantly – people began to turn away from absolutism and divine right and towards democracy. These ideas would end up having a monumental impact on the future revolutionary leaders in America. Enlightenment thinkers like Thomas Reid and Francis Hutchison had a direct and obvious influence on Thomas Jefferson, the author of our Constitution. Along with the Enlightenment, the Glorious Revolution, English Civil War, and their thinkers were key influences on the American Revolution that helped determine many important features of America then and now.

New ideas and liberties followed into the states including freedom religion where one could believe what one wanted to. John Locke came up with enlightenment ideas such as the “natural rights.” Natural rights are the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that each American has their own rights to. Thomas Jefferson added to the General assembly of Virginia in 1786, that every man should have the right to pursue any religious practice that one would please. This brought on the Bill of Rights in 1791.