Philosophers, like Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, all had a great influence in the making of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Montesquieu had influenced the writers of the U.S. Constitution with the idea of check and balance. Montesquieu stated, "Power should be a check to power." Montesquieu meant by this statement was that a government should have a separation of power to check and balance the government. As a result of his philosophy, Articles One, Two, and Three show how his ideas influenced the writers of the Constitution.
The French Revolution was a period radical social and political upheaval in France that had a major impact on France and throughout Europe. The Cultural causes had influenced the French Revolution because of many different types of things. One of those thing was the Enlightenment. The people who liked the Enlightenment ideas were John Locke (1632-1704), Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), Voltaire (1694-1778), Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), and Isaac Newton (1643-1727). The Enlightenment was a period of time when The Enlightenment was “During the 18th-century European movement in which thinkers attempted to apply principles of reason and scientific method to all aspects of society”.
On the other hand, the nobility had many rights. Today it’s greatly known that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were well influenced from the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment thinkers argued against these traditions, and called for individual freedoms, governments of the people, and religious freedom. They were "enlightened" because they believed that humans could answer questions for them, and sought ways to put this philosophy into practice. John Locke, an Enlightenment thinker, highly influenced the Declaration of Independence.
AP Government Summer Assignment The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that encouraged individualism and reason instead of tradition. Thinkers such as John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu wrote powerful works revealing these Enlightenment ideas. These works heavily influence the formations of governments. Ideas from these writers and their works are particularly evident in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. The Virginia Declaration of Rights is a document that was written in 1776 to protect the rights of men before the development of the United States.
HUM 2249-46B Successes of the Enlightenment The Enlightenment was the time period in which the many cultural and social changes occurred due to the many thoughtful processes of reason and analysis. Not only that, but it promoted the scientific method, challenged ideas grounded in tradition, faith or superstition, and advocated the restructuring of governments and social institutions based on reason. Enlightenment philosophy also stressed that liberty and equality were natural human rights. Along with this, a unique twist of individualism rather than the traditional ways of thinking could be well-associated with the Age of Enlightenment. As a result, Jefferson, Montesquieu, Locke, and other members of the founding generation were deeply influenced by this 18th-century European intellectual movement.
Locke vs. Hobbes During the Enlightenment, there were several philosophers that have influenced the world in many ways; including the two opposing philosophers, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Although they believed that government was an necessity, Locke and Hobbes had different views on the social contract, which describes the relationship between the government and the people. Out of the two competing theories regarding the social contract that emerged during the Enlightenment, I believe that John Locke’s ideas would create a political system that would provide the population with the most ideal balance between security and liberty. In the book, The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes explained his views of the social contract. First of all, he claimed that human beings in their state of nature are always in a “war [because] [everybody] is against [each] [other].
The writers start off by appealing to his audience through ethos, and then later switches to logos. They begin the text by stating what a true government should be and the values it should hold. They go from sharing their views on what the idealistic, moralistic idea of what a government should do, to stating facts about how their current government has transgressed and oppressed them. This section of the Declaration is known as the grievances, and it lists all the wrong doings of the King of Britain on them and they make their plan to abolish his rule over them known. Through this they convey the idea that if a current government is not function as it should, it should be done away with and replaced.
To begin, there were such huge numbers of various thoughts that came into play making the Constitution of the United States. The Founding Fathers brought a significant number of various types of government for our new nation becoming free from Britain. They needed to improve an administration than what Britain was. However, they needed a legislature that would work for a considerable length of time after as well. So a chosen few were helped make this conceivable, the Founding Fathers.
The search for a national identity and a spirit of nonconformity had entered the hearts of many Americans, such as writers David Hume, Henry David Thoreau, George Putnam, and Frederick Henry Hedge. Led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the progressive philosophy of Transcendentalism took shape in the 1820’s and 1830’s, and its proponents began to question the validity of religious doctrines and protested the intellectual institutions that were in place. Transcendentalism gave America the literary identity it was looking for, and Emerson was the most prominent and distinct voice among the Transcendentalists. Emerson played a major role in steering American literature away from its traditional English background, and called the American citizen to action by promoting the idea of individualism and man’s connection with nature. By challenging conformities created by society, celebrating trust in one's own mind, and designing a practical path to peace of mind through logic and reason, the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson most clearly define the ideals of Transcendentalism.
Religious Revival and Constitutionalism During the Long 19th Century By the nineteenth century, Europe had gained political and economic dominance in the world. In response to this, many non-Western societies advocated religious revival and constitutionalism. These societies redefined their social and cultural visions in order to regain or maintain their independence from the West. They turned to constitutionalism and religious revival because it led to modernity and uniformity in their societies that helped them stave off Western domination. Non-Western societies looked to constitutionalism as something to help modernize and fight off Western domination.