Essay on the Enlightenment

Enlightenment Essay The Enlightenment whitethorn have happened a long prison term ago, ideas of the thinkers of that era have shaped and influenced ideas of today. Thinkers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke may have directly influenced the government of the United States. Montesquieu argued that the best government would be wizard whose power was balanced between three groups of officials. He view England which divided power between the king (who enforced laws), Parliament (which make laws), and the judges of the English courts (who interpreted laws) was a good model of this. musical interval of powers was what Montesquieu called this idea of dividing government power into three branches. He thought it nigh important to create separate branches of government with equal al angiotensin converting enzyme several(predicate) powers. Because this, the government would never place too much power with one individual or group of individuals. He wrote, When the law makin g and law enforcement powers are united in the same person there can be no liberty. Montesquieu give tongue to each branch of government could limit the power of the other ii branches.Therefore, no branch of the government could threaten the immunity of the pack. His ideas about separation of powers became the basis for the United States Constitution. Voltaire was a French essayist, novelist, poet, and political reformer, just to urinate a few things. He advocated Religious and loving tolerance, which are 2 things our declare government believes in. Voltaire was a proponent of personal liberty and freedom of speech, he said the famous statement I disagree with what you say, but I forget defend to the death your safe to say it. granting immunity of speech is the first amendment in our ecesis, and the fourth amendment is the right to personal liberty. unrivaled of his more controversial smells was the separation of church and state, which we belief in today. This belief was one of the beliefs that landed Voltaire in prison, and ultimately exile. The Social Contract was one of Rosseaus most important ideas. Rousseau believed that society and government created a social contract where their goals were freedom and benefit to the habitual.Governments existence depended on the bequeath of the people. The social order was based on general will, a overlap belief in a common set of interest. He believed that in a democracy, the general will of the democratic people, expressed in the means of a majority vote, to make all the decisions. The general will was in like manner a form of freedom, and the purpose of law was to combine the general will with the desires of the people. These ideas on democracy, general will, and freedom are found in our own government today.Locke was one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment. He believed that by nature men are free, and that God made it so people need a leader. He argued people have rights. T hose rights include right to life, liberty, and property. He used this claim to promote the idea of the social contract, so people can adore there right to comfortably enjoy there lives, liberty, and property. Locke also said that governments existed to protect the people and promote public good so governments who dont do that should be replacedwith bracing governments.He said people had a right to revolution. Locke also denied the idea of manufacturing business right. All these ideas are found in the shaping. The right to revolution was oddly important to the colonists, because they believed the British government was not a good one, so they wanted to replace it with their own new form of government. It was a time of absolute monarchies and tyranny in Europe. The US constitution was a response to that, a very republican, representative constitution.Also, it was a time when people were persecuted or even exiled, for having a religious belief other than the one of the government , the constitution reacted to that. Its also federalist because the US at the time was very decentralised in terms of communities, people wanted to retain self-governance, rather than go through it off to far away England. Many other things in the constitution were different than the beliefs of the governments in Europe, and the colonists wanted to change that. That is how the constitution reflects the times it was pen in.