ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHERS & FOUNDING FATHERS
Jadan Griffin
Rousseau
- Rousseau argue that modern states prevent the physical freedom that we have the right of, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom. He suggests that we receive legitimate political authority and he believe that the only way to receive that is to from a social contract agreed upon by all citizens.
Conclusion
The heart that beats in the body of democracy is reason, for only beings who are inherently free and rational are able to live in a democracy. This is the primary influence which the Enlightenment had on our founding fathers.The second thing that can be said of the men who shaped our nation, is that they did so without and doubt as to their right to do so. They were by and large educated men, mostly lawyers, they were men who had led and governed this nation before it was a nation, they were the economic and political and educational elite of this country. They established a nation which best suited their political and economic and personal class interests. In this way too they reflected Enlightenment. The thinkers of the Enlightenment were the spokesmen of a new and rising class of educated and wealthy merchants and businessmen. It was this class as well, to which the majority of our founding fathers belonged and whose interests they upheld and spoke for. In conclusion, both philosophically and actually, the founding fathers were representative of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason.
The famous phrase, "man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains,"
He suggest that everyone should have:
- Sovereignty
- Rousseau calls the grouping of all citizens the "sovereign," and claims that it should be considered in many ways to be like an individual person.
- The sovereign only has authority over matters that are of public concern.
- Rousseau recommends the death penalty for those who violate the social contract.
- Civil Religion
- The state finds it important that each citizen have a religion requiring a devotion to his duty
- The state can not hold anyone to these requests but they can banish anyone who doesn't follow them.
- Property Rights
- the state controls all their goods under the social contract but it controls them only through the right of first holder which individuals convey to the State.
- Need for Citizen Participation, Not Representation
- People have to vote in their government. Representation is useless because the few cannot support all of the ideals of the many.
- If not everyone votes for a law to be passed, it cannot be considered a true law. Everyone has to have a say.
John Locke
Montesquieu
ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHERS
&
Founding Fathers
- The Second Treatise of Government places sovereignty into the hands of the people. Locke's argument is that people are equal and has natural rights. The natural law should govern behavior and each person should have the right to execute that law against someone who wrongs them.
- Locke describes a state with a separate judicial, legislative, and executive branch.
- The legislative branch will be the most important of the three, since it determined the laws that governed the society.
- He was a nobleman, a judge in a French court, and one of the most influential political thinkers.
- He developed a number of political theories presented in The Spirit of the Laws (1748).
- The most important one was respect for the role of history and climate in shaping a nation's political structure.
- He believed that In every government there are three sorts of power
- legislative
- executive
- judicial
Founding Fathers
THE RESOLUTION OF THE STAMP ACT
- In a collaboration, John Dickinson and John Cruger wrote a resolution letter to the Parliament persuading them to repeal the Stamp Act in 1765. The letter makes the case that the colonists are British citizens, and it states all the rights that an English citizen has.
- It states “That His Majesty's subjects in these colonies, owe the same allegiance to the Crown of Great-Britain, that is owing from his subjects born within the realm, and all due subordination to that august body the Parliament of Great Britain.” They persuaded the parliament to make the taxes fair to the colonies.
- Impact: All of the enlightenment philosophers was a big influence on the resolution letter to the parliament. In the letters he used the ideas of colonists having a right and a say which is all discussed in the philosophers works.
“The government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humour and disposition of the people in whose favour it is established.”
- The constitution of the country, explains Montesquieu, is a reflection of what the people are.
THE RIGHTS OF COLONISTS
- Montesquieu suggests that there be three governments and that all others can be classified into one of the three, which are: Monarchical, Republic and Despotic.
- “in monarchies they will have honor for their object; in republics, virtue; in despotic government, fear.”
- He also believed that their should be a separation of powers:
- Executive,
- Legislative
- Judicial.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
- Four years before the Declaration of Independence (Nov 20, 1772), Samuel Adams wrote a document that contained many of the same ideas.
- He talked about the colonist natural rights as men, subjects, and as christians.
- The rights consist of the following:
1. A right to life
2. A right to liberty
3. A right to property
- Impact: Samuel Adams was heavily influenced by John Locke and Rousseau. Locke argued that because governments were instituted to protect the unalienable rights of individuals, they had no power other than what was necessary to protect such rights. Rousseau stated how colonist should have the right to own land. In other words, a free and just government was necessarily a limited government. They describe the natural law of people and the rights. Their work are also reflected in the Declaration of Independence.
He states “Now this power, which every man has in the state of nature, and which he parts with to the society in all such cases where the society can secure him, is to use such means for the preserving of his own property, as he thinks good and nature allows him, and to punish the breach of the law of nature in others, so as (according to the best of his reason) may most conduce tot the preservation of himself and the rest of mankind.”
July 4, 1776
Author: Representatives from all the colonies, most famously: Thomas Jefferson as the true author. The Second Continental Congress initially appointed five people to draw up a declaration. The committee included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson.
Impact: John Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau was all a big influence on the declaration of Independence. Montesquieu came up with the idea of the separation of powers. Rousseau came up with the idea of having property rights. Rousseau also had other ideas that were reflected in the declaration. The statement "We hold these truths to be self evident...." implies that man is able to grasp truths, and beyond this, that all men are equally rational and thus equally able to pursue live their lives, pursue their happiness, and live freely. John Locke wanted everyone to have the "right to life, liberty, and property" which is used in the Declaration of Independence as the "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They declaration discussed:
- Separation of powers
- Laws of nature and Laws of God
- All men are created equal,
- Unalienable Rights
- Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
To sum up, Locke's model consisted of a civil state, built upon the natural rights common to people who need and welcome an executive power to protect their property and liberties.
John Locke
The era which brought into being the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is often referred to as the "New Enlightenment.” The thoughts/ideas of these philosophers have contributed tremendously to the founding of America. The founding fathers of America reflected the value and beliefs of these philosophers. They used their ideas/thoughts to shape the society that America have today.
Montesquieu
Rousseau