Which philosopher greatly influenced the founders

During political exile in Holland, Locke refined his most famous works of philosophy and political theory: the Essay concerning Human Understanding and the Two Treatises of Government , respectively. Locke published these works only after the Glorious Revolution of , when Parliament had deposed the absolutist James II in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and even then he kept the authorship of the Treatises anonymous.

It proved essential to the American founders, although later historians have engaged in wide-ranging debates as to whether Locke was chiefly a radical libertarian, an apologist for capitalism, a social democrat, a moral individualist, an atheistic hedonist, or a deeply religious reformer. The core ideas in the Second Treatise are deceptively simple.

Individuals give up their natural rights to judge disputes and enforce the law of nature, and in thus giving up their individual rights they create the original powers of government: the legislative and executive, a distinction that Locke uses to justify a fundamental separation of powers.

They frequently cited him during the Stamp Act protests and the Pamphlet War. As a Christian rationalist, Locke renounced the ideas that faith can be forced and that piety demands a particular organizational or doctrinal orthodoxy. The boundaries of both are fixed and immovable. He jumbles Heaven and Earth together.

Although Locke, responding to the fevered religious battles of his day, conceded the impracticality of extending tolerance to atheists , who he thought lacked morality, or Catholics , who he felt despised the rule of law, he still sought to distance religious belief from the coercive and corrupting force of the state.

This article was originally published in The Leviathan was written by Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century. In The Leviathan , Hobbes argue that human beings are naturally belligerent and inclined toward aggressive competition and self-interest. He believed that, due to the defects of human nature, the best form of government was an absolute ruler, who could constrain the chaos that would ultimately ensue in a free and democratic society.

What did the French philosopher, Montesquieu, primarily contribute to the United States Constitution? A bicameral legislature. Montesquieu was a French Enlightenment-Era philosopher whose writings greatly influenced the Founding Fathers. Most notably he argued determinedly for a separation of powers in any democratic government to ensure that no one part of the government could become despotic.

Laissez-faire economics is a system of economic practice where the market is entirely free and completely devoid of government interference. It long had an ideological impact on the formation of the American economy, but is very far removed from the type of economy that America has at the present. Which of these American politicians was most notably influenced by the writings of John Locke? John Locke was an English Enlightenment-Era philosopher who famously wrote two treatises on government.

His beliefs that there were certain inalienable rights granted to all individuals—to life, liberty, and property—were very influential over many of the American Founding Fathers. If you've found an issue with this question, please let us know. With the help of the community we can continue to improve our educational resources. If Varsity Tutors takes action in response to an Infringement Notice, it will make a good faith attempt to contact the party that made such content available by means of the most recent email address, if any, provided by such party to Varsity Tutors.

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The Virginia Plan. Correct answer: The Albany Plan. Report an Error. Example Question 2 : Influencing Philosophies. John Locke — was born shortly before the English Civil War. Locke studied science and medicine at Oxford University and became a professor there. This event reduced the power of the king and made Parliament the major authority in English government.

In , Locke published his Two Treatises of Government. He generally agreed with Hobbes about the brutality of the state of nature, which required a social contract to assure peace. But he disagreed with Hobbes on two major points. First, Locke argued that natural rights such as life, liberty, and property existed in the state of nature and could never be taken away or even voluntarily given up by individuals.

Locke also disagreed with Hobbes about the social contract. For him, it was not just an agreement among the people, but between them and the sovereign preferably a king.

According to Locke, the natural rights of individuals limited the power of the king. The king did not hold absolute power, as Hobbes had said, but acted only to enforce and protect the natural rights of the people.

If a sovereign violated these rights, the social contract was broken, and the people had the right to revolt and establish a new government. Although Locke spoke out for freedom of thought, speech, and religion, he believed property to be the most important natural right. He declared that owners may do whatever they want with their property as long as they do not invade the rights of others.

Locke favored a representative government such as the English Parliament, which had a hereditary House of Lords and an elected House of Commons. But he wanted representatives to be only men of property and business. Consequently, only adult male property owners should have the right to vote.

Locke was reluctant to allow the propertyless masses of people to participate in government because he believed that they were unfit. The executive prime minister and courts would be creations of the legislature and under its authority. Montesquieu was born into a noble family and educated in the law.

He traveled extensively throughout Europe, including England, where he studied the Parliament. Montesquieu published his greatest work, The Spirit of the Laws , in Unlike Hobbes and Locke, Montesquieu believed that in the state of nature individuals were so fearful that they avoided violence and war. The need for food, Montesquieu said, caused the timid humans to associate with others and seek to live in a society. Montesquieu did not describe a social contract as such. But he said that the state of war among individuals and nations led to human laws and government.

Montesquieu wrote that the main purpose of government is to maintain law and order, political liberty, and the property of the individual. Montesquieu opposed the absolute monarchy of his home country and favored the English system as the best model of government.

Montesquieu somewhat misinterpreted how political power was actually exercised in England. When he wrote The Spirit of the Laws , power was concentrated pretty much in Parliament, the national legislature. Montesquieu thought he saw a separation and balancing of the powers of government in England. Montesquieu viewed the English king as exercising executive power balanced by the law-making Parliament, which was itself divided into the House of Lords and the House of Commons, each checking the other.

At the time of the Trial of Louis XVI, Condorcet, who opposed the death penalty but still supported the trial itself, spoke out against the execution of the King during the public vote at the Convention. He proposed to send the king to the galleys. Changing forces and shifts in power among different revolutionary groups eventually positioned largely independent Condorcet in the role of the critic of predominant ideas. After a period of hiding, he was captured and in he mysteriously died in prison.

It narrates the history of civilization as one of progress in the sciences, shows the intimate connection between scientific progress and the development of human rights and justice, and outlines the features of a future rational society entirely shaped by scientific knowledge.

It also made the notion of progress a central concern of Enlightenment thought. Condorcet argued that expanding knowledge in the natural and social sciences would lead to an ever more just world of individual freedom, material affluence, and moral compassion. He believed that through the use of our senses and communication with others, knowledge could be compared and contrasted as a way of analyzing our systems of belief and understanding.

Instead, he frequently wrote of his faith in humanity itself and its ability to progress with the help of philosophers. He envisioned man as continually progressing toward a perfectly utopian society. However, he stressed that for this to be a possibility, man must unify regardless of race, religion, culture, or gender. According to Condorcet, for republicanism to exist the nation needed enlightened citizens, and education needed democracy to become truly public.

Democracy implied free citizens and ignorance was the source of servitude. Citizens had to be provided with the necessary knowledge to exercise their freedom and understand the rights and laws that guaranteed their enjoyment. Although education could not eliminate disparities in talent, all citizens, including women, had the right to free education.

In opposition to those who relied on revolutionary enthusiasm to form the new citizens, Condorcet maintained that revolution was not made to last, and that revolutionary institutions were not intended to prolong the revolutionary experience but to establish political rules and legal mechanisms that would insure future changes without revolution.

In a democratic city there would be no Bastille to be seized. Public education would form free and responsible citizens, not revolutionaries. After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay , Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement.

She died at the age of 38, eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts.

The second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, became an accomplished writer herself as Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Today, Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences.

Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie c. Despite the controversial topic, the Rights of Woman received favorable reviews and was a great success. It was almost immediately released in a second edition in , several American editions appeared, and it was translated into French.

It was only the later revelations of her personal life that resulted in negative views towards Wollstonecraft, which persisted for over a century. Both texts also advocate the education of women, a controversial topic at the time, and one which she would return to throughout her career. Wollstonecraft argues that well-educated women will be good wives and mothers, and ultimately contribute positively to the nation.

Wollstonecraft attacked not only monarchy and hereditary privilege, but also the gendered language that Burke used to defend and elevate it. Burke associated the beautiful with weakness and femininity, and the sublime with strength and masculinity. In her arguments for republican virtue, Wollstonecraft invokes an emerging middle-class ethos in opposition to what she views as the vice-ridden aristocratic code of manners.

Influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, she believed in progress, and derides Burke for relying on tradition and custom. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.

Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Large sections of the Rights of Woman respond vitriolically to the writers, who wanted to deny women an education.

While Wollstonecraft does call for equality between the sexes in particular areas of life, such as morality, she does not explicitly state that men and women are equal. She claims that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. However, such statements of equality stand in contrast to her statements respecting the superiority of masculine strength and valor.

Her ambiguous position regarding the equality of the sexes have since made it difficult to classify Wollstonecraft as a modern feminist. Her focus on the rights of women does distinguish Wollstonecraft from most of her male Enlightenment counterparts. However, some of them, most notably Marquis de Condorcet, expressed a much more explicit position on the equality of men and women. It encourages modesty and industry in its readers and attacks the uselessness of the aristocracy.

But Wollstonecraft is not necessarily a friend to the poor. For example, in her national plan for education, she suggests that, after the age of nine, the poor, except for those who are brilliant, should be separated from the rich and taught in another school. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content.

The Age of Enlightenment. Search for:. Enlightenment Thinkers. Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher and scientist, was one of the key figures in the political debates of the Enlightenment period. Key Takeaways Key Points Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher and scientist, was one of the key figures in the political debates of the Enlightenment period.

Despite advocating the idea of absolutism of the sovereign, he developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought. Hobbes argued that in order to avoid chaos, which he associated with the state of nature, people accede to a social contract and establish a civil society.

While he recognized the inalienable rights of the human, he argued that if humans wished to live peacefully, they had to give up most of their natural rights and create moral obligations, in order to establish political and civil society. Key Terms natural rights : The rights that are not dependent on the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and are therefore universal and inalienable i. The first and second conflicts pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament.

Leviathan : A book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. It argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. John Locke John Locke, an English philosopher and physician, is regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, whose work greatly contributed to the development of the notions of social contract and natural rights.

The First Treatise is focused on the refutation of Sir Robert Filmer, in particular his Patriarcha, which argued that civil society was founded on a divinely sanctioned patriarchalism. He believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance, but he assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts in a civil way with help from government in a state of society.

Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world, rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation. Two Treatises of Government : A work of political philosophy published anonymously in by John Locke.

Baron de Montesquieu Montesquieu was a French political philosopher of the Enlightenment period, whose articulation of the theory of separation of powers is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. Key Takeaways Key Points Montesquieu was a French lawyer, man of letters, and one of the most influential political philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. His political theory work, particularly the idea of separation of powers, shaped the modern democratic government.

The Spirit of the Laws is a treatise on political theory that was first published anonymously by Montesquieu in Montesquieu covered many topics, including the law, social life, and the study of anthropology, and provided more than 3, commendations.