Ideas During The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a time period in which people began to think independently after the Scientific Revolution. The Enlightenment occurred in Europe where the government was ran by a king with absolute power. Independent thinking during this period led to the American Revolution since colonists decided that they should not be governed by an unfair king or a king at all. Many ideas like this were formed during the Enlightenment by people called philosophers. The four main philosophers of the Enlightenment were John Locke, Francois-Marie Arout (Voltaire), Charles-Louis de Secondat (Baron de Montesquieu), and Thomas Hobbes. The ideas of these philosophers influenced the formation of the United States government by suggesting how the government should and should not be run. These ideas gave people the freedoms that they were not allowed to have under an absolute monarchy. (Worksheets on Enlightenment) …show more content…
This obviously went against the idea of citizens having too much power in their government. He influenced the idea of checks and balances since he believed humans were too selfish to make decisions that would be beneficial to all of society. He said the king was the king because of divine right, or the idea that the king was chosen by God. Hobbes used more science and observation unlike the other philosophers. His ideas were different yet logical and this is what made him important during the Enlightenment. (Worksheet on Thomas Hobbes)
Three of the Enlightenment thinkers had similar ideas. They supported the idea of citizens having rights. They believed that the citizens should have some say in how their government is ran. They did not approve of one person having all of the power. Hobbes influenced the way the government should be ran by telling how citizens in power could backfire. These conflicting ideas balanced each other out in the end. They all played a big part in the formation of America’s