How did the enlightenment thinkers impact US government today?
The Enlightenment was a way of thinking about things and an attitude toward man and how he interacted with his world. It wasn't so much of a movement to gather others to join it as a group of thinkers that based their basic ideas and beliefs on reason. Jefferson took two of the main ideas of Enlightenment thinker John Locke as a guide in the Declaration of Independence. He stated that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." This is not a direct interpretation of Locke because Locke had stated that the third "natural …show more content…
The bill of rights brings out these ways.To combat the power of churches, the freedom of religion clauses of the First Amendment were added.Many of the rest of the amendments are meant to either help allow reason to prevail and/or to prevent tyranny. For example The First Amendment stuff on freedom of speech, press, etc is meant to give people a chance to use their reason and to convince others of what is right.The 4th Amendment and others are meant to ensure that the government can't act in tyrannical ways.The Bill of Rights reflects a key Enlightenment idea because it limits what government can do and it does so in order to protect the rights of the people.According to John Locke, the purpose of government was to protect the basic human rights of its people. The Bill of Rights is meant to ensure that government cannot go against this idea and break the terms or laws of this document on those rights. It spells out the rights that are reasonable to human society and it prohibits the government from changing laws in obnoxious ways. In this way, it protects human rights, just as Enlightenment thinkers want the government to
The Enlightenment was a way of thinking about things and an attitude toward man and how he interacted with his world. It wasn't so much of a movement to gather others to join it as a group of thinkers that based their basic ideas and beliefs on reason. Jefferson took two of the main ideas of Enlightenment thinker John Locke as a guide in the Declaration of Independence. He stated that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." This is not a direct interpretation of Locke because Locke had stated that the third "natural …show more content…
The bill of rights brings out these ways.To combat the power of churches, the freedom of religion clauses of the First Amendment were added.Many of the rest of the amendments are meant to either help allow reason to prevail and/or to prevent tyranny. For example The First Amendment stuff on freedom of speech, press, etc is meant to give people a chance to use their reason and to convince others of what is right.The 4th Amendment and others are meant to ensure that the government can't act in tyrannical ways.The Bill of Rights reflects a key Enlightenment idea because it limits what government can do and it does so in order to protect the rights of the people.According to John Locke, the purpose of government was to protect the basic human rights of its people. The Bill of Rights is meant to ensure that government cannot go against this idea and break the terms or laws of this document on those rights. It spells out the rights that are reasonable to human society and it prohibits the government from changing laws in obnoxious ways. In this way, it protects human rights, just as Enlightenment thinkers want the government to