John Locke's Contributions To The Enlightenment

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The Enlightenment was a movement that claimed the minds of a majority of liberal thinkers and was a time of political awakening that became revolutionary. Spreading throughout Europe and describing a time in western philosophy, the Enlightenment was the time scholars and intellectuals were free to speak their mind without fear of authority. Individuals of this certain time period, which was known as the “Age of Reason” spoke on fundamental concepts that were faith in nature, belief in human progress, reason and liberty. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century the Enlightenment brought a new wave of information and thought into a society at the time that was controlled by aristocrats and people who held high positions in the church. …show more content…
In his “Second Treatise on Government”, Locke explains in establishing a government, individuals should not have to surrender their natural born rights to any person in authority. Locke’s fundamental argument is that all people are equal and should live free from rule, and in the state of nature each person has the right to choose what is best for him and his property. “Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust.” Locke says it all here, that we should not be following a power that is ruled behind ignorant selfish leaders that do not care about the well-being of its citizens. Why should the poor exchange some of its natural rights just to enter into society? He expresses that people should not be held under arbitrary power and be reduced to being treated like slaves by the legislators that raise taxes on property without the consent of the people. Locke, could be defined as an Enlightenment figure because he stood for the common people. He voiced his opinions about the broken government without fear and spoke on everything the movement stood for. He stood by the people and against the authority on how every human has their rights, and no one should have their natural born rights taken away from them or be governed by a group of rich elites and aristocrats. John Locke preferred to rebel against all traditional established institutions as he said “The end of government is the good of

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