Essay on the Enlightenment

understanding Essay The Enlightenment may mother happened a long judgment of conviction ago, bringing close togethers of the thinkers of that earned run average encounter shaped and influenced ideas of today. Thinkers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke may have directly influenced the government of the unify States. Montesquieu argued that the best government would be matchless whose indicator was balanced between ternion hosts of officials. He thought England which divided spot between the king (who enforced laws), parliament (which made laws), and the judges of the English courts (who understand laws) was a secure model of this. interval of posts was what Montesquieu c whollyed this idea of dividing government power into triad sleevees. He thought it close main(prenominal) to create separate branches of government with come to but different powers. Because this, the government would neer place too much power with one individual or group of indi viduals. He wrote, When the law making and law enforcement powers are united in the same person there set up be no liberty. Montesquieu say for each one branch of government could limit the power of the other two branches.Therefore, no branch of the government could threaten the freedom of the batch. His ideas nearly separation of powers became the basis for the United States Constitution. Voltaire was a French essayist, novelist, poet, and political re skeletoner, just to send for a few things. He advocated spiritual and well-disposed tolerance, which are two things our make government believes in. Voltaire was a proponent of face-to-face liberty and freedom of speech, he said the famous statement I protest with what you say, but I allow for agree to the death your right to say it. liberty of speech is the first amendment in our piece, and the one-quarter amendment is the right to personal liberty. One of his to a greater extent controversial vox populis was the s eparation of church and state, which we article of faith in today. This belief was one of the beliefs that arrive Voltaire in prison, and ultimately exile. The Social set out was one of Rosseaus most of import ideas. Rousseau believed that society and government created a friendly contract where their goals were freedom and benefit to the public.Governments existence depended on the will of the people. The kindly order was based on ordinary will, a shared belief in a common set of interest. He believed that in a democracy, the usual will of the democratic people, expressed in the substance of a majority vote, to make all the decisions. The general will was also a form of freedom, and the purpose of law was to link up the general will with the desires of the people. These ideas on democracy, general will, and freedom are strand in our own government today.Locke was one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment. He believed that by nature men are free, and t hat god made it so people claim a leader. He argued people have rights. Those rights include right to life, liberty, and property. He employ this claim to promote the idea of the social contract, so people can jazz there right to comfortably make happy there lives, liberty, and property. Locke also said that governments existed to treasure the people and promote public good so governments who dont do that should be replacedwith new governments.He said people had a right to revolution. Locke also denied the idea of divine right. All these ideas are found in the constitution. The right to revolution was peculiarly important to the colonists, because they believed the British government was not a good one, so they treasured to replace it with their own new form of government. It was a time of absolute monarchies and authoritarianism in Europe. The US constitution was a reaction to that, a very republican, illustration constitution.Also, it was a time when people were persecut ed or even exiled, for having a religious belief other than the one of the government, the constitution reacted to that. Its also federalist because the US at the time was very decentralized in impairment of communities, people wanted to retain self-governance, quite a than hand it off to far forward England. Many other things in the constitution were different than the beliefs of the governments in Europe, and the colonists wanted to potpourri that. That is how the constitution reflects the times it was written in.