Enlightenment: Enlightenment, And Contributions To The Enlightenment Era

There are many philosophers that make up the Enlightenment period. Some of the philosophers were John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant. They each had different contribution and influences to the Enlightenment era. John Locke was the most prevalent and influential to the American legal system because he adopted the idea of the right of Life, Liberty and Property. “The People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human knowledge and defied the tradition and the pre-established thoughts of the past. This is the period in which the humans became overconfident in the human Reason and rationality”. Locke was able to discuss various issues that needed to be communicated within a society. “Locke’s writings did much

“Must men alone be debarred the common privilege of opposing force with force, which nature allows so freely to all other creatures for their preservation from injury?... Self-defence is a part of the law of nature; nor can it be denied the community, even against the king himself”. Being able to have self defense as a mechanism is necessary because people have to be able to defend themselves if the circumstances calls for it. No one can take that away, not even the ruler himself, whether that be a king a or a president. Thomas Hobbes also agrees with him by stating “a man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force to take away his life, because he cannot be understood to aim thereby at any good to himself”. Self defense is something is essential because all men are created equally and when an unjust action is committed then there should be retaliation. The right to bear arms is a right that everyone has because it is in the Bill of Rights. This right has been integrated into our fundamental rights for many

“For when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority: for that which acts any community, being only the consent of the individuals of it, and it being necessary to that which is one body to move one way”. Men follow the law because “it is a rule of law of nature to abide by pacts”. Men group themselves because it is their human nature to do so. The concept of the social contract was of great significance. Locke “emphasised a contact between the governors and the governed”. A philosopher many centuries before Locke suggested that “he who has experience of the manner in which we order justice and administer the State, and still remains, has entered into an implied contract that he will do as we command him”. The Social Contract is a contract in which two “people” agree upon. In most cases it is a person and its government. According to Rousseau “The social contract was between all members of society, and essentially replaced "natural" rights as the basis for human claims”. The social contract the Locke influenced in America is the Constitution. With the Constitution, people do not directly sign a contract but citizens are obliged to follow