Enlightenment Thinkers :: essays research papers

annals EssayDo you agree with the Enlightenment thinkers such as Ben Franklin that human ar basically good?The Scientific Revolution had led muckle looking for laws governing human behavior. The ideas of the Scientific Revolution paved the sort for a new period called the Enlightenment, also known as the come on of Reason. This period took place in the eighteenth- century. This was the philosophical movement that emphasized the out of bounds of knowledge through reason and refused to accept ideas on the strength of worship or tradition alone. Thinkers and philosophers of the time included, Ben Franklin, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and many more. The spirit that appealed to most political figures of the time, was deism. Deism was the belief that God created the universe in such a way that no divine intervention was unavoidable for its continued operation. Most thinkers of the time believed that humans were basically good. In directlys carriage it is noticeable that this be lieve does not apply to all, but to any. Although it is also not fair to say that all humans be sinners.Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher of the 1600s, tried to create a science of politics. after(prenominal) witnessing the horrors of the English Civil War, Hobbes decided that conflict was part of human genius. Without governments to save order, Hobbes said, there would be war of ein truthone against everyone. In this state of nature life would be nasty, brutish, and short. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes argued that to escape such a naked as a jaybird life, people gave up their rights to a strong ruler. In exchange, they gained law and order. Hobbes called this agreement, by which people created a government, the social contract. Hobbes basically saw people as naturally selfish and violent.John Locke was another philosopher of the Enlightenment. He viewed human nature very differently from Hobbes. Locke said a person is not natural good or evil. Rather he said, peoples cha racters atomic number 18 shaped by their experiences. Locke felt people could learn from experience and correct themselves, which led him to believe in self-governing. According to Locke, all people are born free and equal, with three natural rights- life, liberty and property. He believed that the office of a government of is to protect these rights and if they fail the people would have the major power to overthrow them. This idea is still standing today. The key thinkers of the Enlightenment had very definite views on the ideal government.