The Enlightenment

In this lesson we learned about four people and their idealistic beliefs. We learned about Rousseau, Locke, Hobbes, and Montesquieu all which had different ideas about society and the people that lived in them. These four people are the ones who created the foundation of beliefs on society and the different views that people have now.

Rousseau believed that the government was a social contract, which is an agreement or compromise between the people and their ruler. This signifies that people give up certain rights to the ruler and the ruler gives the people law and order. Another person that had his own philosophical idea was John Locke. Locke believed that people were naturally born good and were born with “Natural Rights” which are life, liberty, and property. He believed that the responsibility of the government is to protect natural rights and to protect the weak against the strong.

Another person that we learned about was Thomas Hobbes, unlike Locke Hobbes believed that mankind was born evil. He also believed that the social contract was created to control the worst instincts of mankind. The last person we learned about was Montesquieu. He believed that the government could not be trusted and he wanted to divide the government into branches to prevent the concentration of power and corruption. This unit is important because it basically shows us where most of our ideas derive from and how their beliefs have affected our society today.