The American Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment is roughly described as the hundred years preceding the American Revolution and ending a few years later with the French Revolutionary War . This is the period of time when philosophers and rabble rousers around the world argued that the divine rule of kings , an accepted practice for centuries , was not the best means to govern a country . Instead , men argued that kings were fallible and corruptible and that government should protect the rights of the common man . Perhaps most shockingly of all , these thinkers argued that the common

man had rights other than those gifted him by his king . They argued that men had certain inalienable rights ' given him by God and that it was the duty of a righteous society to protect those rights

The most famous philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment is John Locke an English philosopher who is largely credited with the development of social contract theory and is largely responsible for the thinking that lead to Thomas Jefferson 's drafting of the Declaration of Independence (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophers , 2007 . Much of Locke 's work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism . This opposition is both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such as government and church . For the individual , Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophers , 2007 . The biggest change of Locke 's philosophy from those that came before him is his insistence that government and the church derive their power from the people and not vice versa . He argued that people are born with an inner need for freedom and that the right to be free and express themselves as they desire should never be taken from people . Most of the American revolutionaries and authors of the American historical documents including the Declaration of Independence , the Constitution , Common Sense , and many of the works of Benjamin Franklin were inspired by the works of John Locke

The positive side of Locke 's anti-authoritarianism is that he believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth , and determining the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare . This in turn , amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophers , 2007 ) In many ways , Locke is the father of modern thought , as it was through him that we developed into the Age of Reason By studying the works of Locke , other prominent American thinkers , like Benjamin Franklin , would develop a desire to find the rational and logical explanation for things . This led Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to the pursuit of science in addition to the pursuits of scholarly thinking and showed the two that they could mesh their religious beliefs and modern science

This theory would carry forward into American...