The enlightenment also known as the Age of Reason was an intellectual and philosophical movement that started in Europe

in the 17th century. It was a time when reason, logic and freedom of thought began to replace the blind faith and superstition of the Middle Ages. The enlightenment was a result of the scientific revolution that brought back old ideas of logic and reason that the Greek used. In this new age, there were many thinkers who came up with ideas, and questioned old ones. These new thinkers believed in the idea that every man was born with natural rights and these natural rights cannot and should not be taking away by anyone. Although the enlightenment brought forth these new ideas, it also came with its problems. The enlightened people were few and far between and they faced lots of opposition from the regimes that governed Europe at the time. Some of these new thinkers included John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Baron Montesquieu. John Locke was an Englishman who believed that each individual was born with the right to life, liberty and property. It is in the nature of man to be in perfect freedom, and no other man should have the power to take away said freedom. This idea of freedom of self was one that emerged from the enlightenment. Locke wrote the Two treatises of Government, which outlines the natural rights of man and how those rights are protected and the formation of government and much more. In this book he states the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone and reason which is that law, teaches mankind who will but consult itno one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions. The meaning of this quote and the words Locke himself uses stem directly from the enlightenment-the idea of the rights which

man has and how those rights ought to be protected. Lockes ideas influenced both the American and French Revolution. Both the Americans and French were dealing with monarchies that were trying to take and control their liberties. Lockes ideas gave them a starting point to ask for their natural rights. Using Lockes ideas, both these countries dissolved their government and forming new ones that would take into account all their natural rights. There is another thinker who shared some of Lockes ideas but in a much more radical way. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French philosophe believed in having a republic. He wrote a book The Social Contract, he argues that direct democracy is the only form of government where freedom can be achieved. He stated to renounce our liberty is to renounce our quality of man and with it all the rights and duties of humanities. Rousseau believes that an individual must be directly involved in politics in order to maintain his voice in the general will. In this his idea differs from that of Lockes who believes in limiting government in relation to expressing individual will. The enlightenment brought forth ideas that questioned the authority of the church and state. The Roman Catholic Church especially in France had enormous power which they abused. The new ideas that emerged in the enlightenment, the idea of republics, liberty, property, limited natural rights, monarchies and much more challenged the very foundations of European monarchies. France monarchs ruled with the idea that they had the God-given right to rule over the people and it is through the abuses of this power that the French Revolution started. The English abuse and neglect of their American colonies also resulted in the American Revolution.

The values of the Enlightenment were all based on reason and logic, but that is not to say that all the enlightenment thinkers believed in the same approach. Locke and Rousseau had a basic idea in common but the practice of these ideas differs from one another. The reform goals that they shared were that of man having his natural rights to himself and not allowing others to violate those rights. The Enlightenment was the first step towards political, cultural, and social modernization.

Bibliography: Social and Political Philosophy Edited by John Somerville and Ronald E. Santoni