1. The Enlightenment and the Founding of America
The Age of Enlightenment is a term used to describe a period of time during the eighteenth century. It is a time in which intellectual and philosophical changes were taking place. These changes had a great impact on the social, political and moral aspects of that time period.
The movement began in Europe and spread to America. It influenced the American Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, as well as the Bill of Rights.
Lesson Objectives:
As a result of this lesson, students will know:
1. Every government is based on founding principles that reflect the people and the time in which it was created.
2. The influence of the Enlightenment philosophers (Hobbs, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire) on the following aspects of the origins of America:
The American Revolution
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution
The Bill of Rights

2. The Enlightenment The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in
When historians discuss the “Enlightenment,” they are usually referring to 18th century Europe (France and England in particular).
The Enlightenment was a period of in which people began to change their views on the world and on society.
In many ways, this change marked the beginning of the modern era.
This picture shows a French salon where the members of the enlightenment often gathered.
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in
Europe during the 18th century in which people began to
change their views on the world and on society.
Salon Image:

4. Enlightenment Principles
Religion, tradition, and superstition limited independent thought
• Accept knowledge based on observation, logic, and reason, not on faith
• Scientific and academic thinking should be based on reasoning, not on Church
The Enlightenment Principles
Philosophers met in a salon where they discussed their ideas and shared their findings.
A meeting of French Enlightenment thinkers
Image.

5. The Enlightenment
Included a number of writers living at different times in various countries.
Challenged old ways of thinking
Questioned divine-right of rule
Believed that social reforms were necessary and possible in this life, not just the next.
The Enlightenment
Enlightenment ideas helped open people’s minds to a new way of thinking and not to except the ways of the past. 
The ideas:
Challenged old ways of thinking.
Questioned divine-right of rule.
Taught that people should be able to gain material well-being, social justice, and happiness in this life, not just the next.

7. Enlightenment Thinkers
Voltaire – 1722
Thomas Hobbes
Enlightenment Thinkers
Rousseau – 1778
Montesquieu
1689–1755
Enlightenment Thinkers
Many Enlightenment thinkers were also mathematicians and scientists. They viewed
changes in science as going hand in hand with changes in philosophy.
Thomas Hobbes ( )
John Locke (1632–1704)
Voltaire ( real name ---François Marie Arouet) (1650 – 1722)
Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755)
Jean-Jacque Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
John Locke –1704

8. John Locke 1632–1704
He wrote about the natural rights of Life, Liberty and Property
The government must protect the common good
government was created by the people in order to protect these natural rights.
People have the right to overthrow government if it fails its obligations or takes away natural rights (revolution).
John Locke
(1632–1704)
- Developed new ideas about the rights of the people and their relationships to their rulers
- Locke’s ideas about the sovereignty and rights of the people were radical and challenged the centuries-old practice throughout the world of dictatorial rule by kings, emperors, and tribal chieftains.   
He also wrote that government was created by consent of the governed in order to protect these natural rights. If the government did not protect these rights he said that people had the right to rebel and dissolve the government. This was the philosophical justification of the American Revolution.
Image.

9. Locke --- Natural Rights
All people are free, equal and have “natural rights” of life, liberty, and property that rulers cannot take
Power is in the people; not in rulers
Influenced Thomas Jefferson—Declaration of Independence
John Locke—Continued
Influenced the American belief in self-government.
Locke wrote that: •    All people are free, equal, and have “natural rights” of life, liberty, and property that rulers cannot take away. 
Power is in the people; not in rulers                                                                                                                
All original power resides in the people, and they consent to enter into a “social contract” among themselves to form a government to protect their rights. In return, the people promise to obey the laws and rules established by their government, establishing a system of “ordered liberty.”
Government’s powers are limited to those the people have consented to give to it. Whenever government becomes a threat to the people’s natural rights, it breaks the social contract and the people have the right to alter or overthrow it.  

10. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
Argued that no single set of laws could apply to all people at all times
Stated monarchy was not necessary if there was a better government
Montesquieu
French political thinker.
His famous book, the Spirit of the Laws (1748) argued:
that no single set of laws could apply to all peoples at all times and in all places (i.e. monarchy was not necessarily the appropriate government everywhere).

11. Separation of Power
Montesquieu believed in idea of separation of powers and checks and balances to divide government into three branches
Idea came from England—judicial, legislative, and executive powers
Became the framework of the Constitution
Montesquieu: The Separation of Powers
One of Montesquieu most important observations was what he called the separation of powers, and checks and balances that would divide government into three branches in order to prevent one branch of government from getting too powerful.
He found his example in the kingdom of England where judicial power rested in the courts, legislative power was in the hands of Parliament, and executive power resided with the King.
In his estimation, any two branches of this government could check the third hand should it grow too powerful.
We can see his ideas about separation of governmental powers reflected in the  United States Constitution.  The separate branches of government are the legislative, judiciary, and the executive.

13. Enlightenment and the Rise of Democratic Ideas
Natural Rights
Social Contract
Separation of Power

14. Enlightenment Thinkers of the American Revolution
Thomas Paine
Enlightenment Thinkers of the American Revolution
Thomas Paine Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin

15. Letter to William Charles Jarvis. September 28, 1820. Thomas Jefferson
“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.”
Letter to William Charles Jarvis. September 28, 1820.
Thomas Jefferson
“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. “
Thomas Paine, 1795
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion. -Thomas Jefferson
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. -Thomas Paine
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Ben Franklin
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 1755

16. Thomas Paine and Common Sense
1776 wrote Common Sense
Urged Americans to declare independence
Believed in Enlightenment ideas
Challenged the idea of a king being the ruler
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was an English immigrant to America who produced a pamphlet known as Common Sense that challenged the rule of the American colonies by the King of England.
The 1776 pamphlet called American colonists to declare independence so they could have the freedoms brought by natural laws and end of ancient prejudice and tyranny. 
He believed in the themes of Enlightenment and wanted all men to join him in these beliefs.
The ideas of Thomas Paine influenced Thomas Jefferson’s writings in the Declaration of Independence:
Common Sense was read and acclaimed by many American colonists during the mid-1700s and contributed to a growing sentiment for independence from England.                  

17. Enlightenment Shapes Independence
“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”
Governments derive their power and authority from “the consent of the governed”
When any government infringes upon individual’s rights, “it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government”
Declared the colonies to be “Free and Independent States”
American Revolution: Declaration of Independence
“all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”
Governments derive their power and authority from “the consent of the governed”
When any government infringes upon individual’s rights, “it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government”
Declared the colonies to be “Free and Independent States
Declaration of Independence

18. Enlightenment Shapes Government
Declaration of Independence -- sought to promise personal freedom to all citizens
New form of government - based on the people’s right to have a say
Enlightenment philosophers shaped the making the Constitution
Montesquieu -- the balance of power between three branches of government
Rousseau-- the power of democracy and consent of the people were in the formation of the new government.
After the American Revolution – Forming a new Government
One of the first steps in the formation of the United States that was based upon Enlightenment ideals was the creation of the Declaration of Independence.
This sought to promise personal freedom to all citizens and this was to be guaranteed by means of a new form of government, one that was based on the people’s right to have a say in their government.
As the country moved toward the drafting of the Constitution, the ideas of several Enlightenment philosophers shaped the direction American political leaders took.
Montesquieu’s idea about the balance of power between three branches of government
Rousseau’s ideas about the power of democracy and consent of the people were in the formation of the new government.

19. Social Contract American Revolution Declaration of Independence
Hobbs and Rousseau:
What concept do these philosophers argue for? Social contract
What event did this concept influence in early America? --- American Revolution
What documents did this concept influence? --- Declaration of Independence, Constitution
Constitution

20. Separation Of Power Checks And Balances
John Locke, in his 1690 Civil Government, second treatise, separated the powers into an executive and a legislature.
Separation Of
Power
Checks
And
Balances
John Locke, in his 1690 Civil Government, second treatise, separated the powers into an executive and a legislature.
Montesquieu 1748 Spirit of the Laws expanded on Locke, adding a judiciary
1. What are the three branches of government referred to in the Constitution? Separation of Powers
2. What do these three branches use to control the amount of power each of them have? --- Checks and Balances
Montesquieu, in his 1748 Spirit of the Laws, expanded on Locke adding
a judiciary

21. "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend till death your right to say it." Voltaire
Bill of Rights
Freedom of Religion
Civil Rights
Voltaire
Voltaire once wrote: "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend till death your right to say it.“
What rights did he influence in the Bill of Rights.
1. Freedom of Religion
2. Freedom of speech
3. Civil rights
Freedom of Speech

22. What is the Enlightenment?
Questions
What is the Enlightenment?
2. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are considered what?
3. What Enlightenment thinkers influenced the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?
A period of time in the 18th century when people began to
change the way they felt about themselves, the role of the
church, and their view of the world.
Natural Rights
What is the Enlightenment?
A period of time in the 18th century when people began to change the way they felt about themselves, the role of the church, and their view of the world.
2. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness are considered what?
A– Natural Rights
3. What Enlightenment Thinkers influence the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?
A – Locke, Rousseau
Locke, Rousseau

23. Enlightenment Hobbs Locke Voltaire Montesquieu Rousseau
Social contract— Federalism
Government for people – Am. Revolution
Natural rights- life, liberty, property —
Declaration of Independence
Tolerance, reason, freedom of religion and speech
– Bill of Rights
Major Ideas of the Enlightenment
1. Hobbs -- Social contract—Federalism
2. Locke life, liberty and property--- Declaration of independence
3. Voltaire -- Tolerance, reason, freedom of religion and speech – Bill of Rights
4. Montesquieu -- Separation of Powers
5. Rousseau -- Religious Freedom
Separation of Powers --Constitution
Religious Freedom -- Bill of Rights