Aww the Enlightenment
The transformation into the enlightenment in Europe can be seen through the changing views of three philosophers: Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. Bossuet’s old-school views of Devine rights and absolutions, to Hobbes’s progression in his views that man is by nature a selfishly individualistic animal at constant war with all other men, and finally Locke’s views that the middle class and its right to freedom of conscience and right to property, in his faith in science, and in his confidence in the goodness of humanity. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a bishop who was the most eloquent and influential spokesman for the rights of the French church against papal authority. He is now chiefly remembered for his literary works, including funeral panegyrics for great personages. Doctrine in defense of monarchical absolution, which asserted that kings derived their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament. Originating in Europe, the divine-right theory can be traced to the medieval conception of God's award of temporal power to the political ruler. Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher and for many years a tutor in the Ca
John Locke is most renowned for his political theory. Contradicting Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that the original state of nature was happy and characterized by reason and tolerance. In that state all people were equal and independent, and none had a right to harm another's “life, health, liberty, or possessions.” The state was formed by social contract because in the state of nature each was his own judge, and there was no protection against those who lived outside the law of nature. The state should be guided by natural law. John Locke was an English philosopher and the founder of British empiricism. Locke summed up the Enlightenment in his belief in the middle class and its right to freedom of conscience and right to property, in his faith in science, and in his confidence in the goodness of humanity. His influence upon philosophy and political theory has been incalculable. In the essay “Concerning Human Understanding” Locke examines the nature of the human mind and the process by which it knows the world. Repudiating the traditional doctrine of innate ideas, Locke believed that the mind is born blank, a tabula rasa upon which the world describes itself through the experience of the five senses. Knowledge arising from sensation is perfected by reflection, thus enabling humans to arrive at such ideas as space, time, and infinity. Sc
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Approximate Word count = 912
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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