Enlightenment Synthesis Question

Team 1 Period 3 Asher

During the Restoration era, there were countless artists, writers, and philosophers who were critics of the importance of noble family connections and elite social patronage. This importance was set in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, but was widely opposed during the Reconstruction era. Some of these critics of the Enlightenment era include John Locke, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These critics triggered the light bulb throughout society to ruminate in new, untouched ways. One critic of high magnitude included John Locke (1632-1704) who was a philosopher and physician. Locke’s philosophy is considered as the first modern approach on identity and one’s self. In his piece titled the “Two Treatises of Government”, he attacked the upper society with words in which he stood up for a political or civil society based upon natural rights and contract theory. In this essay, he also proposed the idea of a representative government in which governments are ran by the consent of each individual and not primarily by the monarchy. Locke’s belief in each individual influenced another historian and philosopher named Voltaire. Voltaire, like Locke, was a spokesperson for social reform and had enough courage to set forth his ideas to the strict public. He spoke and wrote to fight for liberties such as the freedom of religion, free trade, and most importantly for the separation from the church and the state. He also spoke up against French institutions of his era and religious dogmas with his infamous wit. His wit is comparable to Moliere’s comedic approach in his satirical pieces. Like Voltaire and Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau also was an essential Enlightenment philosopher to go against the Middle Age and Renaissance views. Roussaeu was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer in which he made a strong case for democratic government and social empowerment throughout his life. In “Of The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right”, he proposed a political community that served justice among a commercial society and culture. Rousseau believed that the people and not the monarchy had the power to legislate. John Locke, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are all great contributors to the criticism of the Reconstruction era.