User:Atcovi/AP Government/Christianity and Enlightenment

Christianity put emphasis on the hereafter and not the present-life and found it to be sinful to lust after major power. Political life = religious life when it came to the Church and any resistance to it was deemed punishable.

Secularism

 * The Renaissance caused a shift from a religious point-of-view to a non-religious way of thinking.
 * Secularism: Separation from religious institutions or authorities.
 * Individualism started emerging: People are the source of authority

Protestant Reformation - Who, What, When, Where, Why?

 * 1517 - Luther's 95 Thesis in DE.
 * Religion --> Individual
 * The Protestant Reformation gave recognition towards individualism but did not accept the political effects of it.
 * Luther and Calvin liked monarchy, though political hierarchy was questioned after the wars of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation took place

Enlightment

 * 1600s-1700s
 * Thinking and individualism over tradition and heavily religious based reasoning
 * Emphasis on politics and law

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher who believed the purpose of government was to establish a civil society. Hobbes naturally believed that humans were inherently selfish and of terrible character and believed a government was necessary to restrict these tendencies from man - so this means that some of our natural rights will be taken from the gov't in order to achieve this. He wanted an absolute monarchy: Individualism - hierarchy = chaos. He wrote Leviathan in 1651 - individual self-interests with no restrictions would result in chaos. "The condition of man... is a condition of war against everybody else."

John Locke (1632-1704)
John Locke was an English philosopher who believed the purpose of government was to establish an organized society, the government was created among free people as "social contracts" and rulers get their authority from the permission of the people. Locke's preferred government is one that is ruled by the consent of governed. If this government does not exist where the natural rights of the people are respected, the citizens may revolt. His legacy is that he wrote the Two Treatise of Government (1689), "Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.".

"Where there is no property, there is no injustice."
 * Social Contact Theory: Origin of government is the permission of free people - people must give away some rights in order for the gov't to properly rule them

Louis XIV (1638-1715)
Louis XIV was a French king who believed the purpose of government was to make sure the people were loyal to the gov't and God. He believed in an absolute monarchy. He is well known for being a believer in divine right, a belief where kings had a God-given right to rule. "It is legal because I wish it."

Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Baron de Montesquieu was a French judge and political philosopher who believed the purpose of government was to establish order and security within a society.


 * A country's laws must fit their people and settings. Poverty required a strong government, wide-spread freedom required a moderate government.
 * Separation of Powers

He preferred a government with separation of powers. His legacy is that he developed the principle of separation of powers. "There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Swiss philosopher who believed the purpose of government was to preserve self and humanity. Agreed with Locke's stance on gov't. He preferred a government where direct democracy took place. People have a responsibility to engage productively with the gov't in order to get the things they need. He wrote The Social Contract, which details ideas of religious freedom and secularism. "No man has any natural authority over other men."

Conclusion
Political philosophers shifted from the notion that a strict government was needed to more trust in the people, which gave away to the idea of "government of the governed".