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The Enlightenment It is a foundation of American Democracy. Sapere aude!. “ Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence ”. The people of the Scientific and Enlightenment Revolution challenged the way people thought It became the AGE OF REASON
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Sapere aude! “Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence”
The people of the Scientific and Enlightenment Revolution challenged the way people thought It became the AGE OF REASON By using the Scientific method of observation and reason, the Enlightenment philosophers hoped to figure our ways to improve the conditions of people the biggest idea change? Men are born free and equal and gov’t ought to reflect that
Let’s Begin With The Ancients gracchii.blogspot.com
Athens and Rome • Democracy = Demos (people) + Kratia (rule) • In Greece- power wasn’t held in hand of one person or even a few but in the hands of 5000 citizens. First come first serve (no saving seats) to the main legislative body, the Assembly. • Jury duty was considered a civic honor (chosen from a pool of 6000) • Even judges chosen from this pool (that • could be anyone!) The Athenian Democratic experiment didn’t last too long before Phillip of Macedonia invaded and these noble and enlightened Greeks were crushed by the brutal, armed, and dumb.... blog.kazaa.com
Athens and Rome • Rome enjoyed a representative form of gov’t • Many of our Founding Fathers borrowed ideas such as bicameral legislature, emphasis on republicanism and civic virtue • moranmustangs.org • flashcardmachine.com and an obsession with columns
The Magna CartaThe English Petition of RightsThe English Bill of Rights
The Magna Carta 1215 the wealthy English barons refused to give King John the money he needed to wage war against the French until he signed the Magna Carta. This document codified that no man was above the law (no one said there were not people below the law....) grp226lesfilles.blogspot.com • Limited power of the gov’t • Fundamental rights • trial by jury • due process of law • habeas corpus
The English Petition of Rights 1628 English Petition of Rights • Men have rights and establishes concept of rule of law • Basic rights • guarantee of trial by jury • protection against marshal law • protection against quartering of troops • protection of private property ypsddpakistan.itgo.com doesn’t seem to be much rule of law in Pakistan today
Age of Reason or The Enlightenment
Before the Enlightenment (in the dark ages when they threw the dead bodies in the drinking water) people’s rights were very limited and selective. They were special privileges enjoyed by certain groups of people. masterpiece-productions.co.nz
There is a painful separation of faith and reason in man’s thinking... • But first let me tell you about • - and how a particularly gruesome form of torture led to one of the modern day foundations: “I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to my death your right to say it” mediaite.com
But what about that world of torture? The Enlightenment - an age of arrest and torture imposed on citizens who expressed opinions that stood in opposition to prevailing religious, social, political views
Though it might seem easy, today, to criticize such a passionate emphasis on reason, remember that Voltaire's society tortured people who went against the accepted norm. WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO PAY THAT PRICE TO CHANGE SOCIETY IN WAYS YOU DEEM NECESSARY? Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do. God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Love truth and pardon error. I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to my death your right to say it.
This is the foundation world of our founding fathers... • and these are the philosophers who so profoundly influenced what would become our “little social experiment” known as the United States of America
The grandaddy of them all... introducing the one... the only..... John Locke
John Locke • Locke’s political philosophy is called the natural rights philosophy http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/1/30/1264879512245/FW-de-Klerk-and-Nelson-Ma-001.jpg
What do you think? 1. What are some examples of conflicts that might occur when one individual’s rights to life, liberty, property conflict with those of another individual? 2. Should some rights be given more protection than other rights? Why? 3. The natural rights philosophy claims that gov’t is based on consent. How do we give consent? How do we withdraw it? 4. Many people today believe the rights to life, liberty, and property include the right to public education and health care. Would the founders have agreed? Do you agree? Why?
Human rights • political and economic rights • consumer rights • parental rights * In describing the concept of natural rights, philosophers like Locke were making a bold departure form the previous term of what we would see as “limited” rights today. * Locke and others did not think rights were limited to situations of birth. The individual not the group was the most important unit. Society is only a collection of individuals, all whom share the same right to pursue his/her own welfare. * Natural rights of life, liberty, and property were the essence of humanity. Therefore they are unalienable.
* Gov’ts and societies based on natural rights guarantee specific rights to preserve our natural rights. * Under the US Constitution, you possess civil rights, securing such things as freedom of conscience and privacy, and protecting you from unfair discrimination by gov’t or others * You also possess certain political rights like the right to vote or run for office, which give you control over gov’t. Such civil and political rights serve to protect natural rights to life, liberty, and property
* For Locke and others the greatest problem was finding a way to protect each person’s natural rights (since not all people are good.) * The best way to solve this is for each individual to agree with others to create and live under a gov’t and to give it power to enforce laws. This kind of agreement is called a social contract. * Of course you have to give up your absolute right to do anything to receive the protection. You have to agree to obey the limits put on you by the laws created by the gov’t.
And a few more.... cindyronzoni.com
