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“In a darker vein, Thomas Hobbes portrayed humans as moved solely by considerations of their own pleasure and pain.” (Britannica) Thomas Hobbes had the philosophy that humans were only moved by self-satisfaction and self-gain, so all human actions were motivated by the want to pleasure themselves. This leads humans to band together and do things for higher gain. This affected all of society by allowing more individuals to understand human motivation and much they should believe other...
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individuals have their interests in mind.
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“First, Locke argued that natural rights such as life, liberty, and property existed in the state of nature and could never be taken away or even voluntarily given up by individuals. These rights were “inalienable” (impossible to surrender).” (crf-usa) John Locke’s Idea is that every human, no matter how different they are, is born with these rights which cannot be taken from them. They are life, (living), liberty (freedom), and property (ownership).
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The Enlightenment ideas changed how people thought about society making them think about government reform, social equality, and separation of church and state, resulting in, the decline of the gap between social classes and a more fair and successful lifestyle for the entirety of France; similar to how many governments today are a democracy, giving equal and fair rights improving everyday life for all people.
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“Voltaire believed above all in the efficacy of reason. He believed social progress could be achieved through reason and that no authority—religious or political or otherwise—should be immune to challenge by reason.” (Britannica) Voltaire’s philosophy is that reasoning is the only way to believe things, as without it it is blasphemy. This changed people’s way of thinking as they started to doubt more things, including things told from the church.
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“Montesquieu believed that in the state of nature individuals were so fearful that they avoided violence and war. The need for food, Montesquieu said, caused timid humans to associate with others and seek to live in a society. “As soon as man enters into a state of society,” Montesquieu wrote, “he loses the sense of his weakness, equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.” (crf-usa) Montesquieu believed in the separation of power within the government, making it fairer for the...
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people, and started to form some of the first democracies, compared to the monarchies they had at the time, meaning the king had to be worthy and provide prosperity for their subjects instead of acting high and might and spending all of the funding for the country. This allowed the people to have more say in choices and for them to have a more just leader.
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“According to Rousseau, the powerful rich stole the land belonging to everyone and fooled the common people into accepting them as rulers. Rousseau concluded that the social contract was not a willing agreement, as Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu had believed, but a fraud against the people committed by the rich.” (crf-usa) Rousseau is saying that the nobles have it better than the commoners, and his philosophy is that everyone should be equal, and all the common folk should be...
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just as equal as the nobles. He believes in many things that balance out things and eliminate social classes almost entirely.
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“French participation in the American Revolution had driven the government to the brink of bankruptcy;” (Britannica) After the American Revolution, the French government announced that the revolution was over and that America has became their own country, and when the government announced that they were in crippling debt and needed to charge more money from the people along with taking more crops, the people finally took a stand and rebelled against the government, killing government...
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officials to reform the government. They put the head of a governor on a pike and used it as a symbol that they had won the French Revolution. But the French people wouldn’t have revolted if it wasn’t for the influence of Voltaire and his philosophies which stated that to find if something is true, you need reasoning and evidence, rather than just believing what someone says. And from the viewpoint of the people, it seems like all that had occurred was the government raised taxes and took...
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more crops because they were not able to logically conclude that the American Revolution benefited them in any way. After this, they made an important revolt for the French Revolution, taking down the government leading to reformation.
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“On July 14, 1789, the Paris mob, hungry due to a lack of food from poor harvests, upset at the conditions of their lives and annoyed with their King and Government, stormed the Bastille fortress (a prison)" (Brittanica) On July 14, 1789, A large group of French citizens stormed a state prison, as it was a symbol of the monarch, who was treating them horribly. The subjects learned from Rousseau’s philosophy that the people should have just as many rights and be treated just as well as any...
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noble making them rebel. They stormed the prison, taking the ammunition and destroying the symbol of the monarch’s power, sparking the French Revolution and change in France.
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“The peasants were acutely aware of their situation and were less and less willing to support the anachronistic and burdensome feudal system,” (Brittanica). After the storming of the Bastille Fortress, word has spread around about the unfair treatment of the king to their subjects, and the people were agitated about what they have now realized. They couldn’t change anything about the government, because it was entirely controlled by the monarch...
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. The people found out about the large spending of money from the government used for parties and events for nobles when the citizens were living in horrible conditions, so they rebelled. Using Montesquieu’s philosophies which generally revolve around the separation of power within a government and other forms of government statuses besides monarchies...
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The French people then rebelled and formed a fairer government where everyone was in power brought separation of power to the government to keep monarchs from coming along and bringing representatives from the people to show the wants of the people in government.
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“extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy.” (History.com) Another effect that led to the French Revolution was King Louis XVI and his enormous spending. He spent a large sum of money on the American Revolution, but after the fact, he still lived his extravagant lifestyle of parties and expensive wares. The peasants, on the other hand, were left broke with nothing to their name, and with almost 20 years of bad harvests due to...
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the lack of efficient tools and starvation from the workers, the taxes were raised for the funds of the government, leading the citizens to loot and raid multiple government buildings. According to John Locke, everyone was born with life, liberty, and property, and when the taxes have raised the people felt that their liberty was taken away as they were forced to work all day to maintain the tax payment and scraps of food, and their property has all been confiscated because of the taxes that...
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were too expensive for an everyday citizen. Using John’s philosophy allowed the people to realize that they were being treated unfairly and had to rebel against the government for more rights and to make life easier for the citizens instead of nobles having a life of luxury.
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“The French monarchy, no longer seen as divinely ordained, was unable to adapt to the political and societal pressures that were being exerted on it,” (Britannica). After the French participated in the American Revolution, the government had no funding left. This led to the most populated country at the time, having crops die and economic market crashes because of the low economic management by the government, paired with the fact they took the food for soldiers, and the government went in...
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farther than they could handle, leaving their country in crippling debt, along with the citizens starving and angry. In this situation, the people acted on the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, which is that people only do things and are solely motivated by self-gain. Using this philosophy people realized that the government was unjustly being ruled by a single monarch who only believed in helping themselves, so they reformed the government in which the people would have a say in choices, meaning...
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the people can get the treatment they wanted and the government wouldn’t be corrupted making the country more prosperous and successful.
