1.1 The Enlightenment

The Florida joint center for citizenship presents the enlightenment and its influence. Let's begin with the question. Do you know where the ideas that influence the development of the U.S. Constitution and decoration independence came from? It came from something called the enlightenment. And in this video, we're going to explore those very ideas. After watching this video, you will identify and describe enlightenment ideas of separation of powers, natural law, and the social contract. And evaluate how enlightenment ideas influence the founding fathers. So let's dive in and start talking about the enlightenment. The enlightenment began in Europe of the 1700s. During this period, people began writing about the importance of liberty, individual rights, and reason. And they also wrote about the purpose of government and they did a government that honor liberty and individual rights, provide more freedom for their people. Let's dig deeper into some of these specific ideas, influence the founding fathers. We'll begin by learning about the concepts of natural law and natural rights. Let's go ahead and define our terms. Natural law is a belief that you are born with certain rights that you protect by government and society. In these rights, and there is natural rights. You're bored, the can't be taken away by government, such as life, liberty, and property. Let's dive a little deeper and explore these ideas. John Locke and enlightenment thinker. We have a government she was based on natural law. And his view, the purpose of government is to protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. Natural law applies to everyone. So according to enlightenment philosophers, natural rights apply to every person simply because they are born. No state or government can take away your life, liberty, or property, without cause. When Thomas Jefferson founding father, with the Icarus independence, he included that idea of natural rights and natural law. In the beginning of the document, he writes, we hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal. That they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Where did you probably heard before? And certainly our founding fathers were heavily influenced by the idea of natural law and natural rights. We see it in our very document. Let's check in. Try to answer the following question in your own words. How are the founding fathers influenced by the idea of natural law and natural rights? I took a question of independence, presents the idea that natural rights are guaranteed to everyone, which is natural law. And these rights include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let's recap we were in so far. The enlightenment was a movement that focused individual rights, liberty, and reason, as well as the purpose of government. John Locke presented the idea of natural rights, which I provided by natural law. And they include life, liberty, and property, and we find them in the decoration of independence. Walk in the enlightenment had another idea that influence the founding fathers though. And this is the concept of social contract. Locke argued that a contract should exist between the government and the people. And he called this the social contract. So let's take a second to define our term here. What do we mean by social contract? Well, a social contract is an implied agreement between the people and the government that defines the rights, do these and limitations of both the people and the government. So let's explore this a little more. So a social contract. This is something you might sign like you see. Sports players do. A social contract is created when the government and the people agree on their rights, their duties, their limits, and their responsibilities. In Locke's view, this contact must be in place in order for the government to be legitimate or valid in the eyes of the people. He argued that people formed a social contract with the government, voluntarily. All knew on the condition that the government is structured in a way that protects natural rights. The idea of the social contract is also incorporated into that old decoration of independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. In other words, to leave the contract. Jefferson's argument was that the British government was breaking this voluntary social contract by not protecting the citizens natural rights. So the Americans had the right to abolish that contract. Let's check in. Try to answer the following question in your own words. How are the founding fathers influenced by the idea of the social contract? The concept of the social contract was part of the Declaration of Independence. It argued that the British, both the contracts, the colonists, by not protecting their natural rights. Let's recap what we were in so far. The idea of the social contract influence the founding fathers. And this is the idea of a volunteer relationship between the people and the government. And the government has a responsibility to protect natural rights. The people have the right to abolish the social contract. When the government does not keep to it, and we find mention of the social contract and the decoration of independence. So we've talked about natural rights and natural law. And we've talked about the social contract, but there's another big idea that comes from the enlightenment that influenced our founding fathers. And this is a separation of powers. The idea is separation of powers comes from the French enlightenment thinker, the baron de montesquiou. Much you felt that government should be set up said no one is afraid of anyone else. This meant that government should be structured in a way to limit the abuse of power. Specifically, montesquiou is talking about three powers of government. The power to legislator make laws, the Potter and force laws, and the part of judge laws. And he said they should be separate to three different departments or branches in order to avoid the abuse of power by any one particular branch. Montesquieu saw the dangers of a government rule by one person with all the power. He wrote that power and government should be divided into legislative executive and judicial branches with each branch having its own role in responsibilities. Does that sound familiar? It should. Like the idea of the social contract and natural law, the idea of separation of powers greatly influenced our founding fathers. This was used in James Mattis and other founding fathers, wrote the U.S. Constitution. The guiding document of our government today. In the constitution, the U.S. government instruction to three distinct branches of government. The legislative branch of the House of Representatives in the Senate, together known as the Congress, make the laws that got our country. The executive branch, with the president, vice president cabinet and executive agencies, and force the laws. In the judicial branch, made up of Supreme Court and lower courts determine whether or not laws go against the constitution. Let's check in. Try to answer the following question in your own words. How are the founding fathers influenced by the idea of separation of powers? When the U.S. Constitution was written, the founding fathers divided government power into three branches, the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Let's recap what we were in so far. Montesquieu believed that the government's restructured to limit the peace of power. These powers are to make laws, enforce laws, and interpret laws. If you've been separation of powers, split into executive legislative and judicial branches, and the founding fathers use this idea in the constitution. The big ideas of the enlightenment certainly had a huge impact on our founding fathers. The idea is that the social contract, natural laws and natural rights, and separation of powers are all found in our founding documents like the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Learn more about some of the enlightenment ideas we talked about around social contract, natural law, natural rights, and separation of powers. And these topic areas on civics 360. So you just produce by the 42% of our citizenship. Thanks for watching.