John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, And David Hume Theories

John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, And David Hume Theories

The 17^th century and 18^th century marked the significant period of European enlightenment in the revolution of the United States. Thinkers of the time preached new ideas that would improve human life. They questioned issues of accepted knowledge, science, religious tolerance, reason, and the natural rights of life, property, and liberty. As light replaced the age of darkness, some groups of scholars emphasized science and reason as superior to blind faith and superstition.

John Locke is one of the philosophers who would come to impact the enlightenment era.  Locke’s “Two Treatise on Government,” and, ” An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” Works published in 1690 influenced America’s prevailing view that law and reason interlink with nature such that the ultimate role of the government is to protect and maintain the security of its people. In Two Treatises on Government,” Locke says, “Every man is born with a double right. First, a right of freedom to his person, which no other man has a power over, but the free disposal of it lies in himself. Secondly, a right before any other man, to inherit, with his brethren, his father’s goods.” (John Locke. Two Treatises of Government. 1690. https://www.yorku.ca/comninel/courses/3025pdf/Locke.pdf). Locke felt that all men are born equal and that life, liberty, and property are inalienable provisions of nature that cannot be surrendered or taken away by the government. Freedom gives free citizens the right to give up the absolute right, abandoning the natural setting, and indulging in a social structure for the sake of obtaining government protection. Locke believed that institutions in power should maintain the rules of liberty and protect people’s property failure to which citizens can exercise their right to change the government. In “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” Locke supports the idea that human beings experience things from sensation and reflection, which can also be called reason. (John Locke. An Essay concerning Human Understanding Part 1. 1689. https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-1-an-essay-concerning-human-understanding-part-1). He discounts the presence of innate knowledge and concludes that men struggle in search of knowledge due to a lack of precise determination of the limits of their minds. Locke’s ideas would later influence the U.S constitution, particularly the concept of the right to life, property, and liberty. The ideas actualized the ‘Bill of rights’ of the constitution and governed the boundaries of respect for life and property among citizens.

Benjamin Franklin was also an influential scientist of the enlightenment time in the 18^th century. His publications, such as the “The Way to Wealth,” published around 1758 and the “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America,” Franklin shaped the primary ideals of social mobility. He marked the accomplishment of one dream for the Americans. The sermon “The Way to Wealth,” is a collection of aphorisms composed from the Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack” annual handbook. Franklin uses the poor child persona and repetitive words to articulate his beliefs in the democratic idealism of work and wealth.  For instance, he says, “Necessity never made a good bargain,” and “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest” “(Benjamin Franklin. The way to wealth.1758. https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/1758%20Franklin%20Wealth.pdf. Franklin aims at promoting positive morality.  The actualization of his adages also occurs in his scientific experiments and observations on he made on electricity and the discovery of lightning rod, franklin stove, and bifocals. Through these experiments and electric discovery, Franklin proved that knowledge is possible, and like in his statements in the “The Way to Wealth,” investing in knowledge yielded his best scientific interests. In the “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” published in 1784, Franklin discussed the behavior and hypocrisy of the people in power who were the white Europeans. He explained some cultural and ideological PRESUMPTIONS that promote racial hierarchy and equality in America. Franklin preached the idea that human beings can change for the better, an observation that contrasted with the religious notation that a human being is a sinful creature that can only improve after receiving God’s mercy.  (Benjamin Franklin. Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America. 1784.  http://www.columbia.edu/itc/english/f1124-4/pdf/benfranklin_1.pdf. Franklin’s ideals would later have contributed to the later success in the signing of the treaty in Paris in 1783 and consequentially ending the revolutionary war.

The historian David Hume (1711–1776) ideas influenced the enlightenment period in a significant way. His works, “A Treatise of Human Nature” published in the period 1739–1740) and “An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,” published in 1751, are among his significant contributions towards the formation of moral philosophy and in the economic writings among Americans. In “A Treatise of Human Nature,” Hume writes, “Whether ’tis by means of our ideas or impressions we distinguish betwixt vice and virtue, and pronounce an action blamable or praise-worthy? (David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature. 1739.https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4705/4705-h/4705-h.htm). He maintains the invariability of the claim that man is savage, brutish, and lone.  Hume maintains that moral distinctions are not derived from reason and that there are only two possible considerations. The first examines rationalism claiming that morality springs from reason. The second examines sentimentalism claiming that morality springs from sentiments. Hume viewed enlightenment as empirically-based proof. He believes that everything a human being knows must be BACKED by “Sense experience” failure to which makes the information meaningless and unclassifiable as truth or false. Hume shares similar sentiments with George Berkeley’s claim that though used generally, every perceivable idea of a general term, emanates from a SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE. We see the same SENTIMENTS informing Bishop George Berkeley, where he stresses the importance of mind to define human experiences. His idealism eliminates the NOTION OF “material” world that can exist in the absence of perception and, in this case, STIRS and INGENIOUS ARGUMENT. Berkeley’s general idealism revolves around the idea that every individual possess a share of individual realities shaped by different perceptions

In another piece known as “An enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,” Hume says that; “Extinguish all the warm feelings and prepossessions in favor of virtue, and all disgust or aversion to vice: render men indifferent towards these distinctions, and morality is no longer a practical study, nor has any tendency to regulate our lives and actions.” Hume implicitly rejected Christian morality and helps the American people place the basis of virtue in utility rather than in God-given reason (David Hume. An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. 1777. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4320/4320-h/4320-h.htm). Hume contributes that moral judgments are a product of the moral sense and reason. The moral sense helps individuals perceive the difference between vice and virtue, but reason also equally contributes to the formation of moral judgments.  Hume introduces the notion that if every individual has a personal perception of God as a PERFECT mind

References

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