Enlightenment Essay

        A long time ago, during the 18th century they’re lived four life

Changing philosophers. The philosopher’s names were John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Each philosopher had different ideas about the world and society in general. The philosophers relied on observing nature and reason for their ideas but either way they created change we see today in our society. One big idea resulted from all this thinking that is individual freedom can improve society in areas such as government, economics, religion, and social equality.

        In the area of government one main lead thinker was John Locke.

Locke argued that all men were born free and had the natural rights to hold on to their freedom by creating a government with a legislature and an executive branch according to document a. John Locke believed that a government created by free people had the best chance of saving a free society. Both the individual and the society as a whole benefit from creating a government with two branches like those of today. John once said that all people were capable and of creating and bringing humans into the world. A government created by free people was most likely than a monarchy to preserve the freedom of the people. This is why John Locke believed that this type of government would stand strong.

        In the economics, a Scot named Adam Smith was a man whom

Resided and took the lead in finances. Smith wrote that when deciding what to produce, or how much to charge, free individuals made better choices than those in the government authorities. Adam said that there was something called “the Invisible hand” that caused all the free individual economic decisions to add up to a strong society according to document c.  Basically, people who have the freedom to seek their own riches would almost accidentally make the country a wealthy place.

So, Smith believed that states that controlled mercantilism did not work well.  He said that when individuals freely pursue their own economic interest, the state benefits once again according to document c.

        A man from France name Voltaire made the argument for freedom of religion. Voltaire once said the government restricted of religious freedom you would get people at each other’s throats according to document b. Voltaire believed that individual religious freedom resulted in a more peaceful and successful nation. Football tear did was he compared benefits of religious freedom to the benefits of economic freedom.  He believed a society works best and most peacefully when all participants can freely sell their goods or practice the religious ideas according to document b. When you limit to two religions you can have Civil War. At the point when all beliefs are welcome you have peace in light of the fact that nobody gathering can control all the others.