John Locke
John Locke is considered one of the first of the modern philosophers. Combining the rationalism of René Descartes with the
empiricism and inductive scientific method of Francis Bacon, Locke gave the Western world the first distinctly modern theory of
human nature. Locke, an English philosopher, medical doctor, educator, politician, and occasional revolutionary, wrote about the
power of reason and about fundamental rights of life, liberty, and property. More than any other English philosopher, he inspired
the framers of the U.S. Constitution.
John Locke wrote his main work on political philosophy, Two
anonymously in 1690.
Treatises of Government, which he published
In Two Treatises, Locke maintained the "social contract" theory of government by claiming that people establish societies and
enter into a contractual relationship with their created government for convenience and better protection of their rights. Thus, for
Locke, the only legitimate reason for a government to exist was to preserve and protect these rights, including life, liberty, and
property. If any government should violate these rights of an individual, then the social contract was destroyed, thus leaving the
individual free to rebel in order to establish a new and better contract. This position of Locke's was one of the earliest defenses
of the concept of civil disobedience.
"John Locke." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. 10 Sep. 2009. <http://www.americangovernment.abc-clio.com>.
Baron de Montesquieu
An French aristocratic attorney, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu was also a political
philosopher. His most famous work, The Spirit of the Laws, contained an argument in favor of the separation of
powers within a government and became one of the most influential texts of the 18th century. For example, Montesquieu
believed that distributing government power to many different branches and layers of government helped to prevent tyranny, and
the advocacy of John Adams, who had studied his work, helped to separate the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of
the U.S. government.
Over the next decade and a half, Montesquieu immersed himself in the study of economics, geography, law, and political theory.
He hired a team of assistants to help him as he pored over an enormous amount of scholarship. Montesquieu was confident that
he was in the process of preparing a significant tract of political philosophy. He finished researching and writing the work in
1746, and it appeared in 1750, under the title De l'esprit des loix (The Spirit of the Laws). The book eventually became a classic
text of the Enlightenment.
The Spirit of the Laws reflects its author's extensive study of political and legal history, as well as his observations of
contemporary European governments. It argues for a political system in which power is divided between several institutions.
Montesquieu insisted that only by setting "power against power" could society be protected from despotism. He based his
argument to a large extent on his conception of the English system of government, in which Parliament and the monarch divided
power. Montesquieu was not, however, a proponent of democracy. He believed that his own class, the aristocracy, was most
prepared to provide a check to the potential despotism of the monarchy.
When it was published in 1750, The Spirit of the Laws generated a tremendous amount of interest. Intellectuals throughout
Europe praised it wildly. One critic compared Montesquieu's contribution to the field of political philosophy to Sir Isaac Newton's
contribution to physics. Over the next 40 years, the work became a blueprint for reformers and revolutionaries on two continents.
The constitutions of the United States and the French revolutionary republic both drew heavily on Montesquieu's ideas.
However, conservative circles viewed the book with suspicion, and the Roman Catholic Church placed it on its index of
proscribed books.
"Baron de Montesquieu." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. 10 Sep. 2009. <http://www.americangovernment.abcclio.com>.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 28, 1712, was one of the most influential thinkers of the
Enlightenment. A writer of amazing breadth and depth, his works of social and political theory, as well as musical criticism,
novels, and even a successful opera, continue to be relevant. His ideas inspired the architects of the American and French
revolutions and encouraged the rise of Romanticism. Rousseau denounced most government, saying that human beings were
born free and equal, government by kings was unnatural and unjust, and the only legitimate laws were those that expressed the
common will of the people.
In 1762 Rousseau wrote the political treatise Du Contrat social (The Social Contract), which became his most famous and
influential work.
In The
Social Contract, Rousseau argues that civil liberties are "natural" rights of all human beings. The work begins
with the famous sentence "Man was born free, but he is everywhere in chains." The philosopher insists that the sovereignty of a
community does not lie in the divine right of kings, but in the interests of the people, as expressed in what he calls the "general
will." In sum, Rousseau believed that civil society should be based on a social contract by which citizens are guaranteed
individual liberty. The book goes on to describe an ideal polity where laws are made in the public interest. If his earlier tract
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality was Rousseau's diagnosis of the pathology of 18th-century European civilization, The
Social Contract was the prescription for its cure. The Social Contract had an enormous influence on the revolutionaries of the
late 18th century, who used his ideas to justify their challenges to royal despotism. In contrast, Rousseau's ambiguous definition
of the "general will" and his admonition that humans must be "forced to be free" have led some recent critics to see him as an
intellectual forebear of modern totalitarianism.
"Jean-Jacques Rousseau." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. 10 Sep. 2009.
<http://www.americangovernment.abc-clio.com>.