Scott+and+Dakota

Thomas Hobbes Dakota Fulmer Thomas Hobbes was a 17th century English philosopher. One of his major theories was the “social contract theory”. The “social contract theory” is the type of thinking that helped him progress the spread of The Enlightenment. As an author for Stanford University said “Hobbes is famous for his early and elaborate development of what has come to be known as “social contract theory”, the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons.” The “social contract theory” helped progress the enlightenment because it supported the idea that the people within a government should be able to choose and justify their political principles. This means that people will choose how the politics of their area work and how they are ultimately governed. It doesn’t mean that people should govern themselves only. However it does mean that people should have an equal say in how their community should be run, which is a key part of the Enlightenment idea.

Hobbes’s Moral and Political Philosophy.23 August 2008. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 6 August 2009.<[]>

John Locke Scott Goff

John Locke was a very big influence in the west culture and influenced that the human mind starts out blank and that the brain gains knowledge as we get older. When the brain gains that knowledge later on it then decides who that person is, as in what they believe in. "No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience."(Locke) as Locke would explain is that a man can not make an opinion of a topic if he does not have the experience in that topic. Thats why Locke was against the Church because how could the Church make an opinion on something if they don't have have the experience and complete knowledge of what they are agreeing or disagreeing with. With this philosophy he was able to influence a lot of people because it made a lot more sense that what the church was saying. A big believer of Lockes thought was Thomas Jefferson he completely agreed that no man can have the knowledge of something they have not experienced. A good example are peoples morales to themselves for instance if somebody is a lower class and is thought a way of having to look up to a higher class they are going to stay that way. Then if there is somebody who is more Loyal class they would look down to the lower class because it is what they are told and it is their experience. So Locke kept his philosophy around experience of the human mind.

Information on John Locke, March 2002, Lewis Loflin, 6 August 2009, http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/locke_reason.htm