Student Paper SP001-08
Spring 2000, Section I
Reviewer Comments
Human Progress in
the 17th & 18th Centuries
Society is constantly evolving. From the time
the first cavemen met to divide the day's kill, there was an established system
of rules and order. Humans are forever progressing and this progress is shown
in the societal structure. In the 16th & 17th centuries,
new advances in science were being discovered. Europeans questioned their place
in the universe and this spilled over into questions of their role in society.
In the 17th and 18th centuries philosophers began to
explore new ways of thinking. Francis Bacon, in the 1620s, challenged the
widely held belief that most knowledge was already known and he urged Europeans
to think for themselves.1 Rene Descartes separated objects into
concrete, material items that took up space and those things that existed in one's
mind.2 In his Discourse on Method he wrote, "I realized
that I was a substance whose essence, or nature is nothing but thought, and
which, in order to exist, needs no place to exist nor any other material
thing."3 In addition to these new ideas on human thought, other
intellectuals focused on the evolution of the current systems of government.
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacque
Rousseau each had varying ideas on the role of government and its citizens.
Hobbes felt that societies should be ruled by an all-powerful sovereign. Locke
believed people entrusted power to a responsible leader who was accountable to
the people. Rousseau said that there needed to be a pure democracy in which the
state is governed by the general will of its citizens. These new ways of
thinking about government from Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau were crucial to the
development of national constitutions and the progression of 17th
and 18th century society towards a more perfect state.
Thomas Hobbes felt that society was falling
backwards in the mid-17th century and was in need of change. He was
appalled at the fact that the English Parliament had the authority to execute
the king, and he was even more disturbed that the public accepted this act.
Hobbes believed that all men sought power and were violent by nature. Without a
common power, man lived in a continual state of war. The English were in this
state, and Hobbes believed that society could not exist in these times. There
could be no industry, navigation or arts when man was in this situation. Man
lived in continual fear. "Where there is no common power, there is no law;
where no law, no injustice." 4
The common power Hobbes advocated was an absolute monarchy. He felt this was the only way to move society forward. Hobbes had his own version of a political golden rule in that man should lay down his right to liberty and be content with the same amount of liberty he would give someone against him.5 Man gave up these rights for protection. To Hobbes there was no place in this system for rebellion because anarchy was a greater threat to government than tyranny.
John Locke took a competing view on human nature and government. Locke
had
Locke viewed government as a contract between
a legislative and its citizens to protect the lives, liberties, and possessions
of the society.9 People chose to form a government so, "that
there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties
of all the members of society, to limit the power, and moderate the dominion of
every part and member of the society."10 Any breach of this
contract by the legislative could cause the people to take back their original
freedom and establish a new government. Central to Locke's political philosophy
was the right to rebel.
"The end of government is the good of mankind; and which is best for mankind, that the people should always be exposed to the boundless Will of tyranny, or that the rulers should sometimes liable to be opposed, when they grow exorbitant in the use of their power, and employ it for the destruction, and not the preservation of the properties of their people?""
Jean Jacques Rousseau picked up Locke's ideas
from the other end by saying that society was more important than the
individual. 12 He wrote, "Man was born free, but everywhere in
chains."13 Rousseau felt that the system of government in mid
18th century France was corrupt and unjust. It was dominated by the
rich and powerful who only hoped to further themselves at the expense of the
weak.14
Rousseau's new government would group people
together into one large society. "The individual member alienates himself
totally to the whole community together with all his rights." People had
to commit themselves fully to the society, and if they refused, they would be
forced to comply by the body politic.15
Rousseau advocated governments by and for the general will, which
was the common interest of the society. Also, this system called for a pure
democracy with no representation because Rousseau believed that representation
would cause the general will to be lost. 16
The new ideas presented by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau were used as models for the emerging constitutional governments of France and England in the 17th and 18th centuries. People began to see the need to protect themselves from the corruption of governments. With a formal declaration of their rights, citizens hoped to make government more responsible.
The English Bill of Rights was written
in 1689, one year before the publication of Locke's Two Treatises of
Government, but his writings served as a justification for Parliament's
recent actions.17 The Bill of Rights limited the power of the
monarchy, which went completely against Hobbes' idea of an absolute sovereign.
Parliament became the primary authority for government decisions. The monarch
had to rule by consent of Parliament and had to ask Parliament for money.18
Parliament gained the right to hold regular meetings and freedom of speech
while in session. The document also guaranteed men certain rights such as the
right against excessive bail, excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishment.
The granting of these and other rights was seen as a crucial step in the
advancement of English society.
One hundred years later a revolution based on
the philosophy of Rousseau began in France, and a French bill of rights was
written. The Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen was greatly
influenced by Rousseau's Social Contract, especially with the
acknowledgement of the general will. The document also stated that "the
exercise of the natural rights of each man had no limits except those that secure
to the other members of society the enjoyment of these same rights."19
This was very similar to Rousseau's secular use of the golden rule. Man
was also given the right to free speech and a say in how taxes were to be spent
and collected.
The people of the 17th and 18th
centuries saw their lives changing; they were making more money and paying more
taxes. Most people acknowledged their duty to pay taxes, but they wanted a say
in how government functioned. They rejected the absolute rule of previous generations.
The philosophical writings of Locke and Rousseau epitomized the ideas of the
populous and justified their feelings. Society was a living, breathing thing
that evolved with the times, and for the people of the period, it was time for
change.
1 Donald Kagan, Western Heritage, Vol. II, (New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1998), pg. 499.
2 Kagan, pg. 501.
3 Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, trans. By Paul Brians,
Part 4.
4 Hobbes, Ch. 13.
5 Hobbes, Ch. 14.
6 Kagan, pg. 505.
7 John Locke, Two Treatises on Government, Ch. 2, Sect. 4.
8 Locke, Ch. 2, Sect. 13.
9 Locke, Second Treatise on Government.
10 Locke, Second Treatise on Government.
11 Locke, Second Treatise on Government.
12 Kagan, pg. 622.
13 Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, trans. By Henry A.
Meyers, (Paris: Garnier Freres, 1800).
14 Paul Halsall, Modern History Sourcebook, Nature of Man - Jean
Jacques Rousseau.
15 Rousseau, The Social Contract.
16 Rousseau, The Social Contract.
17 Kagan, pg. 462.
18 English Bill of Rights, 1689.
19 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789.