Author Question: Describe the views of John Locke on duties of a government to its people. What will be an ideal ... (Read 36 times)

amal · **on:** Sep 28, 2018

Describe the views of John Locke on duties of a government to its people.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Describe the impact and fallout of the Enlightenment on European literature.

What will be an ideal response?

epscape · **Reply #1 on:** Sep 28, 2018

Answer to Question 1

John Locke was another Enlightenment thinker who sought to establish general laws of human behavior in terms of natural law. Like Hobbes, he believed in the idea that government must be based in a social contract. Unlike Hobbes, however, Locke rejected Hobbes' view of humankind as self-serving and aggressive.
Lock argued that people have, by their very nature as human beings, the right to life, liberty, and estate (or property). Government must arbitrate between the exercise of one person's liberty and that of the next. The social contract thus preserves the natural rights of the governed. While individuals may willingly consent to give up some of their liberty in return for the ruler's protection, they may never relinquish their ultimate authority. The people have the right and obligation to overthrow tyrannical rulers. Thus, for Locke, sovereignty rested with the people, and government existed only to protect the natural rights of its citizens. Clearly, his theories inspired the revolutions that took place in America and France toward the end of the eighteenth century.

Answer to Question 2

Enlightenment thought emphasized social criticism, which naturally took a central place in European literature of the time. A new literary genre, the journalistic essay, was designed to address social issues of the middle-class reading public. These essays would appear in newspapers and magazines, appealing to an audience that was used to debates in salons and cafes.
The novel, too, emerged as a new genre, based in social critique. In early modern novels, with their graphic accounts of the personalities of lower- and middle-class people, the reading public discovered passions and sentiments much like their own. Novels often took on a similar tone to the journalistic essays in their satirical take on social issues.