The document discusses the concepts of the Enlightenment period in Europe and how it influenced the American Enlightenment and American Revolution. Some key concepts promoted by Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke that influenced the Founding Fathers include life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, religious toleration, separation of powers, republicanism, democracy, and liberty. These concepts went against the divine right of kings and authoritarian rule at that time. The American Enlightenment period incorporated these European ideas and inspired ideals of freedom and democracy that conflicted with the way the British were governing the colonies, making the American Revolution inevitable.

1. Lesson 2: Bellringer
What is a paradigm?

2. Concepts
• Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
• All men are created equal
• Religious toleration
• Separation of power
• Where have we heard these concepts
before????

3. John Locke
• Pioneered these concepts
• English philosopher of the Enlightenment
• European enlightenment had a huge impact
on American and led to America’s own
enlightenment

4. Enlightenment Reading
Discussion

5. The Enlightenment
• 18th century to the Napoleonic Wars
• Western Europe
• Change in thinking
– The printing press allowed the works of
Enlightened philosophers to be mass produced for
readers
– Ideas spread around the world

6. The Enlightenment
• Immanuel Kant described it as the freedom to
use one’s own intelligence
– Who told people how to think before?
• Focus on reason, observation, and science
• Moving away from religious superstition

7. Enlightened Views
• Enlightened philosophers had new views on
government on society
• Believed in freedom and democracy, which
went against the thoughts of the time: divine
rights of monarchy
• Believed in using knowledge, religious
toleration, laissez faire economics, and power
derived from the governed

8. The Enlightenment Sparked Action
• French Revolution
• American Revolution

9. American Enlightenment
• Own version of the enlightenment
• Mid to late 18th century
• Linked European Enlightenment to American
Revolution
• Many ideas of the European Enlightenment
inspired the Founding Fathers and sparked
movement in the colonies

10. American Enlightenment
• Founded on ideas of: republicanism, liberty,
democracy, and religious toleration
– Where have we heard these before?
• Greatly influenced by Locke

11. 1. Republicanism
• Ideology of governing a nation as republic, in
which positions of power are chosen by the
people in some form of election
– Founding Fathers looked at government models
from the past
• Rome
– The more Americans believed in republicanism,
the more they felt England in violation and conflict
must arise

12. 2. Liberty
• Freedom from despotic rule (kings)
– Influenced by Locke; “No one ought to harm
another in his life, health, liberty, or processions”
– Lead to the belief of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness”
– Founding Fathers believed men had certain rights
(inalienable) and England was infringing on their
rights
• Morally wrong

13. 3. Democracy
• Government run by the people, majority rule
• Citizens should have a say in their government
• Came from Enlightenment reaction against
authoritarianism

14. Religious Toleration
• Founding principle of the colonies
• Founding Fathers wanted a country in which
all faiths could freely practice
– John Locke

15. American Enlightenment
• All these ideals of the American
Enlightenment were in contrast to the way
England was treating the colonists
– The more Americans believed in these ideals, the
more conflict brewed
– American Revolution was inevitable

16. Thomas Paine, Common Sense
• Published during American Revolution
• Huge circulation within the American colonies
• Written in common language
• Argued against British rule in America
– Read excerpt
– Look for ideals

17. Question
• In what ways was the American
Enlightenment a pertinent precursor to the
American Revolutionary War?
• 2 paragraph response
• Use notes

18. John Locke
• Two Treatises on Government
• Political philosophy book
• Published anonymously 1689
– First Treatise argued against divine rule
– Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society
In reading, underline evidence of American
Enlightenment or other aspects of American
freedom you recognize