Enlightenment In Modern Society Essay

Today, we see how modern society operates. The society we live in, and many of the systems we use right now were originally created and organized in Europe. During the 17th and 18th century, enlightenment had a huge impact on European society. What is enlightenment? The ideas of enlightenment introduced people new ways of thinking based on the use of reason and scientific method. Enlightenment questioned the role of divine right. In simple words, divine right means only king answers to god. As a result, many philosophies began to argue about politics and ideas. There were many reasons to all aspects of government that could be applied. Jean Domat, who was a French judge protected and supported the idea of absolute monarchy. He wrote On Social

Order and Absolute Monarchy, which claimed that government’s power should be held by king. Although Domat said that people should follow the king, John Locke, who was an English philosopher rejected absolute monarchy. He had a completely different thoughts for the function of government such as government was created for the people. As we see people had different perspectives on the function of government, two different types of government were competing at that time. One of them were absolutism, and another one was constitutionalism. Despite bearing some superficial similarities such as use of reason as well as scientific method, the differences between Domat’s thoughts and Locke’s thoughts are very clear.
In the first place, Domat supported absolute monarchy by setting French law and social structure. He explained how this world was formed. According to Domat, all men are created equal, but separated by class by god “all men are equal”, “But within this natural equality, people are differentiated by factors that make their status unequal” (Domat). He said that if people are all equal, the government is not necessary, that is why people are separated into different classes. Depending on which class they are in, they get different types of job. All people are not allowed to argue because god decided their status and role. The separation of different classes clearly showed people how much they can earn in their class. However, Domat believed that this was how society works. It is necessary for all people including ruler to have different status, which is why he believed that king should hold the absolute power. On the other hand, Locke said that all people are equal, and they all have natural rights. It seems Domat and Locke had similar thoughts at first, but Locke had a new political ideas about the function of government. He believed that all people have natural right and they have ability to control the nation.
Secondly, Domat talks about divine rights to support his ideas.

In definition of Oxford English Dictionary, divine right is the “belief that the right of a king to rule comes directly from god rather than from the agreement of the people” (OED). He said that the rule of absolute monarchy was based on divine right, so people should follow the god’s way thus, king was equal to power. God brought people there, if people did not follow the king, it would mean that they were going against the god. He knows that all people would have less freedom, but all people should be able to understand the circumstances. He said that there were benefit in many ways by following the king. He showed that the king Louis XIV was above the people, but not above god by talking about divine right. However, Locke questioned the role of divine right because he believed that divine right was one of the old ideas. He challenged the old way of thinking by saying that power is in people, not in king. For example, in section 27 of his writing, he talked about natural rights, and said that people have properties that cannot be taken away by others, which included rulers. “Though the earth, ad all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself”

(Locke).
Thirdly, new ideas about function of government inspired and influenced the world in various ways. Locke questioned himself that people were born free, but why do we have to have a politic society in section 15 of his writing. He answered to the question by saying that if one person was free, then everyone else were also free, which means people can do whatever they want. If there were no restriction, then the situation of the nation would become unstable because it could break someone’s right. Although personal liberty could give everyone natural right, liberty could also hurt other people’s right. To protect each person’s right, they needed to make a contract and a government. By making a government, they could catch those people who did bad things, and punish them. It helped the nation to have more safety, and protect the social order and natural rights. Locke believed that people created the government to protect their right so the government should be able to have an ability to control the nation. If government used power to break people’s right, people could reject it. People could even make a new government if they wanted to because it was formed by trusts of people. Therefore, he believed that power is equal to people. This supported his argument very well “in the state of nature, one man comes by a power over another; but yet no absolute or arbitrary power” (Locke). It is obvious why he criticized the idea of absolute monarchy, and preferred the idea of self-government. His perspective certainly showed new ideas about the function of government. With this in mind, we could see his ideas influenced the world in many ways. For instance, many people were not happy with the idea of absolutism and under the king Louis XIV because of the separation. They were also unhappy about the fact that he spent too much money, which caused the French Revolution. Enlightenment allowed many people think differently, and influenced in many ways such as constitutionalism and the French revolution were inspired by those new ideas about the function of government.
Enlightenment allowed people to have different perspectives, and emphasize the ideas about the function of government. It truly influenced the world in many ways. For instance, the world was inspired and the French revolution occurred. There were also different types of government were inspired as we could see Domat and Locke expressing their own thoughts.