Friday, September 30, 2011

What was the goal of Enlightenment writers such as Hobbes and Locke? Ex. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Although Hobbes and Locke were arguing for very different
ideas, they had a major thing in common -- both were using the idea of rationality and
experience as opposed to arguing from authority.  This, as you can see in the wsu.edu
link, was one of the major ideas of the Enlightenment.  Their goal, therefore, was to
use rational argument and human experience to explain how the world is and how the world
should be.


In previous times, a thinker might argue for
monarchy (as Hobbes did), but they would have done so on the basis of the divine right
of kings, not on the basis of logic as Hobbes did.  So what these two men have in common
(their common goal) was to explain how things came to be (and what they should be like)
on the basis of reason and experience, not on the basis of faith and
authority.

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