Locke+and+Montesquieu

Katheren Pomera 11th Grade- 2nd Period U.S. History Essay Homework John Locke and Baron Montesquieu October 7, 2008 During the period of Enlightenment, a lot of philosophers rose up and many new different ideas concerning political, scientific and many others came to the surface of Europe, America and it later reached the other parts of the world. A lot of these philosophers had great impact in today’s society and even today we still utilize their political philosophies. John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu were two of the greatest and powerful political philosophers. These two philosophers have exposed different thoughts on how people should live and how a government should look like. Everybody may not consent to these philosophers’ beliefs but as we all know everyone has diverse ways of thinking. John Locke believed that all men were born free with equal rights. He also believed all men had rights to life, liberty and property. People might have different reactions to his ideas however he, himself argued that whether you are from this world or the other world, you were all still born equal and should live equally [i]. Since in our society, the government holds the most power, Locke deemed that the government also holds the responsibility to protect these rights. As of that if the government fails, the people has all rights to overthrow the government and replace it [ii]. This was how John Locke imagined how a society and government should be and today in various parts of the world, this type of society and government exist. John Locke’s way of thinking about government is basic while Baron de Montesquieu, another influential philosopher, thought about government in whole different level. Montesquieu’s idea of government is that it should be divided into three different organizations, legislative, executive and judicial so that the government would not end as despotism [iii]. Montesquieu also believed in order to have a successful form of government; one should understand and read between the lines when it comes to law making. One should also be concerned about the situation of the government and their country, and then a thriving government would be possible [iv]. Although the United States’ [v] government is not perfectly made but it is one of the examples that can used for Montesquieu’s ideal government. The difference between these two great philosophers is that John Locke believed that people have the rights to overthrow their government if they think that their government is not performing a proper job. However in the other hand, Baron de Montesquieu believed that people should think carefully about their government first and understand why such laws or other things exist before doing any actions because it will only do harms on them and on their government. Even though their philosophies are different, they were great and it has helped form today’s world [vi]. There are more than just two philosophers that left great markings in today’s society, and though these philosophers have brought new ideas to the table not all of it has been used or still in use.

[i] [] [first paragraph] [ii] [] [first paragraph] [iii] [|http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/montesquieu/] [first paragraph] [iv] [|http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/montesquieu/] [4.**//The Spirit of the Laws//**] [v] [|http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/montesquieu/] [first paragraph] [vi] [|http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/montesquieu/] [4.**//The Spirit of the Laws//**]