Enlightened Despots
This is an excerpt from the paper...
In Porter’s The Enlightenment, we find that the Enlightenment philosophers were not advocating a government of the people, by the people, for the people in their philosophies of civil government. Instead, they were reacting against the growing evolution of monarchy into despotism. As such, most of the key ideas regarding government during the Enlightenment did not revolve around a government by and of the people. Instead, they focused on who should govern, in what manner, and what rights and freedoms ought to be afforded to those governed. In an “enlightened” society, Porter argues that John Locke laid down a blueprint of key ideas involved in governance: a liberal regime base on individual rights and natural law, the priority of society over the ruler, a rational Christianity, the sanctity of property, liberal economic policy, faith in education, and an empirical perspective toward the advancement of knowledge. In other words, the enlightenment ideas as they transferred to government were in support of a representational government with checks and balances, a system of preventing despotism from rearing its feared head. Thus, policies that emerged in light of the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers were ones that were geared to liberalize economics, promote individual rights and freedoms, check absolute power, and further education and knowledge. While these main have been the main premises and key ideas of the Enlightenment as they
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
John Locke, Louis XV, II Austria, Enlightenment Enlightenment, Crown Josephs, Joseph II, Louis XVs, Louis XVI, Gagliardo Crown, Joseph IIs, joseph ii, key ideas, louis xv, ideas enlightenment, josephs reforms, government people, ideas enlightenment thinkers, rights freedoms, louis xvs, enlightenment thinkers, threat power, key ideas enlightenment, joseph ii austria,
Approximate Word count = 925
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Enlightened Despots
|