Category: Constitutional Influencers

Constitutional Influencers are the Renaissance and Enlightenment philosphers, scientists, and theologians who influenced Colonial America, and specifically the founding fathers, on government and citizenship.

Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince to serve as a handbook for rulers claiming explicitly throughout the work that he is not interested in talking about ideal republics or imaginary utopias, as many of his predecessors had done: “There is such a gap between how one lives and how one should live that he who neglects what is being done for what should be done will learn his destruction rather than his preservation.”

Rene Descartes is often credited with being the “Father of Modern Philosophy.” He broke with the traditional Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy to develop and promote the new, mechanistic sciences. Descartes thought that the Scholastics’ method was prone to doubt given their reliance on sensation as the source for all knowledge. Second, he wanted to replace their final causal model of scientific explanation with the more modern, mechanistic model.

John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher whose works lie at the foundation of modern philosophical empiricism and political liberalism. He was an inspirer of both the European Enlightenment and the Constitution of the United States. His political thought was grounded in the notion of a social contract between citizens and in the importance of toleration, especially in matters of religion. Much of what he advocated in the realm of politics was accepted in England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 and in the United States after the country’s Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his political philosophy, especially as articulated in Leviathan (1651). Hobbes viewed government primarily as a device for ensuring collective security. Political authority is justified by a hypothetical social contract among the many that vests in a sovereign person or entity the responsibility for the safety and well-being of all. His enduring contribution is as a political philosopher who justified wide-ranging government powers on the basis of the self-interested consent of citizens.

Montesquieu, in full Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755). French political philosopher whose principal work, The Spirit of Laws, was a major contribution to political theory.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist whose treatises and novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic generation.