Have you ever wondered where the concept of a government by the people, for the people came from? Or where the governments get their power? It didn't just happen overnight. The Age of Reason, or the Age of Enlightenment, was a movement in the seventeenth and eighteenth century that turned the world's idea of government on its head. The Enlightenment realized that kings held all the cards and that it was about time that the people shuffled the deck.

During the Age of Reason, just like the name says, reason and logic were valued very highly. People started trying to explain the world around them in scientific terms instead of with religion.

Like, say a huge thunderstorm rolled into town. Before the Age of Reason, people may have wondered what they had done to upset their god enough to deserve lightning. But during the Age of Reason, people started looking to science to understand the weather. It was during this period that Isaac Newton decided it was a good idea to sit under an apple tree. We can thank that silly choice for the Universal Law of Gravity. In this Age of Reason, science wasn't the only thing being developed, though.

Society's idea of government was going through a major overhaul, too. The first thing on the chopping block was an idea called Divine Right theory. This theory claimed that a king's right to rule was from God. Thinkers started questioning this theory heavily. Did God really make them kings? If not, who actually gave them the power? Under the Divine Right theory, questioning a monarch was like questioning God himself. It was dangerous and very few risked it. But, if the Divine Right theory was thrown out, then kings were just men -- men that may or may not deserve to rule.

In order to understand the human condition, philosophers imagined the world in a State of Nature. State of nature just means what the world was like before governments. By imagining the world like this, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke hoped to figure out how governments formed in the first place. Why did people decide to be ruled? Where did the idea of kings come from?

Hobbes and Locke had very different answers to these questions. Thomas Hobbes thought that before government, man was barbaric and life was chaotic. Hobbes figured that without a king, there couldn't be any peace, so he defended monarchies in his writings. John Locke, however, didn't share Hobbes' view of human nature. Locke was more optimistic and thought that in a state of nature, everyone respected each other's rights: life, liberty and property.

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have both had huge effects on the way modern political philosophers think. The disagreement between Hobbes and Locke came down to one question: can ordinary people be trusted to do the right thing? The answer to this question shaped the governments of the world today.

[MUSIC PLAYING] It was a battle of ideas, a showdown of words, a clash between two political minds. We're talking about John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. They didn't exactly see eye to eye when it came to how people would eventually form and run their own government. Let's look at John Locke's thoughts on how people would do this, known as social contract theory. One of the differences between the two men is how they view the nature of government. And when I say nature, I don't mean trees and bunnies. I'm talking about what political philosophers imagine life with an organized government would be like.

John Locke argued that there is a law of nature, or natural law, that most people will follow. That people will form their government around everyone's collective view of nature. Absolute freedom, or unlimited freedom, is what he believed the two parties would agree on. A state of nature that protected the most important rights would be perfect for everyone. There would be no fighting, no arguing, and peace and love would spread throughout the land. This state of nature sounds like a pretty cool place to be. Basically, John Locke is saying that people will leave their personal views behind in order to have absolute freedom for everyone.

The problem, though, is that while I have absolute freedom, so does everybody else. That means some people might present a threat to others' important rights. This is why Thomas Hobbes didn't agree with John Locke's theory of nature. Hobbes' vision of a state of nature was one of constant warfare and violence and people living in constant fear and insecurity. He thought fighting would erupt if people had contrasting views over personal freedoms. For instance, if one person wanted to listen to music as loud as they wanted all day long, while another wanted to tell their neighbor to turn down their music if it was keeping them awake at night, then there will certainly be some disagreements between neighbors over who has the freedom to do what.

He was worried that not everybody will respect others' rights to life, security, safety, liberty, and property. However, Locke believed these disagreements wouldn't happen all that often. He thought people were generally cool and wanted to get along with others, saying, "Most people will respect the natural rights of others or follow this law of nature, this God-given law, almost like a golden rule, that I will treat people the way I want to be treated."

During the Enlightenment, there was a greater emphasis on the individual rather than the group. But at the end of the day, Locke believed that these individuals will eventually work together to form a working government for everyone. This theory of his helps to explain the origins of government and what it still stands for today. The people would decide whether it should have the power to rule, all in the pursuit of life, liberty, and property. Locke goes even further to say that if any government fails, it's because the people decided that it failed, that the government didn't live up to its end of the bargain. Any government that becomes oppressive and does not protect the rights of the citizens is no longer legitimate and should lose its power to rule, and the people should form a new government.

Much of what Locke was talking about later influenced one of the most important documents in US history, the Declaration of Independence. So obviously, his ideas have been pretty important. But as you can see, John Locke's beliefs about nature and his theory for an eventual government were based around a group of individuals all agreeing on the same set of freedoms. In other words, can't we all just get along?

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