My Reflection on The Enlightenment Presentation

     Day One of presentations in AP US History, and I must admit, I got a lot of good information with the first presentation by Fernanda,Astrid, and Stephany. Their presentation was primarily about the Enlightenment period. Before diving into the presentation, they question states, "Using the provided documents,explain how the Enlightenment period influenced the ideas of the American Revolution." Crafting the thesis is becoming a work that keeps going for all of us, and although it is frustrating, it takes time, and eventually we will get there.

Their thesis: "The Enlightenment influenced the American Revolution in three different forms;ideologies,the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution." This is the original thesis, not the thesis that was re-written after we edited as a class. 

Throughout the presentation, we got introduced to the influential individuals during the Enlightenment period. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, were heavily involved during that time period, and still have impacted our society today.

Jean Jacques Rousseau, "The Social Contract"

Jean Jacques Rousseau's political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought. Additionally, Rousseau introduced "The Social Contract," which elaborates the idea of the idyllic freedom. Basically, in order for someone to get their rights, they would have to sign a form known as "The Social Contract," which gave people their rights. This sounds too good to be true right? Of course, signing "the Social Contract" has its perk-- isolate yourself from society. So much for freedom, after all. I was shocked by what I had learned because I realized that "FREEDOM" was not freedom so much after all. 

John Locke

John Locke introduced the idea of Natural Rights which he strongly believed in and were Life,Liberty, and the Property. When philosophers were getting together to write the Declaration of Independence, they incorporated Locke's similar beliefs into it. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." However, instead of keeping the property part, they changed it to the Pursuit of Happiness because maybe "property" was not intended for everyone-- for "WE THE PEOPLE."

Those are the characters we introduced to within the presentation. I tremendously got the "The Social Contract" information cleared up in my head because I was always unsure about what it meant. During our Sophomore year, we had went into the Enlightenment and the complete list of the most influential philosophers but I had forgotten most of it, and this was a great way to get my memory refreshed. I know that for the AP exam, the graders aren't going to be as nice when it comes to the scoring,but this was a great way to learn from mistakes,and to not make them happen once again.