Locke believed in natural rights *

● Life, liberty, and property

● Religious toleration
● Empiricism
○ How do we learn stuff
○ Through experiences
○ Experiments create experiences to learn about stuff

Isaac Newton
● Why did this apple fall off this tree and hit me on the head
○ Instead of questioning why God punished him
○ If I throw something it will follow the natural laws

Locke uses the same logic as Newton but applies it to government.

Locke view politics and natural rights and the natural empirical world as something that you can
predict outcomes based off of the behaviors of the government.

Thomas Jefferson
● We hold truths to be self evident that all men are created equal
● Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
○ Equated happiness with materialism

No country before America had put emphasis on their subjects happiness.

Because we have this myth we believe that we have equality in america we are able to fight for
equality in america.
When enslaved people in America see that this myth is true, they emphasize that they are
included within the spectrum of equality.
Tomas Jefferson’s brother in law was one of his slaves, as he was writing the declaration of
independence.

Benjamin Franklin
● Invented the lightning rod
○ Showed that it wasn’t God's will to have your house smited.

Thomas painded wrote common sense (Enlightner)

● Professional revolutionary
● Common sense
● The rights of man
● THe age of reason
● We should do what the founding fathers wanted
● US founded with a judeo-christian foundations
● Most of the founding fathers were deists
○ Godism
 ○ Believe in a rational universe, governed by natural law
● God is discovered through nature

Christianity Deism

How to obtain knowledge TEACHING EMPIRICISM

Divine revelation Logic and observation

The human condition Man is FALLEN Man is IGNORANT

People need Needs REDEMPTION Needs ENLIGHTENMENT

Bases of belief FAITH REASON

Listen To AUTHORITY EVIDENCE

Jefferson, Franklin, Paine were all deists

America is an individualist country

● We are set up to benefit the individual
●