History EssayDo you agree with Enlightenment thinkers like Ben Franklin that human beings are fundamentally good? The scientific revolution had led people to search for laws that governed human behavior. The ideas of the Scientific Revolution paved the way for a new period called the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. This period took place in the 18th century. This was the philosophical movement that emphasized the pursuit of knowledge through reason and refused to accept ideas based solely on the strength of religion or tradition. Thinkers and philosophers of the time included Ben Franklin, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and many others. The belief that appealed to most political figures of the time was deism. Deism was the belief that God created the universe in such a way that no divine intervention was necessary for its continued functioning. Most thinkers of the time believed that human beings were fundamentally good. In today's life it is clear that this belief does not apply to everyone, almost no one. Although it is not even right to say that all human beings are sinners. Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher of the 1600s, tried to create a science of politics. After witnessing the horrors of the English Civil War, Hobbes decided that conflict was part of human nature. Without governments to maintain order, Hobbes said, there would be “a war of all against all.” In this state of nature life would be “nasty, brutal and short”. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes argued that to escape such a squalid life, people gave up their rights to a strong ruler. In return, they got law and order. Hobbes called this agreement, by which people created a government, the social contract. Hobbes basically saw people as naturally selfish and violent. John Locke was another Enlightenment philosopher. He viewed human nature very differently than Hobbes. Locke said that a person is not born good or bad. Rather, he said, people's characters are shaped by their experiences. Locke felt that people could learn from experience and improve themselves, which led him to believe in self-government. According to Locke, all people are born free and equal, with three natural rights: life, liberty, and property. He believed that the purpose of a government was to protect these rights and if they failed the people would have the power to overthrow them. This idea is still valid today. The leading thinkers of the Enlightenment had very specific views on ideal government.