WGU C963 Task 1 | Passed on First Attempt
|Latest Update with Complete Solution
American Politics and The US Constitution
C963
September 18, 2025
Founding Ideologies
Task 1
A. Explain how Enlightenment ideas influenced the founding of the United
States:
The Age of Enlightenment was a movement in Europe centered around thinking
and philosophy. Beginning in the mid-1600s and lasting for approximately 150
years, it was a period of time where there was a philosophical focus on
individualism and liberty. This focus would be an inspiration in the founding of
the American Republic. It would also be central to the dream of the founding
fathers who imagined a country that would be forever free in realizing a
democratic government. Among the ideas and concepts central to the age of
enlightenment were those propounded by the celebrated thinker, physician, and
philosopher, John Locke. Known as the father of liberalism, and regarded as the
most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers, Locke postulated ideas concerning
natural rights and their relationship with the government. Yet, among all his
contributions, one that could be viewed as the most distinctive in its contribution
1
, to the establishment of the American Republic is that of the social contract theory.
A codifled and qualifled agreement between a people and their government in
which citizens consent to governance so long as that governance protects their
natural rights. Those rights being life, liberty, and property. These ideas would lay
a philosophical foundation in the minds of the Founding Fathers, speciflcally
through Thomas Jefterson. John Locke's ideas were highly influential in shaping
Jefterson's beliefs in natural rights and their relationship to the government.
Lockean ideas would later play a substantial role in the Declaration of
Independence, where echoes of his ideology can be not only understood, but
almost even reproduced word for word. Where Lockes, Life Liberty, and Property,
transposes to Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness, in Hamilitons prose, the
influence and ideas are evident. They both spoke to inherent rights, inalienable
and fundamental to all humans from birth, not given by government. These very
same concepts and ideas and influences are also evident in the predecessor to the
Constitution in the Articles of Confederation. Where the Declaration of
Independence articulated these rights and their necessity in America's separation
from Great Britain, the Articles of Confederation was the flrst U.S. Constitution,
giving the 13 American colonies a framework and structure for a new nation with
an emphasis on limited government. The Articles of Confederation's primary
directive was to protect the rights and liberties of states and citizens, central to
Lockean philosophy. It would eventually fail as it proved too weak to truly serve
its people as it was incapable of regulating trade or levying proper taxes, as well as
protect the expansive interest of a nation in its emergence. Ultimately, these
limitations proved too large of a hindrance. It's ironic that this minimalist
government led to disunity among the states. That irony also set the stage and
2
|Latest Update with Complete Solution
American Politics and The US Constitution
C963
September 18, 2025
Founding Ideologies
Task 1
A. Explain how Enlightenment ideas influenced the founding of the United
States:
The Age of Enlightenment was a movement in Europe centered around thinking
and philosophy. Beginning in the mid-1600s and lasting for approximately 150
years, it was a period of time where there was a philosophical focus on
individualism and liberty. This focus would be an inspiration in the founding of
the American Republic. It would also be central to the dream of the founding
fathers who imagined a country that would be forever free in realizing a
democratic government. Among the ideas and concepts central to the age of
enlightenment were those propounded by the celebrated thinker, physician, and
philosopher, John Locke. Known as the father of liberalism, and regarded as the
most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers, Locke postulated ideas concerning
natural rights and their relationship with the government. Yet, among all his
contributions, one that could be viewed as the most distinctive in its contribution
1
, to the establishment of the American Republic is that of the social contract theory.
A codifled and qualifled agreement between a people and their government in
which citizens consent to governance so long as that governance protects their
natural rights. Those rights being life, liberty, and property. These ideas would lay
a philosophical foundation in the minds of the Founding Fathers, speciflcally
through Thomas Jefterson. John Locke's ideas were highly influential in shaping
Jefterson's beliefs in natural rights and their relationship to the government.
Lockean ideas would later play a substantial role in the Declaration of
Independence, where echoes of his ideology can be not only understood, but
almost even reproduced word for word. Where Lockes, Life Liberty, and Property,
transposes to Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness, in Hamilitons prose, the
influence and ideas are evident. They both spoke to inherent rights, inalienable
and fundamental to all humans from birth, not given by government. These very
same concepts and ideas and influences are also evident in the predecessor to the
Constitution in the Articles of Confederation. Where the Declaration of
Independence articulated these rights and their necessity in America's separation
from Great Britain, the Articles of Confederation was the flrst U.S. Constitution,
giving the 13 American colonies a framework and structure for a new nation with
an emphasis on limited government. The Articles of Confederation's primary
directive was to protect the rights and liberties of states and citizens, central to
Lockean philosophy. It would eventually fail as it proved too weak to truly serve
its people as it was incapable of regulating trade or levying proper taxes, as well as
protect the expansive interest of a nation in its emergence. Ultimately, these
limitations proved too large of a hindrance. It's ironic that this minimalist
government led to disunity among the states. That irony also set the stage and
2
