Question

What were some of the early foerms of law? How did these develop during the Age of Enlightenment?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily

(Answer) The age of enlightenment was rightly called so because it was the time in Europe when philosophy, politics and science were being redefined. This age is also known as the “age of reason” or the “long 18^th century” because it expanded from 1685 to 1815 roughly.

In the avenue of law, it was particularly thinkers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles Montesquieu, who were the fore-runners.

Early forms of law before the age of enlightenment were from prominent old empires like Rome and Greece amongst others. It was Greece that was known to be wiser than others. This is because their laws were based on designs of great thinkers like Socrates, Plato and other great minds that came from all over the world to convene at the library of Alexandria in Greece. Some of these ancient Greek philosophers had managed to influence the thinkers from the age of enlightenment.

Although, if one looks back at history with a fine-tooth comb for hints of early democracy and the inception of modern democratic principles, it can be found written on cave walls from the 3^rd century BC in India by King Ashoka of the Maurya Dynasty, who was a Buddhist leader.

Every age in history has had its own contributions towards the melting pot that is the age of enlightenment.

Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau brought about the idea called the “natural lights.” These figurative lights were values like science, logic and reason, religious tolerance, life, liberty and personal property (unlike feudalism).

These thinkers basically spread such ideas because they desired that the authority should be in the hands of not one but of some or all people. This was the age was the result of this desire for autocracy to end and a people’s government to take its place instead. In other words, this age was the result of a desire for democracy.