This obviously went against the idea of citizens having too much power in their government. He influenced the idea of checks and balances since he believed humans were too selfish to make decisions that would be beneficial to all of society. He said the king was the king because of divine right, or the idea that the king was chosen by God. Hobbes used more science and observation unlike the other philosophers. His ideas were different yet logical and this is what made him important during the Enlightenment. (Worksheet on Thomas Hobbes)
Three of the Enlightenment thinkers had similar ideas. They supported the idea of citizens having rights. They believed that the citizens should have some say in how their government is ran. They did not approve of one person having all of the power. Hobbes influenced the way the government should be ran by telling how citizens in power could backfire. These conflicting ideas balanced each other out in the end. They all played a big part in the formation of America’s