Final answer:
The Enlightenment thinkers influenced the Founding Fathers with their ideas on natural rights, social contract, and popular sovereignty. John Locke argued for inherent natural rights, while Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau developed various social contract theories. Rousseau and others also bolstered the concept of popular sovereignty as the basis for legitimate government authority.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Enlightenment era was a period of intellectual ferment that led to many social and political changes, including influencing the Founding Fathers of the United States. Here, we focus on three key concepts: natural rights, social contract, and popular sovereignty.Natural rights are fundamental freedoms and protections that individuals inherently possess, which cannot be justly taken away by government. John Locke is a thinker closely identified with this concept, stating that every person has the right to life, liberty, and property. Locke argued that these rights come from the mere fact of being human, not from any government.The idea of the social contract suggests that the state and its citizens are in a relationship where mutual consent is essential. This relationship provides legitimacy to the government's authority. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all developed theories around the social contract, although each had different views on its nature and implications.Popular sovereignty is the principle that the authority of the government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau were proponents of this idea, influencing the democratic ideals that underpin modern political systems.In conclusion, these Enlightenment ideas of natural rights, the social contract, and popular sovereignty profoundly influenced the foundation of American political thought and the development of its government.