Question

Imagine you are preparing a speech on social contract theory for your government class. As part of your speech, you need to focus on the idea that people have the authority to overthrow a government that has become tyrannical. Which Enlightenment text would be good source material? Hobbes’s Leviathan Locke’s Second Treatise of Government Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England Machiavelli’s The Prince.

Answer 1

i believe the answer is: Locke's Second Treatise of Government

Through the second Treatise, Locke introduced the idea that claims civil society was created in order to give protection for the property.

This mean that civil society should prevent the government from having control upon the resources in the society so people could easily overthrew them in case the government started to become tyrannical.

Answer 2

If you were to preparing a speech on social contract theory and needed to focus on the idea that citizens have the authority to overthrow a government if it becomes tyrannical you would want to used Locke's Second Treatise on Government. Locke, a famous Enlightenment thinker championed these ideas in his works which later served as a philosophical underpinning for the American Revolution.