Question

How did Thomas Aquinas’s idea of natural law influence the lawmakers and philosophers of the Enlightenment?

A) It helped them understand the negative aspects of a constitutional government.
B) It helped them reconsider the role of government and the importance of individual rights.
C) It helped them realize that people needed fewer rights and a stronger government.
D) It helped them realize that rational thinking couldn’t be applied to any type of government

Answer 1

B) It helped them reconsider the role of government and the importance of individual rights.

Answer 2

Thomas Aquinas’s idea of natural law influenced the lawmakers and philosophers of the Enlightenment since it helped them reconsider the role of government and the importance of individual rights. Option B is correct.

Saint Thomas Aquinas OP was an Italian Dominican friar, Philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He is an significant philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is remembered as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis,