John Locke: Believed in natural laws and natural rights, people have the right to life, liberty, and property., If a government fails in its obligation to protect natural rights, the people have the right to overthrow that government, Greatly Influenced thomas Jefferson and the writing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Hobbes: In nature, people were cruel, greedy and selfish., people would enter into a social contract: they would give up their freedom in return for the safety, believed that a powerful government like an absolute monarchy was best for society, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: People are basically good but become corrupted by society, the good of the community is more important than individual interests, His most famous work was The Social Contract, Baron de Montesquieu: the best way to protect liberty was to divide the powers of government into three branches, Believed in the idea of checks and balances, greatly influenced James Madison and the other framers of the US Constitution, Voltaire: Advocated freedom of thought, speech, politics, and religion, often used a razor sharp humor and cutting sarcasm in his writings, books were outlawed, even burned, by the authorities., Mary Wollstonecraft: argued that women had not been included in the Enlightenment, believed in equal education for girls and boys,

Enlightenment Thinkers

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