Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva,

Switzerland. He moved to Paris as a young man to

pursue a career as a musician. Instead, he became

famous as one of the greatest and most revolutionary

thinkers to ever live.

In the age of the absolute power of kings, Rousseau

argued against the monarchy’s divine right to rule. He proclaimed the absurdity of

submitting to coercion or slavery, stating that true political authority lies with the

people. He believed that man was at his best when unshackled by the

conventions of society. His most famous work, The Social Contract (1762), talked

of a system of direct democracy in which all citizens contribute to an overarching

“general will” that serves everyone at once.

He also upset the other great power of the age, the Church, by arguing that all

religions are equal in their ability to instill goodness in people. Rousseau was a

believer in the moral superiority of the patriarchal family on the antique Roman

model. To him, the ideal woman is educated to be governed by her husband,

while the ideal man is educated to be self-governing.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Voltaire was a very busy writer and achieved fame

for his outspoken satires and sarcastic wit.

The son of a lawyer and educated by Jesuits, Voltaire

wrote widely and frequently on many subjects for a

long time. He was imprisoned early in his career for

his satires and spent time exiled in England.

He publicly argued for freedom of religion and expression, the separation of

church and state, and wrote attacks on the Catholic Church and powerful French

establishments. Voltaire is mentioned still in attacks against religious fanaticism

and talk about tolerance and freedom of thinking.

In his criticism of the French society and existing social structures, Voltaire hardly

spared anyone. He said the French bourgeoisie was too small and ineffective, the

aristocracy was parasitic and corrupt, the commoners were ignorant and

superstitious, and the church was a static and oppressive force.

Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the

masses. He thought only an enlightened monarch could bring about change, and

that it was in the king’s rational interest to improve the education and welfare of

his subjects.

Montesquieu (1689-1755)

Born into a French noble family in southern

France, Montesquieu practiced law in adulthood

and saw great political upheaval across Britain and

France.

Montesquieu argued for the separation and

balance of governmental powers as a remedy for

state corruption. He wrote, ‘Government should be set up so that no man need

be afraid of another.‘ He argued in favor of a constitutional system of government

and the separation of powers, the ending of slavery, the preservation of civil

liberties and the law, and the idea that political institutions should reflect the

social and geographical aspects of each community.

Montesquieu argued that the executive, legislative, and judicial functions of

government should be assigned to different bodies, so that attempts by one

branch of government to infringe on political liberty might be restrained by the

other branches (checks and balances). He also argued against slavery and for the

freedom of thought, speech, and assembly.

His ideas profoundly influenced the building of revolutionary new governments,

including the United States. He also supported the idea of women as heads of

state.

John Locke (1632-1704)

Born into a family of small landowners, John Locke was

an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded

as one of the most influential of Enlightenment

thinkers, and commonly known as the “Father of

Liberalism.”

Locke believed that the free man, aspiring to happiness, is the man of the state of

nature. He has a life of its own, and has the right and duty to maintain. Locke

believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance, but the

state of nature was not enough. He said that people established a civil society to

resolve conflicts in a civil way with help from government. Locke said political

power is built society, resulting from the voluntary agreement – or tacitly

accepted – by men to have laws. The laws are legitimate only if they accurately

reflect the natural rights of man.

Locke’s conception of natural rights is captured in his best known statement that

individuals have a right to protect their “life, health, liberty, or possessions” and in

his belief that the natural right to property is derived from labor.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher and scientist, was

one of the key figures in the political debates of the

Enlightenment period. Despite advocating the idea of

absolutism of the sovereign, he developed some of the

fundamentals of European liberal thought.

Hobbes thought that all humans are inherently self-driven and evil and that the

best form of government is thus a single, all-powerful monarch to keep

everything in order. Hobbes argued that in order to avoid chaos, which he said

was the state of nature, people had to agree to a social contract and establish a

civil society.

Hobbes believed in a relation between the absolute sovereign and the society.

According to him, society is a population beneath a sovereign authority, to whom

all individuals in that society give up some rights for the sake of protection. Any

power exercised by this authority cannot be resisted because it comes from

individuals’ surrendering their own sovereign power in exchange for protection.

Hobbes also included a discussion of natural rights in his moral and political

philosophy. While he recognized the inalienable rights of the human, he argued

that if humans wished to live peacefully, they had to give up most of their natural

rights and create moral obligations, in order to establish political and civil society.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

She was an English writer, philosopher, and

advocate of women’s rights. She was the major

female voice of the Enlightenment.

The majority of her early works focus on

education. She advocated educating children

into the emerging middle-class ethos: self-

discipline, honesty, frugality, and social

contentment. She also advocated the education

of women, a controversial topic at the time and one which she would return to

throughout her career.

In response to a work that defended constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, and

the Church of England, Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men

(1790) which attacked aristocracy and advocated republicanism. It is one of the

earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft argues that women

ought to have an education that goes with their position in society. She claimed

that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and

because they could be “companions” to their husbands, rather than just wives.

Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in

marriage, Wollstonecraft maintained that they are human beings deserving of the

same fundamental rights as men.

Wollstonecraft addressed her writings to the middle class, and represents a class

bias by her condescending treatment of the poor.