Enlightenment Thinkers

Enlightenment Thinkers – Timeline

As noted above, the Enlightenment is usually considered to run from approximately the 1680s to the 1820s. See some of the critical events and fundamental works by Enlightenment thinkers on the timeline below:

Fig. 1 - Enlightenment Thinkers Timeline. Made by the Author Adam McConnaughhay, StudySmarter Originals.

Most Famous Enlightenment Thinkers

The list below includes some of the most famous Enlightenment thinkers. See a summary of some of the Enlightenment thinkers' ideas below or click the links to see more detailed explanations of their lives and ideas.

• Thomas Hobbes
• René Descartes
• John Locke
• Denis Diderot
• Voltaire
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Montesquieu
• Immanuel Kant
• Adam Smith
• David Hume
• G.W.F. Hegel
• Jeremy Bentham
• Mary Wollstonecraft
• Francois Quesnay

This list is far from exclusive, and there were many more philosophers, writers, scientists, and poets that could be considered necessary Enlightenment thinkers. Still, these are often considered some of the most famous Enlightenment thinkers and certainly the most influential!

Fig. 2 - Portrait of John Locke

Enlightenment Thinkers' Ideas

The most famous Enlightenment thinkers proposed many influential ideas. They contributed many ideas to philosophy, behavioral sciences, and natural sciences.

However, for our purposes of studying history, it's best to focus on their political ideas that helped shape events in their day and continue to be influential today. Enlightenment thinkers proposed several noteworthy political concepts.

Enlightenment Thinkers on Government

The ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers on government are arguably their most significant impact on us today. Many of the foundations of Western democracy are found in the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers on government.

Debating the Social Contract: Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau

One of the most influential ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers on government was the idea of the social contract. This came to define the relationship between government and its citizens, defining the duties for each.

Thomas Hobbes and the social contract are often linked since he was one of the first to write on it. Sometimes still considered an Enlightenment thinker, Hobbes was writing earlier and reached a very different conclusion than most other Enlightenment thinkers on government.

Hobbes proposed that the social contract was created so that man could escape the state of nature, which he saw as a horrible place filled with violence as humans competed for limited resources. For this reason, Hobbes saw the need to provide order and security as paramount and proposed that the best form of government was an absolute monarch who wielded total and even arbitrary power over his citizens.

However, John Locke reached a very different conclusion on the state of nature and the social contract. He believed that man was generally good and moral. However, there would at times be some that violated this natural order. For this reason, Locke believed the government's main job was to protect what he called natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau offered the most radical explanation of the state of nature and social contract. He saw the state of nature as primarily neutral. While humankind was mostly good, it was corrupted by society, namely by the advent of private property. The wealthy and powerful created a condition where they exploited the majority, using the social contract and government to further their own interests.

Rousseau, therefore, proposed a new social contract based on his idea of the general will where the good of the collective guided government rather than the good of the individual or specific social classes.

All three of these ideas are influential.

• Hobbes's idea that we must give up our freedom and let government enforce order lends itself to government agents such as police ensuring our safety.
• Meanwhile, Locke's idea that government should primarily protect the rights of individuals and when they don't it should be replaced is also generally accepted.
• Rousseau was somewhat ambiguous on how government should be structured, but the idea that it generally should reflect the will of the people as a collective and not serve to the benefit of one class over another is also important to our ideas of democracy.

Fig 2 - Title page of Rosseau's Social Contract.

Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers

Montesquieu is one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers on government. He argued for the separation of powers, where government authority was vested in three equally powerful branches, each with checks and balances on the other to prevent abuses. This idea has been implemented in most western democracies today.

Enlightenment Thinkers on Religious Toleration and Freedom of Expression

Most Enlightenment thinkers on government also expressed strong ideas of religious toleration and freedom of expression. In this regard are Locke, Rousseau, and the French philosopher Voltaire, who was highly critical of established institutions like the Church and what he considered a tyrannical monarchy in his native France.

After the religious wars of the Reformation, most Enlightenment thinkers embraced the separation of Church and State and tolerating different religious sects. Many rejected strict religious views of the divine, adhering to a more deist view of God as a creator that did not intervene in the day-to-day lives of humans. This belief was closely connected to their opinions on science and reason governing the world.

Enlightenment Thinkers on Slavery and Women

One of the most significant critiques of the Enlightenment relates to the seemingly hypocritical views of Enlightenment thinkers on slavery and women.

Enlightenment Thinkers on Slavery

While many of the most important Enlightenment thinkers on government called for liberty, they were often silent at best and at times contradictory on their views of slavery.

In the Thirteen British Colonies of North America that became the United States, some Enlightenment thinkers, such as U.S. Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson, were themselves enslavers even while they called for liberty. German Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant expressed views of a racial hierarchy where Blacks and indigenous peoples were lesser than whites.

However, other Enlightenment thinkers, such as Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin, were publicly hostile to slavery and condemned it, even if they were not as outspoken on it as they were on other issues. The French Revolution, largely inspired by the Enlightenment, led to the abolition of slavery and the ideas of its Declaration of the Rights of Man helped spark the Haitian Revolution even if the reactionary regime of Napoleon temporarily reinstated it.

Another more positive view of the Enlightenment thinkers on slavery is that the ideals they espoused helped lead, at least in part, to the Abolitionist movement. Ultimately, the hypocrisy of calls for liberty, equality among citizens, and free speech proved to be incompatible with slavery, and as the ideas of the Enlightenment became more widespread and influential, they would come to be powerful weapons against the institution of slavery.

Fig 3 - Mary Wollstonecraft

Women

Another important critique of the Enlightenment thinkers was their exclusionary view towards women. Many of the most famous Enlightenment thinkers held opinions that were consistent with the traditional gender roles of women.

However, the Enlightenment salons and coffee houses where ideas were discussed often became new forums where women could participate and share their ideas. Some became outspoken critics. For example, the Olympe de Gouges wrote a direct response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman. Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman advocated for equality for women and more educational opportunities.

These critiques and the newfound space for women to participate eventually led to more equality and representation. Similar to the issue of slavery, the Enlightenment thinkers may not have always fully lived up to their ideals at the time, but those ideals were eventually influential in bringing about positive change.