Enlightenment Thinkers

This thinker believed people were wicked and needed a government to keep them in order so they entered a social contract with an absolute monarch

• Thomas Hobbes

• John Locke

• Montesquieu

• Rousseau

This thinker was against absolute monarchs because people could govern themselves. They believed in natural rights and that people were born free and equal

• Thomas Hobbes

• John Locke

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• Rousseau

This thinker used satire to express their opinions and believed in freedom of speech

• Cesare Beccaria

• Montesquieu

• Voltaire

• John Locke

This thinker believed in a separation of powers that allowed checks and balances in the government. They wrote about their ideas in the book "On the Spirit of the Laws"

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• Montesquieu

• Thomas Hobbes

• Rousseau

This thinker believed in individual freedom and that society corrupts. They believed the government should be created and run by the people because all men were created equal.

• Cesare Beccaria

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• Rousseau

• Voltaire

This thinker focused on the justice system and called out abuses of justice. They believed that people should have a fair and speedy trial.

• Cesare Beccaria

• Montesquieu

• Voltaire

• Rousseau

This thinker advocated for women's educational rights. They believed that men and women should be have the right to education and that women should be involved in medicine and politics.

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• Rousseau

• Thomas Hobbes

• John Locke