“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Enlightenment > ushered in a new group of inquisitive philosophers who were infatuated with rational thought and advocates for free speech. These philosophers developed revolutionary ideas and spread their teachings throughout the world.
The Enlightenment was led by French philosophers (also known as the “philosophes”) Voltaire >, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, and English philosopher John Locke. Though each philosopher maintained his own interests, they all rejected orthodox Christianity and viewed absolute monarchy > as dangerous and evil.
Voltaire’s ideas were based on the belief in progress and the gradual humanization of society through the application of the arts and sciences. However, he made a strong distinction between the aristocracy and commoners, claiming that the aristocracy was intellectually supreme. This view allowed Voltaire to move easily in aristocratic circles, dining at their tables and taking a titled mistress. His chief advisor, Rousseau, often chastised Voltaire for his behavior, claiming that the aristocracy was the enemy. Whereas Voltaire insisted on the supremacy of the intellect, Rousseau’s interest in the emotions was subsequently influential in the development of Romanticism.
Diderot is perhaps best known for his role as the chief editor of the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers > (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts). Published over the course of 15 years, Diderot hoped that the Encyclopedia would one day encompass all human knowledge. Believing that the Encyclopedia embraced his idea that “all things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings,” its introduction carried the self-professed goal to “change the way people think.”
Both Voltaire and Diderot used the theater as one means of expressing and disseminating their thoughts, writing plays infused with the Enlightenment ideals.
Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, was particularly fascinated by government. He constructed an inflammatory account of the various forms of government and of the causes that made them what they were. He used this account to explain how governments might be preserved from corruption. He argued that despotism could best be prevented by a system in which different bodies exercised legislative, executive and judicial power and in which all those bodies were bound by the rule of law. This theory of the separation of powers had an enormous impact on liberal political theory and on the framers of the U.S. Constitution.
English thinker John Locke’s theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and “the self,” figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire , and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first philosopher to suggest that the mind was a “tabula rasa” (blank slate), that is, contrary to Christian philosophy, people are born without innate ideas.
