Scientific Revolution - The Scientific revolution is a period of time that results in the rise of brilliant scientists who made astonishing discoveries with the advancements in technology. These scientists include: Copernicus, Sir Isaac Newton, Galilei, and Descartes. These extravagant scientific discoveries that went against the churches teachings lead to the Enlightenment period.
Copernicus - Copernicus was born in Poland in 1473 and died in 1543. He was a Polish astronomer who discovered that the universe is not Geocentric. He called his discovery a Heliocentric solar system. His new system consisted that the earth and the other planets move around the sun, instead of the earth being at the center. He wrote a book which consisted of his widely non-accepted theory which was written when he discovered it, but published while he was on his deathbed.
John Locke - Pre-Enlightenment time, John Locke was a medical researcher, a political operative, a physician, and an economist. During the Enlightenment, John Locke was an English philosopher born in 1632 and lived until 1704. He was one of the most influential thinkers who stepped out of the religious restrained box to begin the Enlightenment period. He believed that the government should be guided with the principles of natural laws("life, liberty, and property") and if it was violated then the people should have the right to over throw. John Locke also thought that the ruler had to make an agreement which was protected by several rules. Along with his beliefs, Locke wrote a book called "Essays Concerning Human Understanding" which stated that people are equal and that the church has been teaching the people lies.
Montesquieu- Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu was born in 1689 into a noble family and lived till 1755. He was a French philosopher and a satrist. He was one of the many outstanding figures of the early Enlightenment. Montesquieu wrote The Spirit of the Laws in 1748, which is about a discourse on government, also known as the Separation of Powers.
Jean Jacques Rousseau - Jean Jacques Rousseau was born in switerland in 1712 and died in 1778. He was a Swiss philosopher and writer. He was the one who said that "the individual is essentially good but usually corrupted by society". His written works include The Social Contract. The Social Contract states that the government should be organized based off of "the general will of a society and should conform to the nature of human beings". He also was known for his thoughts on 'Sovereignty' which states that the majority of the people involved in a single government should have the right to banish resistant minorities.
Voltaire - Voltaire has a background of studying law, but then had a change of mind to become a writer. He was born in 1694 and lived till 1778. His contribution to the age of reason is the idea of Separation between the Church and the State(aka the government). He established religious and political systems. He wrote a satire on philosophical optimism called "Candid". Voltaire was a man who was interested in injustice cases and focused on religious prejudice. He was a strong believer in freedom of religion.
Thomas Paine- Thomas Pain was born in england in 1737 and lived till 1809. He was known not only as a one of the philosophers during the enlightenment period, but as the voice of the common man and one of the four founding fathers of our country. Pain was a British-born American writer and Revolutionary leader. During the American Revolution, Thomas Pain wrote Common Sense and published it in 1776. Common Sense is a pamphlet about the rights of the american colonies and that Britain is not their righteous ruler. In 1794, Thomas Pain's Age of Reason was written.
Thomas Hobbes- Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588 and lived to 1679. He was an English philosopher and political theorist. He was best known for his book Leviathan which was published in 1651. The Leviathan is a book in which he states his arguement that there is only one way to secure civil society. That one way is "through universal resignation to the absolute authority of a sovereign". In his works he also expresses the need for a strong central government in order to aviod a civil war, and if it is not strong then life becomes short and brute.
Common Sense- Thomas Pain had his works known as Common Sense published in 1776. His works imposed on the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. In Common Sense, Paine used a plain language to speak to the common people of America. This pamphlet was the first work to directly demand or request independence from Great Britain.
