The Philosophes

John Locke:
John Locke held a positive view of human nature. His book Two
Treatises on Government was published in 1960, the year after the
Glorious Revolution. Locke argued that the English people had been
justified in overthrowing James II. The government had failed under
James to perform its most fundamental duty protecting the rights of
the people. In order to protect these natural rights, they formed
governments. The people had an absolute right, he said, to rebel
against a government that violated or failed to protect these rights.
John Locke believed all humans are free and equal at birth. People in
positions of power are given the right to govern by the people, and
unfair rulers can be forced from power. He believed that humans are
not born good or evil, but become one or the other according to his life
experiences and the social and geographical environment in which he
lives.
Jean Jaques-Rousseau:
Perhaps the most free-thinking of all Enlightenment thinkers admired
the democratic nature of English institutions. His most famous work
was The Social Contract. In it, Rousseau advocated democracy. Unlike
Hobbes, he called the social contract an agreement among free
individuals to create a government that would respond to the peoples
will:
The problem is to find a form of association which will defend
and protect with the whole common force the person (individual)
and goods of each associate (individual), and in which each,
while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and
remain as free as before.
- Jean-Jaques Rousseau, The Social
Contract
Here, Rousseau states that our goal should be to form a government
by which people unite to defend the rights and property of each
person, while still remaining free to follow ones own beliefs and will a
government that is powerful enough to protect people, while letting
people be genuinely free.

Rousseau believed that the only legitimate form of government came

from the consent of the governed. The people, he hoped would follow
the dictates of their consciences to vote for, or choose, that which was
best for the community as a whole. Rousseau also believed that the
rich should not enjoy special privileges, and that compared to life in
the Stone Age, modern man is unhappy, insecure, and greedy. He
believed democracy to be a desirable form of government.

Baron de Montesquieu (Monte-skew):

The French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu recognized liberty as a
natural right. In his book The Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu pointed out
that any person or group in power will try to increase its power. Like
Aristotle, Montesquieu searched for a way to keep government under
control. He concluded that liberty could be best safeguarded by a
separation of powers, that is, by dividing government into three
separate branches. These branches were (1) legislature to make laws,
(2) an executive to enforce them, and (3) courts to interpret them. The
United States and many other democratic countries use this basic plan
today.
According to Montesquieu, an absolute ruler is an undesirable leader
because one-man rule limits the attainability of such basic rights as
freedom of speech, press, and religion. Montesquieu was firmly
against slavery torture, religious persecution, and censorship. He also
believed that when one country increases its military power, so do
other countries. Therefore, all nations should limit their military forces
in order to reduce the threat of war.
Thomas Hobbes:
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes was influenced by the
Scientific Revolution. In his masterpiece of political theory, Leviathan,
he gave his views on human nature. Hobbes believed that people were
by nature selfish and ambitious. He thought the kind of government
needed to control selfish ambitions was absolute monarchy. In a kind of
Social Contract, people agreed to submit to an authoritarian ruler to
prevent disorder. Otherwise, what awaits us is a state of nature that
closely resembles civil war a situation of universal insecurity, where
all have reason to fear violent death and where rewarding human
cooperation is all but impossible. According to Hobbes, peoples acts
are often done in selfishness or impulse or in ignorance, on the basis of faulty
reasoning or bad theology or others' emotive speech. Hobbes believed human

judgment was frail and likely to err (make mistakes). It is only the
knowledge of consequences that offers reliable knowledge of the
future and overcomes the frailties of human judgment. In short, what
humans fear most is a violent death; the only way to protect ourselves
from a violent death (also known as the State of Nature) is to give
absolute power to a ruler who will protect them and exists above the
law.