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Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes published his ideas in his book, titled Leviathan, about how humans are "untrustworthy" and "evil", and that without a government to guide them and show them what the right things were to do, they would end up destroying each other. ".. Hobbes argued that to escape such a bleak life, people gave up their rights to a strong ruler. In exchange, they gained law and order. Hobbes called this agreement, by which people created government, the social contract..." (Black and Beck 551) -
John Locke
John Locke had thought of the idea of the three Natural Rights (Life, Liberty, and Property), which were rights people were born with and could not be taken from them. "...The purpose of government, said Locke, is to protect these rights. If a government fails to do so, citizens have a right to overthrow it..." (Black and Beck 551) -
Voltaire
Voltaire would write many books about various different topics, including politics, history, drama, fiction, and even philosophy. -
Montesquieu
The main ideas of Montesquieu were the ideas of separation of the main powers, and -
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed in the idea of a "social contract", how a government could only exist if the people were accepting of the government, and they desired to be governed. He also disliked all types of governments besides democracies. "Rousseau believed that the only good government ... was freely formed by the people and guided by the “general will” of society...Under such a government, people agree to give up some of their freedom in favor of the common good..." (Black and Beck 554)