The Enlightenment timeline.

Hobbes was the first philosopher to start the enlightenment period. He thought, "All humans were naturally selfish and wicked. Without governments to keep order, Hobbes said, there would be “war of every man against every man" (Black and Beck 551). He believed that people were just born evil and that they could not control themselves. This made him believe that people need a government to rule over them to keep order.

John Locke was the second person to contribute to the enlightenment. The textbook states, "He believed that people could learn from experience and improve themselves" (Black and Beck 551). Because of this idea, he said that people were entitled to three basic human rights. These were, life, liberty and property. He thought that the government should be responsible for protecting these three basic rights that every human is born with.

Astell was a woman who believed that the enlightenment did not focus enough on women's rights. The textbook states, "She used Enlightenment arguments about government to criticize the unequal relationship between men and women in marriage" (Black and Beck 555). She felt that while all of these ideas were going around, none of them focused on how inequality severely affected women. She fought for women to get the equality that they deserve.

The book states, "Voltaire never stopped fighting for tolerance,
reason, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of speech" (Black and Beck 553). Voltaire had the idea that the government should be separate from the church or other religious groups. At this time, the King of England was the head of the church and therefore there was no separation of power.

Montesquieu was a philosopher that studied the government and how it should be run. At his time, most governments were run as a monarchy with a king as the leader. Montesquieu, though, believed that the government should be broken up. The book claims, "Montesquieu called this division of power among different branches separation of powers" (Black and Beck 553). The divisions that the government would be split into is an executive, legislative and judicial branch.

Rousseau believed that the government has to be held in line to make sure that they don't trespass on peoples' rights. The textbook says, "He explained his political philosophy in a book called The Social Contract" (Black and Beck 554). To keep people safe from the government, he suggested that there should be a contract between the people and the government. If the government violates that contract, the people have a right to start their own government.

Beccaria was a philosopher that studied the justice system. The text states, "He argued that a person accused of a crime should receive a speedy trial, and that torture should never be used" (Black and Beck 554). He thought that the justice system was used in the wrong way and did not serve its true purpose. At the time, Beccaria believed, "Laws existed to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes" (Black and Beck 554). He wanted to change this so that trials were fair.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a female philosopher during the enlightenment. The book says, "She disagreed with Rousseau that women’s education should be secondary to men’s" (Black and Beck 555). Women were very suppressed at this time and were hardly even heard. She was an advocate for women and tried to get them one of the most important rights that a person could have, a right to education.