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So, who were these leaders of modern thought? To help you keep up with the information you need to know about the most well-known contributors and their accomplishments during the Enlightenment, use this great study tool to take good notes for the tests you will take and writing you will do in the near future. (Download Word file)

Click on their names to find a good article that discusses each person's life and accomplishments. While you are not required to read their major works, links to their writings have been provided for you. Keep in mind that no historical period is exclusive, meaning that they all have an impact on other historical periods. Some of these have been completed for you.

Enlightenment Thinker Nationality Major Works Significant Ideas
French The Spirit of the Laws  
French The Social Contract  
French Candide  
British A Vindication of the Rights of Women Proposed the need for equal opportunities for women and men to access education in order for women not to be considered the weaker gender to be enclosed in a household.
French Encyclopedie  
Cesare Beccaria
(be sure to read the part entitled "Implications on United States" in the article)
Italian On Crimes and Punishments Reform of the criminal justice system focusing on the rights of both the criminal and the victim of crime ensuring that the punishment fit the crime. In those days, punishments for crimes, even petty ones, were extraordinarily severe and cruel.
French Declaration of the Rights of Women, 1791  
British Leviathan Social Contract Theory — people give over their rights to an absolute ruler because his belief was that people are not competent enough to rule themselves and must be controlled.
British Two Treatises on Civil Government Social Contract Theory — people have the right to choose who governs them and can overthrow a government if the government fails to protect them. He believed that all men have the natural rights of life, liberty and property.

 

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