The Philosophic Movement Led By Voltaire And Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In the mid-18th century, The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. While the Philosophes of the French Enlightenment were not revolutionaries, and many were members of the nobility, their ideas played an important part in undermining the legitimacy of the Old Regime and shaping the French Revolution.
Yet, there were two distinct lines of Enlightenment thoughts: the radical enlightenment, advocating democracy, liberty, freedom of expression, and eradication of religious authority; and a second, which sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith. Both lines of thought were
For Locke the law of nature is grounded on mutual security, or the idea that one cannot infringe on another's natural rights, as every man is equal and has the same inalienable rights. Locke is known for his statement that individuals have a right to "Life, Liberty and Property", and his belief that the natural right to property is derived from labor. Locke's theory of natural rights has influenced many political documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence and the French National Constituent Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The philosophies argued that the establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and capitalism, the scientific method, religious tolerance, and the organization of states into self-governing republics through democratic