The Enlightenment period gave way to many great thinkers, known in this era as philosophes, who fought to improve society through reason and their influential statuses. The main idea of Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Mary Wollstonecraft, was to change perspectives on topics of interest, that were previously discredited, in society.
John Locke, who wrote the Second Treatise on Civil Government of 1690, founded the ethical idea that all men were entitled to their natural rights. Natural rights, from John Locke’s point of view, could be defined as fundamental principles possessed by each man that is set forth by nature itself. The idea of all men being equal in “what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose [manage] of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of nature… (Document A)” was a radical thought that shows felt a great need to change the public’s thoughts of inequality to those of equality. It would be reasonable to say, that John Locke was a key influence when creating the government laws of the United States that still stand today; the Declaration of Independence
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In his Letters Concerning the English Nation, of 1726, Voltaire stated “there the jew, the Mahometan [Muslim], and the Christian transact together as tho’ they all professed the same religion… There the Presbyterian confides in the Anabaptist [Baptist], and the Church man [Anglican] depends on the Quaker’s word (Document B).” The inclusion of all of the major religious groups of England, at the time, show that he was willing to reach out to all who would listen in hopes of spreading awareness of religious tolerance among all religious