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Baron de Montesquieu
SourceMontesquieu was born in La Brède, Gironde, France. He studied at the Catholic College of Juilly, He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers. He was largely responsible for the popularization of the terms feudalism and Byzantine Empire. "A nation may lose its libertiies in a day and not miss them in a century." -
Voltaire
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known by his nom de plume
Was a French Enlightenment writer.
Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." -
Jean Jacques Rousseau
sourcewas a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century. Rousseau was a succesful composer of music.
Rousseau looked to a hypothetical State of Nature philosophy
"Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death." -
Denis Diderot
source a French philosopher, art critic, and writer
he suggested all human behavior is determined by heredity
best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie."Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man" -
Marquis de Condorcet
Condorcet was born in Ribemont, Aisne, France. He was raised by his mother. He was educated at the Jesuit College in Reims and at the Collège de Navarre in Paris, In 1785 he wrote Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions. He published Vie de Voltaire in 1789, which agreed with Voltaire in his opposition to the Church. "I hope to see the bringing together of all the best educated people of the earth into a worldwide Congress of Scientists" -
Mary Wollstonecraft.
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Wollstonecraft was born in Spitalfields, London. She was the second of the seven children. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education.
