- John Locke
John Locke was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, … - Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. - David Hume
David Hume (April 26, 1711 - August 25, 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. He is considered one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Although in recent years interest in Hume's work has centred on his philosophical writing, it was as a historian that he first gained recognition and respect. - Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (June 28, 1712 - July 2, 1778) was a Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. Rousseau also made important contributions to music both as a theorist and as a composer. - Adam Smith
Adam Smith FRSE (baptised June 5 1723 O.S. / June 16 N.S. - July 17, 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering political economist. He is a major contributor to the modern perception of economics. One of the key figures of the intellectual movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment, he is known primarily as the author of two treatises: "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759), … - Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher and writer. He was a prominent figure in the Enlightenment, and editor-in-chief of the famous "Encyclopédie". Diderot also contributed to literature, notably with "Jacques le fataliste et son maître" (Jacques the Fatalist and His Master), which emulated Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding novels, their structure and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will. - Marquis de Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a "Condorcet method". Unlike many of his contemporaries, he advocated a liberal economy, free and equal public education, constitutionalism, and equal rights for women and people of all races. His ideas and writings were said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment and rationalism, … - Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (September 6, 1729 - January 4, 1786) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, (the Jewish enlightenment) is indebted. For some he was the third Moses (the other two being the Biblical lawgiver and Moses Maimonides) heralding a new era in the history of the Jewish people. For others, his ideas led towards assimilation, loss of identity for Jews and the dilution of traditional Judaism. - George Berkeley
George Berkeley (12 March 1685 - 14 January 1753), also known as Bishop Berkeley, was an influential Irish philosopher whose primary philosophical achievement is the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory, summed up in his dictum, "Esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived"), contends that individuals can only directly know sensations and ideas of objects, … - Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza (lived November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. - Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf; also known as Wolfius) (January 24, 1679 - April 9, 1754) was a German philosopher. - Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (born Emanuel Swedberg; January 29, 1688 - March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase, in which he experienced dreams and visions. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. - Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet, better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws in France and harsh penalties for those who broke them. - Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid (April 26, 1710 - October 7, 1796), Scottish philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. The early part of his life was spent in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he created the" 'Wise Club' "(a literary-philosophical association) and graduated from the University of Aberdeen. He was given a professorship at King's College Aberdeen in 1752, … - Francis Hutcheson
Francis Hutcheson (August 8, 1694 - August 8, 1746) was a philosopher born in Northern Ireland to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment. - Giambattista Vico
Giambattista Vico or Giovanni Battista Vico (June 23, 1668 - January 23, 1744) was a Neapolitan philosopher, historian, and jurist. Born to a bookseller and the daughter of a carriage maker in Naples, Italy, Vico attended a series of grammar schools, but ill-health and dissatisfaction with Jesuit scholasticism led to home schooling. - Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (27 April 1759 - 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher and feminist. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. - Christian Thomasius
Christian Thomasius (January 1, 1655-September 23, 1728), was a German jurist and philosopher - Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, more commonly known as Montesquieu, was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. - Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius (Huig de Groot, or Hugo de Groot; Delft, 10 April 1583 - Rostock, 28 August 1645) worked as a jurist in the Dutch Republic and laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. He was also a philosopher, Christian apologist, playwright, and poet. - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (22 January, 1729 - 15 February, 1781) was a German writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. - Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche (August 6, 1638 - October 13, 1715) was a rationalist French Philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes in order to demonstrate the active role of God in every aspect of the world. Malebranche is most famous for his doctrines of vision in God and occasionalism. - Henry Home Lord Kames
Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696 - December 27, 1782) was a Scottish philosopher of the 18th century. Born in Kames, Berwickshire, he became an advocate and was one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1752, he was "raised to the bench", thus acquiring the title of Lord Kames. Home wrote much about the importance of property to society. In his "Essay Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities", … - Franciscus van den Enden
Franciscus van den Enden (Antwerp ca. 5 February 1602 - Paris, 27 November 1674) is mainly known as the teacher of Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677). His name is also written as 'Van den Ende', 'Van den Eijnde', 'Van den Eijnden', etc. At the end of his life he was also known as 'Affinius' (latinized form of 'Van den Enden'). - Dugald Stewart
Dugald Stewart (November 22, 1753 - June 11, 1828), Scottish philosopher, was born in Edinburgh. His father, Matthew Stewart (1715 - 1785), was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh (1747 - 1772). - Hugo Kołłątaj
Hugo Kołłątaj was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, social and political activist, political thinker, historian and philosopher. - Stanisław Staszic
Stanisław Staszic was a Polish priest, philosopher, statesman, geologist, scholar, poet and writer, a leader of the Polish Enlightenment, famous for works related to the "Great" or "Four-Year Sejm" (1788-1792) and its Constitution of May 3, 1791. - Jan Śniadecki
Jan Śniadecki was a Polish mathematician, philosopher and astronomer at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. - Eugenio Espejo
Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo (born "Luis Chuzhig") (Royal Audience of Quito, 1747-1795) was a medical pioneer, writer and lawyer of mestizo origin in colonial Ecuador. Although he was a notable scientist and writer, he stands out as a polemicist who inspired the separatist movement in Quito. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in colonial Ecuador. He was Quito's first journalist and hygienist. - Jędrzej Śniadecki
Jędrzej Śniadecki was a Polish writer, physician, chemist and biologist. His achievements include the creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry. - Claude Adrien Helvétius
Claude Adrien Helvétius was a French philosopher and "litterateur". - Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. During the last several years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with whom he discussed much on issues concerning aesthetics, encouraging Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches; this thereby gave way to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. - Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder (August 25, 1744 in Mohrungen, East Prussia - December 18, 1803 in Weimar) was a German philosopher, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Storm and Stress, and Weimar Classicism. - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (also "Leibnitz" or "von Leibniz" (July 1 (June 21 Old Style) 1646 – November 14 1716) was a German polymath who wrote mostly in Latin and French. Educated in law and philosophy, and serving as factotum to two major German noble houses (one becoming the British royal family while he served it), Leibniz played a major role in the European politics and diplomacy of his day. - Samuel Clarke
Samuel Clarke was an English philosopher. The son of Edward Clarke, an alderman who represented the city of Norwich in parliament, was educated at the free school of Norwich and at Caius College, Cambridge. The philosophy of René Descartes was the reigning system at the university; Clarke, however, mastered the new system of Isaac Newton, … - Richard Price
Richard Price (February 23, 1723 - April 19, 1791), was a Welsh moral and political philosopher. He was born at Tynton, Glamorgan, the son of a dissenting minister. Educated privately and at a dissenting academy in London, he became chaplain and companion to a Mr Streatfield at Stoke Newington. Streatfield's death and that of an uncle in 1756 improved his circumstances, and on June 16, 1757 he married Sarah Blundell, originally of Belgrave in Leicestershire. - Times Obituary Of Adam Smith
The "Times" obituary of Adam Smith was an interesting document showing how he was seen at the time. After discussing his time at Balliol College, the obituary discusses his choice of a career. It obliquely explains that he had ceased to believe in Christianity: :When the time of his residence at Oxford expired, the question arose what line he was afterwards to pursue. He was destitute of patrimony and had not any turn for business. - Henry More
Henry More (October 12 1614 - September 1, 1687) was an English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school. - Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (November 21, 1768 - February 12, 1834) was a German theologian and philosopher known for his impressive attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant orthodoxy. He was also influential in the evolution of Higher Criticism. Because of his profound impact on subsequent Christian thought, …
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