name five philosopher and thier books on the french revolution
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Answer:
Explanation:
The philosophers (French for ‘philosophers’) were writers, intellectuals and scientists who shaped the French Enlightenment during the 18th century. The best known philosophers were Baron DE Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot.
1. Charles DE Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was an enlightened nobleman turned political philosopher, responsible for articulating a clear explanation of the separation of government powers.
Montesquieu expanded on this point in his best-known work, De l’Esprit des Lois (‘The Spirit of the Laws’), which was published anonymously in 1748. The Spirit of the Laws compared different systems of government, with a particular focus on how each system protected individual liberty. Expanding on ideas previously explored by the English philosopher John Locke, Montesquieu decided the best means of protecting individual liberty was through the separation of government powers. The different functions of government – executive or monarchical, legislative and judicial – must be carried out by different people and different departments. The power of each branch of government must be limited, ideally by a constitution. The Spirit of the Laws was despised by the church and placed on its list of prohibited books, however, it proved very popular and sold thousands of copies across Europe. Montesquieu died seven years after the first edition, however The Spirit of the Laws became arguably the most significant work of Enlightenment political theory, shaping the outcomes of the American and French revolutions.
2. Voltaire was the pen name of the French writer Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778). He was born in Paris to a moderately wealthy family, the son of a government official. Arouet received a Jesuit education in Greek, Latin and the law. A free-spirited character in his youth, at age 20 Arouet attempted to elope with a young French émigré but the plot was discovered by his father. After arriving back in Paris, Arouet spent a year imprisoned in the Bastille for writing libellous poems about members of the aristocracy.
3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was another Enlightenment writer whose political and philosophical ideas shaped the French Revolution. Rousseau was born in Switzerland to a successful middle-class family. His mother died a few days after Rousseau’s birth; his father was a third generation watchmaker. The young Rousseau was raised around craftsmen and artisans. He became an avid reader, though he had little in the way of formal education. Rousseau spent most of his 20s travelling, working a variety of menial jobs while studying and educating himself. In his 30th year, he moved to Paris, where he later befriended fellow philosophe Denis Diderot and had an article published in Diderot’s famous Enlightenment work Encyclopedia.
4. Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’
Much of Rousseau’s writing was undertaken in the last two decades years of his life. He wrote on a broad range of topics and addressed many social, political and philosophical issues. His Discourse on Inequality (1755) offers Rousseau’s ideas about why individuals live in and tolerate profoundly unequal conditions, particularly in civilised societies. One of Rousseau’s most famous works was Emile (1762), a novel that explores the nature of education and the corrupting influences of society on young individuals. Probably Rousseau’s most significant contribution to Enlightenment political theory was his 1762 work The Social Contract. In this book, he made a simple but now famous statement: “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in fetters [chains]”. Rousseau pondered why people voluntarily submitted to the rule of kings and governments, surrendering their freedoms and liberties in the process. The answer, he concluded, was that humans are essentially good and desire peace, stability and good order. Civilised human society cannot exist without government and laws to keep order.
5. Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was another prominent figure of the French Enlightenment. The son of a cutlery maker, Diderot was born in Champagne, northern France. He received a Jesuit education and moved to Paris with the intention of joining the clergy, before choosing to study law instead. Soon after, Diderot turned to writing. He spent his early years undertaking small writing and translation jobs and filling clerical positions. His lack of connections prevented Diderot from obtaining any significant writing roles and, as a consequence, he was frequently broke. Among his early writings were a history of Greece, an anthology of short stories and essays containing criticisms of the Catholic church. One of Diderot’s essays was condemned as heretical and in 1749 he was arrested and imprisoned for several months.
Answer:
Charles de scondat from 1682 to 1755