The Enlightenment took place during the eighteenth century and was initiated by the Renaissance. It was called the enlightenment because it was a period of new beginning, in which new thoughts were draining out old traditions. The enlightenment was an intellectual movement because it was very influential. There were many important figures that contributed to the enlightenment both through their ideas and their written documents. Important figures such as Immanuel Kant, Caesare Beccaria, Baron de Montesquieu, and Marquis de Condorcet spread their views on the enlightenment.
             Enlightenment thinkers believed that people have three natural rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They were against absolutism because they felt that it violated people’s rights. “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” (Rousseau). Rousseau believed that everyone was born free with the power to reason and the chains are laws and restrictions put against them. Reason is at the heart of all enlightenment political thought and is essential. Reason was believed to be a positive force and philosophes would try to use it to change the world. In most states there was not equality before the law and ignorance was not tolerated. The enlightenment began an age of great promise.
             Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher, “a giant in the history of modern philosophy” (Kant 1). Kant believed that freedom was all that was required for the enlightenment, the freedom for man to make “public use” of his reason in all situations. “Enlightenment is man leaving his self caused immaturity” He also believed that people were lazy and didn’t have the courage to use their own intelligence by relying on others. Kant said that it was easier for people not to think because they had others doing it for them.
             Caesare Beccaria was an Italian economist and criminologist. He believed that co...