Time
Line |
| 1651 | Hobbes publishes Leviathan. |
| 1690 | Locke publishes Two Treatises on Government. |
| 1697 | Mary Astell wrote Serious Proposal to the Ladies. This stated that women needed to become better educated. |
| 1721 | Montesquieu published Persian Letters. Reason used to liberate the mind. |
| 1733 | Voltaire published Philosophic Letters to the English. Criticized problems facing France at the time. |
| 1739 - 40 | Hume published Treaties on Human Nature. |
| 1748 | Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws. The condition of the country determined the political and social structure. |
| 1751 | Voltaire published The Age of Louis XIV. |
| 1751 - 65 | Diderot published The Encyclopedia. It was considered the most important work of his lifetime. |
| 1758 | Voltaire published Candide. |
| 1762 | Rousseau published The Social Contract, Emile. Attempt to unite the liberty of the individual with the authority of the government. Emile was important for education. |
| 1763 | Voltaire published Treaties on Toleration. |
| 1764 | Beccaria published On Crimes and Punishments. |
| 1770 | Holbach published Systems of Nature. Stated that the universe is made up of matter and motion. |
| 1776 | Smith published The Wealth of Nations. |
| 1784 | Immanuel Kant publishes his Critique of Pure Reason, his analysis of the human mind and how it relates to nature. |
| 1787 | Enlightenment Philosopher Condorcet published a treatise on the rights of women. He said that women have the same natural rights as men. |
| 1789 | The beginning of the French Revolution! |
| 1791 | Olympe de Gouges published a Declaration of the Rights of Woman. |
| March 13, 1791 | Thomas Paine's Rights of Man was written. |
| 1794 | Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason was written. Condorcet wrote The Progress of the Human Mind. |