Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
thomosh
thomosh
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
The name I first think of during the Enlightenment, and research listed first is John Locke. Never underestimate the power of others such as Voltair, Montesquieu, Rousseau and Hobbes.
A child of the Enlightenment movement, john Locke, wrote the Social Contract that first allowed the justification for America to break away from England. Enlightenment also contributed to the ideas of equality, religious tolerance, and freedom of speech that was adapted by the US government.
The Enlightenment inspired democratic ideas about the rights of man.
That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it.-Apex
first M. Randolph and J. Madison proposed the Virginia plan. It was separated by three branches.
Mary Wollstonecraft is often considered the "first feminist" because of her 1792 book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
The first two paragraphs of the American Declaration of Independence sum it up perfectly, they espouse liberty, freedom, and the importance of reason and rationality in a decision. They also are written by Jefferson, himself a great enlightenment thinker, basing his work on other notable enlightenment thinkers, most notably, John Locke.
That depends on your view of the social contract. Some philosophers, like David Hume, might say there was no time when EVERYBODY consented to a government so there were none! In a more practical sense, the first social contract would probably be the mayflower compact in the 1640s. this was pretty close to a legitimate contract because every one who wanted to be protected by it had to sign it. (at least every white christian male). If you mean the first governments assembled by Americans in America, then the first American social contracts might also be attributed to the first state constitutions. the first of which was implemented in 1775.