1513 - Machiavelli Writes The Prince in, arguing that while being loved as a ruler is good, it is more important for a Monarch to be feared than loved. Rulers must motivate and organize for the greater good of the people, and this is best done by fear.
1651 - Thomas Hobbes writes in Leviathan during Cromwell’s reign - that people need absolute Monarchy to maintain order (in the form of a social contract between ruler and ruled).
CONTEXT: He wrote during the chaos and violence of the civil war.
1690 - John Locke , a member of the Royal Society of London, wrote Two Treatises on
Government (1690). He had discussed natural laws and their equal application among all mankind with his Royal Society colleague, Sir Isaac Newton (creator of 3 laws of motion, calculus) that men are born equal and free with natural rights of life, liberty and property. If the government doesn’t do its job, the people can overthrow it. CONTEXT: This was published 2 years after the Glorious (a.k.a. Bloodless) Revolution ended, justifying the overthrow of James II.
French Philosophes built on certain English works and agreed that
Nature was both good and reasonable (absent of intolerance and prejudice).
When one lives by natures laws, he is happy; Progress is natural
1734 = Voltaire writes a series of papers in which his burning criticism of the clergy, aristocracy and government get him kicked out of France. He goes to Britain, where he learns of their parliamentary government of which he is very admiring. He believes in freedom of religion, freedom of thought and freedom of expression.
1748 = Baron de Montesqieu also praises the British system. Although misinterpreted, he praises the separation and balance of powers within government (checks & balances) in his Spirit of Laws.
1763 = Jean Jacques Rousseau , a poor peasant who rose to the highest ranks of the bourgeoisie noted that “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains” because society’s laws corrupt people. In his Social Contract he argued that the only way to avoid these unjust laws is to uphold the will of the people through democracy and allow people to assemble freely so that they may unite as 1 person to overthrow an unjust sovereign if necessary.
1764 = Cesare Beccaria wrote On Crime & Punishment denouncing capital punishment. He argued that the punishment should fit the crime, not the whim of the Judge.
1776 = Thomas Jefferson pens the Declaration of Independence , drawing on the ideas of
Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau and Beccaria.
1788 = Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, others draft the U.S. Constitution , complete with a bill of rights (includes ideas of Locke, Voltaire, Beccaria, Spinoza, Montesquieu, Rousseau)
1792 = Mary Wallstonecraft follows in the footsteps of independent English women such as
Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Astell (if men are free then why are women slaves?) opens a publishing company with her sister. Wollstonecraft is a self educated woman, she writes the
Vindication of the Rights of Woman espousing ideas of gender equity. She argues that given equal opportunity, women will achieve the “virtues of men”.

A NOTE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMY:
The Catholic Church publicly and officially endorsed the Ptolemaic system of the Universe
(Earth centered universe) because it put mankind as the most important of all of God’s creations.
Challenging the Ptolemaic system was equal to challenging Church authority. Learning
Astronomy was like learning God’s geography. Proving the church wrong changed man-kind’s place in the universe, as well as the Church’s role for mankind.
1543 – Nicolas Copernicus dies. He had written a very controversial book on the structure of the Solar System, but never published it for fear of retribution from the Catholic Inquisition.
Upon his death, his friend George (Rheticus) publishes his book The Revolution of the Heavenly
Orbs in which Copernicus demonstrated the flaws in Ptolemy’s theory of the planetary motion.
Ptolemy had argued that the Earth was at the center of the Universe. Copernicus used mathematical calculations to prove Ptolemy wrong, and theorize that the Sun, not the earth, was at the center and that all planets revolved around the sun (the Heliocentric theory).
1632 – Galileo Galilei uses his new telescope to observe craters on the moon, proving that “the heavens” are not perfect, as the Church had always argued. He publishes
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in which he writes of a conversation between two people discussing the Ptolemaic (earth centered) theory of the universe and the Copernican
(heliocentric) theory. He decided to write it as a conversation to show the Catholic Church & the
Pope that he was not trying to endorse the Heliocentric (Copernican) theory because doing so would have been heresy and grounds for trial by inquisition. However, in his book, Galileo clearly writes the character defending Ptolemy as a fool, and the character defending Copernicus as very intelligent. Despite public endorsement by the Czech Royal Mathematician
Johannes Kepler ( author of numerous widely praised books on Mathematics & Physics), he was put on trial by the Inquisition and found guilty. Galileo’s proof of the Copernican (heliocentric) theory and his endorsement by Kepler made the theory widely accepted in educated communities, even though the Catholic church did not publicly accept the theory until the 20 th century.