John Locke - natural rights
: His ideas helped to overthrow absolutism in England. Locke said that all men, at birth, had natural rights - right to life, liberty, and property. To secure these natural rights, men had created governments. If these governments, however, did not respect life, liberty, and property, the people had the right to revolt against them. The failure of the State of Nature leads to such an invasion of property and, because of this, a social contract is created for the transition from the State of Nature to the Political Society. People could challenge an unjust government and were not obliged to accept their decisions. Locke further says that if the government violates or fails to secure the right of individuals to property the people have the right to resistance to the tyrannical government. What defines tyranny is the exercise of power beyond law, aiming at the interest and not the public or common good.
Voltaire - importance of religious tolerance: Voltaire was a philosopher who opposed the religious intolerance and intolerance of opinion existing in Europe in the period in which he lived. His reformist ideas eventually led him to be exiled from his country of origin, France. Voltaire's set of ideas constitutes a thinking trend known as Liberalism. He expresses in most of his writings the concern for the defense of freedom, especially of thinking, criticizing censorship and scholasticism.
Montesquieu - checks and balances: The importance of the philosopher Montesquieu is precisely due to the presentation of a well-ordered and universally recognized structure: the principle of tripartition of powers. In this chain each organ or power is independent to the point of not interfering in the attributions of others, but endowed with sufficient authority to prevent abuses of power or to execute measures determined by the other powers. This mutual control of assignments, whose function is to prevent one power from overtaking others, is known as checks and balances.
