Name Dates Brief Bio Nationality Area Specialty Major Work(s) Video
Voltaire
 
1694–1778  politics religion, expression The Age of Louis XIV, Candide
David
Hume
1711–1776 social empiricist, skeptic Treatise of Human Nature
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
1712–1778 politics social contract The Social Contract, Discourse on Inequality, Émile, or On Education
Denis
Diderot
1713–1784 politics materialist, atheist The Encyclopédie
Claude Adrien
Helvétius
1715–1781 politics materialist, egalitarian Essays on the Mind
Jean
d’Alembert
1717–1783 physics mechanics, music Traité de dynamique
Baron
d’Holbach
1723–1789 politics materialist, atheist The System of Nature
Adam
Smith
1723–1790 economics laissez faire Wealth of Nations
Immanuel
Kant
1724–1804 epistemology ethics, aesthetics Critique of Pure Reason
Edmund
Burke
1729–1797 politics conservatism Reflections on the Revolution in France
Cesare
Beccaria
1738–1794 politics criminal justice On Crimes and Punishments
Thomas
Jefferson
1743–1826 politics liberalism Declaration of Independence
Jeremy
Bentham
1748–1832 Politics utilitarian, hedonism Principles of Morals and Legislation
William
Godwin
1756-1836 politics utilitarian, anarchism Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
Mary
Wollstonecraft 
1759–1805 politics feminism A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Friedrich
Schiller
1759–1805 epistemology ethics, aesthetics On the Aesthetic Education of Man