Philosophes

The philosophes were an intellectual group of the eighteenth century Enlightenment. They believed that by applying rational thought to all things such as religion, politics, economics, science, nature, medicine, etc. that even the simplest minded people could understand the workings of all things. Philosophes focused on improving the world and enjoying their lives rather than focusing on the afterlife.
The main attitudes of the philosophes were that every human being was capable of thinking for himself, that he could understand the workings of all things by using reason, one of the philosophes favorite words and that there was an overall need for change. Everything in the world was subject to the rational, scientific way of thinking if only people would free themselves from the older traditions. In other words they wanted to change things for the better. One man, Montesquieu, sought for change in government. He was a French noble who wanted a separation of powers because he wante...