The Enlightenment: the action of enlightening or the state of being enlightened

1. Rational: based on or in accordance with reason or logic

2. Religious Tolerance: Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow"

3. Despotism: the exercise of absolute power, esp. in a cruel and oppressive way.

3.1. King Louis XVI

4. Deism: belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.

4.1. Christianity in the 18th century

5. Natural Rights: Natural and legal rights are two types of rights: legal rights are those bestowed onto a person by a given legal system, while natural rights are those not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable

6. Social Contract: an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. Theories of a social contract became popular in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as a means of explaining the origin of government and the obligations of subjects

7. Constitutional Monarchy: Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the guidelines of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified, or blended constitution

8. Absolute Rule: Absolute monarchy is a monarchial form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government; his or her powers are not limited by a constitution or by the law

9. Democracy: a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives

10. Republic: a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

11. Philosophers: Those who contemplate the world around them

11.1. Adam Smith

11.2. Thomas Hobbes

11.3. John Locke

12. Scientific Revolution: The scientific revolution was the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, medicine, and chemistry transformed views of society and nature

12.1. Physics

12.2. Chemistry

12.3. Biology

13. Separation of Powers: an act of vesting the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of government in separate bodies.

14. Equality: the state of being equal, esp. in status, rights, and opportunities.

14.1. Francis Bacon

14.2. Declaration of Independence

15. Social Contract: an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. Theories of a social contract became popular in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as a means of explaining the origin of government and the obligations of subjects