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While many times new discoveries and philosophies in the Enlightenment challenged the religious teachings of the time, religion still had a role in society. It brought people together and created close communities within society.

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While the Enlightenment, Renaissance, and Scientific Revolution are very similar in some ways, they are differing time periods. All of them had reason as a predominant factor that influenced the events that transpired. However, the Enlightenment had more philosophy than the other periods, and occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Scientific Revolution focused on careful observation and facts rather than philosophy, and the Renaissance took place in the 14th through 17th century and had more artistic developments than the other two.

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The Enlightenment was a period of time in Europe that occurred in 1685 to 1815. During this time reason began to overtake the minds of people. Ideas began to contradict the church often. Scientific discoveries and new philosophical beliefs rose to the surface of society and spread throughout it rapidly.

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John Wesley is considered the founder of Methodism, a denomination of the Christian beliefs. Methodism taught that community and working together was important. This new teaching also lead the lower classes to feel that they had a purpose.

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Wollstonecraft wrote a novel about womens' rights and how they ought to be included in political and philosophical discussions and debates. Wollstonecraft also wrote 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women' in 1792.

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Diderot was made famous by his writing of the first encyclopedia in 1751. This compiled a vast amount of information in a comparatively easy to access source.

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Adam Smith was a physiocrat who supported individual choice and believed that the government should not interfere with the nation's economy. The government has three main roles according to Smith, the army should protect the nation, police should protect the citizens, and to keep up with the public works.

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Voltaire, whose given name was François-Marie Arouet, believed in the separation of church and state. He also wrote the 'Candide' in 1759, which challenged a philosophy called Optimism and cited many negative things that often happened to people..

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Rousseau thought that the government is a social contract in which the people must be willing to give up some freedoms in return for the protection of the government. His work 'Discourse on Inequality' was published in 1754, and 'The Social Contract' in 1762.

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The Baron de Montesquieu was a philosopher and thought that the power in a government should be separated so that no one branch or person would be able to completely control the nation. He wrote many letters and explanations pertaining to his personal and political beliefs.

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John Locke is most well known for his belief in people and that they have rights which they are born in possession of. These are called natural rights, and the government's purpose is to protect them. If the government is failing to do so, John Locke believed that it is the peoples' responsibility to overthrow it and form a new government. Locke had a total of 15 written works published, the earliest in 1660, and the latest in 1707, after his death.