Key Figures in Enlightment Period

John Locke

John Locke was a key figure during the Enlightment Period. Locke's ultimate goal was to show how closely language is connected with the process of thought, which would therefore emphasize the need to use language in the most precise way. Locke also opposed many popular forms of criticisms during his peak, such as the idea of pleasure and profit, but revived ideas on philosophy and poetry and rhetoric (Platonism). In other words, Locke thought that poetry was governed by wit, which sees identities between different things. Philosophy is supposed to teach right from wrong, preside over judgement and to continue further interests in knowledge. Locke also had harsh views on figurative language and rhetoric because there can be so much "error and deceit."

Edmund Burke

Burke, like Locke, believed that knowledge is gained through experience and experimentation. Burke stated that people usually have fixed criterias for truth and falsehood and for operations of reason. But where taste is concerned, a superficial view suggests that people differ widely. Certain standards of taste are common to all human beings. Burke divides the faculities whereby we know the external world into three: senses, imagination, and judgement. An example Burke uses about sesnes is that all organs of men are the same. Therefore, the manner men percieve external objects is the same. In imagination, Burke views it as a creative art and that imaginations come from the recieved senses. Imagination also is the most extensive activity of pleasure and pain.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was regarded as one of the first feminist writers of modern time. She was a radical thinker of her time mostly over the French Revolution of 1789. An important influence that Wollstonecraft had during the Enlightment Period was that of women's rights. She was a proponent of better education for women, have more authority, and freedom. She was very brave for speaking on women's equality because it caused much uproar during that time.