Explain the role of philosophers in the French Revolution of 1789.
1. In Two treaties of Government, Locke sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch.
2. Rousseau carried the idea forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.
3. In the Spirit of the laws Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
4. The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensely in salons and coffeehouses and spread among people through books and newspaper.
5. Patriotic song Marseillaise composed by poet Roget de L’Isle. It was sung for the first time by volunteers from Marseilles as they marched into Paris and so got its name. The Marseilles is now the national anthem of France.
