John Locke

John Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher whose ideas formed the foundation of liberal democracy and greatly influenced both the American and French revolutions. His contributions to philosophy include the theory of knowledge known as empiricism, which addressed the limits of what we can understand about the nature of reality. Locke held that our understanding of reality ultimately derives from what we have experienced through the senses. The political implications of his theories included the notions that all people are born equal and that education can free people from the subjugation of tyranny. Locke also believed that government had a moral obligation to guarantee that individuals always retained sovereignty over their own rights, including ownership of property that resulted from their own labor.

Destutt de Tracy

Antoine Louis Claude Destutt, comte de Tracy (1754 – 1836) was a French Enlightenment aristocrat and philosopher who coined the term “ideology”. Although active in the Napoleonic government, he was important for his leadership of the ideologists, disciples of Condillac. This group contributed to such later psychological developments as the James-Lange theory of emotions. Starting from Condillac’s reduction of consciousness to the reception and combination of sensations, he developed a philosophy of education for post-Revolutionary France. ”