The Effect of the Philosophers on 17th and 18th Century Society

The following quotation is one that characterizes the Philosophers of the 17th and 18th Centuries: 'Politically and socially, most propagandists of the Enlightenment like the scientists whom they popularized were conservatives. Intellectually and morally, they undermined the values of the traditional society in which they lived and prepared its collapse.' This quotation, though, is not totally correct, nor incorrect. Most 'propagandists,' or philosophes, were not politically or socially conservative, but in fact, mostly …

…Rousseau are two philosophes that used radical ways of changing the political and social system of the country. Nonetheless, all philosophes did cause a change in their society, even though if it took long. Their ideas called for reforms in certain areas and later could have caused a collapse of the society itself, like in the case of Diderot, and Voltaire. Overall, the philosophes caused much change in Europe during the 17th and 18th Century.