How did philosophers influence the thinking of the people of France?

The philosophers influenced the thinking of the people of France in the following ways:

a. Philosophers such as John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau put forward ideas of a society based on freedom, equality in terms of laws and opportunities.

b. He, in his book Two Treatises of Government, sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute rights of the monarch.

c. Rousseau carried forward his ideas and proposed a form of government based on social contract between the people and their representatives.

d. In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the Judiciary.

e. The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses and were spread among people through books and newspapers.