How did Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau inspire the American revolutionaries such as George Washington and...

John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau introduced the idea
of a social contract. The social contract is a model for how societies operate. Groups
of individuals come together and agree to certain infringements on their individual
liberties in exchange for certain protections. For example, one person agrees not to
physically harm any other person in exchange for the implicit promise of all other
individuals that they will not harm him. It is the role of government to codify these
social promises in the form of law. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were
inspired by this idea. They believed that the United States was the first place on the
planet where a true social contract could be achieved. Most other nations were governed
by kings or tyrants. These American revolutionaries wanted to establish a government
that supported individual liberties and democracy, rather than infringe upon individual
liberties in an authoritarian and unjustifiable way.