Between the seventeenth and eighteenth century there was a revolutionary intellectual movement-taking place, known as the Age of Enlightenment. During this time moral human reason became the primary motivator. This was a significant change from the older dominant reverence for church and king. This became a highly controversial topic; many enlightened thinkers began to express themselves through their literature. One writer, Voltaire, wrote on the subject of free will pertaining to human writes through a satire called Candide, and another, Rousseau wrote a "social contract".
Throughout Candide Voltaire makes fun of the government in order to express his views on free will in a satirical manner. In chapter twenty-five Candide and Martin go and visit Lord Pococurante, the senator. While they are there, they mention how he makes two pretty girls lie with him on occasion because he is sick of the pettiness found in the majority of woman in town. He emphasizes how he feels about them when Martin says, "That is to say that there is some pleasure in having no pleasure." This tells of how the senator is a miserable man who has everything, but appreciates nothing. Voltaire is showing how he thinks that authority figures in the government are stuck up and self-centered, and shows little respect for them and what they do. Voltaire's opinion on authority is exactly what many people at this time were thinking, hence the reason that authority was virtually powerless during the Enlightenment.
Rousseau on the other hand, put the idea of authority and free will into a more serious document. He wrote the "Social Contract". In this document Rousseau says, "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains", explaining that he feels although we are given special "rights" as a citizen, it is not the rights that give us power, but the force which guides us to do things. Although it is said in the constitution that one has the freedom of speech, if one were to threaten someone in a dangerous manner they would be arrested.