Introduction. The Age of Enlightenment is a period of active development in all spheres of social life, in particular philosophy, which laid the foundations of the modern socio-political system. Theoretical analysis. By the end of the 17th century, it became increasingly clear that ordinary people should have civil rights, and the power of the monarch had no divine source. The development of ideas about the nature of the relationship between the state and society is reflected in the teachings of T. Hobbes, J. Locke and T. Paine.