Final answer:
Voltaire criticized organized religion and advocated for freedom of thought, believing religion provided social utility. Thomas Hobbes argued for surrendering freedoms for security, supporting a strong authority. Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposed a social contract ensuring non-harm amongst individuals, while William Blackstone saw natural law as God-given.
Step-by-step explanation:
To match each philosophy to the correct philosopher, we must look at their well-documented ideas on government, society, and human nature.
- Voltaire maintained that religion was useful to humankind but didn’t have to be true. This statement reflects Voltaire's critique of organized religion and his advocacy for freedom of thought.
- Thomas Hobbes believed that people should exchange some of their individual freedoms for common security. In his work Leviathan, he argued that a strong central authority was necessary to avoid the chaos of a state of nature.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau maintained that each person entered into society with an unspoken agreement to refrain from harming one another, which is a core component of his social contract theory.
- William Blackstone believed that natural law was given to humans by God, an idea that shaped his commentaries on the laws of England and formed the basis of legal interpretation in the English-speaking world.