In 1776, the American Declaration of Independence was signed. Which major Enlightenment thinker died that same year?

The story behind the answer

Voltaire was a towering Enlightenment critic of tyranny and religious intolerance whose ideas helped shape the intellectual climate behind the American Revolution. However, he did not die in 1776—he died in 1778. Among the options, none died in 1776; Voltaire is simply the closest contemporary to the Declaration’s moment.

To place the thinkers on a timeline: Hobbes (d. 1679) and Locke (d. 1704) are earlier; the high Enlightenment closes with Voltaire and Rousseau, who both die in 1778, just after the U.S. Declaration (1776). Memory hook: “’76—Declaration; ’78—Voltaire (and Rousseau) exit.” This links America’s political break with Britain to the final years of Europe’s Enlightenment luminaries.