Political Philosophy of the Enlightenment

The reading of the enlightenment was very hard to understand. Honestly I picked out bits and pieces of it but i have no idea if what I took from the reading was what his true and original purpose was. I thought that overall his idea was to emphasize the value of man. To advocate the meaning of freedom for the individual man. Despite those who fought against his ideas he was willing to think beyond the box others did make a public point to the world. But I am not certain if this is what the basic meaning was.