What was the goal of Enlightenment writers such as Hobbes and Locke? Ex. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Although
Hobbes and Locke were arguing for very different ideas, they had a major thing in common -- both
were using the idea of rationality and experience as opposed to arguing from authority.  This,
as you can see in the wsu.edu link, was one of the major ideas of the Enlightenment.  Their
goal, therefore, was to use rational argument and human experience to explain how the world is
and how the world should be.

In previous times, a thinker might argue for
monarchy (as Hobbes did), but they would have done so on the basis of the divine right of kings,
not on the basis of logic as Hobbes did.  So what these two men have in common (their common
goal) was to explain how things came to be (and what they should be like) on the basis of reason
and experience, not on the basis of faith and authority.