The Enlightenment

1
The Enlightenment

• Siecle de Lumiere
• The Century of Light

2
An Overview of the 18c

• Political History ?gtgtgt Reform
• Intellectual History ? Newtonian Physics
  ? Reason
• Cultural History ? Individualism
• Social History ? Increased Literacy
  ? Age of Aristocracy
• Economic History ?gt Mercantilism to Capitalism

3
18c Politics

• BRITAIN ? Constitutional Monarchy
• FRANCE ? Royal Absolutism
  (cultural and religious unity)
• PRUSSIA, HABSBURG EMPIRE, RUSSIA ?
  Enlightened Despotism
• OTTOMAN EMPIRE ? traditional
  empire

4
What is Enlightenment? by I. Kant

• "Enlightenment is mankinds exit from its
  self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the
  inability to make use of ones own understanding
  without the guidance of another"
• Motto of the Enlightenment Sapere aude!
• What does it mean?

5
The Enlightenment

• Enlightened thinkers believed that human reason
  could be used to combat ignorance, superstition,
  and tyranny and to build a better world.
• Principal targets Religion and the domination of
  society by hereditary aristocracy. In other
  words, the church and the state, who often worked
  hand-in-hand.

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Centers of the Enlightenment
7
I. What was the Enlightenment?

• Progressive, Rationalistic, Humanistic worldview
• Emerged out of the Scientific Revolution and
  culminated in the French Revolution
• Spokesmen Rising Middle Class
• Paris Center of Enlightenment
• Optimism about mankinds abilities

8
The Enlightenment17th Century

• Enlightenment philosophers combined logic and
  reason
• Logic formal logic is the process(es) by which
  an argument can be determined as valid or not. An
  argument is valid if the premises are all true,
  then the conclusion must also be true.
• Example All humans have heart. Tom is a human.
  Therefore, Tom has a heart.
• Reason Enlightenment thinkers stated that it
  consisted of common sense, observation, and their
  own unacknowledged prejudices in favor of
  skepticism and freedom.

9
The Characteristics of the Enlightenment

• Rationalism ? reason is the arbiter of all
  things.
• Cosmology ? a new concept of man, his existence
  on earth, the place of the earth in the
  universe.
• Secularism ? application of the methods of
  science to religion philosophy.
• Scientific Method
• Mathematical analysis
• Experimentation
• Inductive reasoning.
• Utilitarianism ? the greatest good for the
  greatest number.
• Tolerance ? No opinion is worth burning your
  neighbor for.

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The Characteristics of the Enlightenment

• Optimism Self-Confidence
• The belief that man is intrinsically good.
• The belief in social progress.
• Freedom
• Of thought and expression.
• Bring liberty to all men modern battle against
  absolutism
• Education of the Masses
• Legal Reforms
• Justice, kindness, and charity ? no torture or
  indiscriminant incarceration.
• Due process of law.
• Constitutionalism
• Written constitutions ? listing citizens, rights.
• Cosmopolitanism.

11
Enlightenment Attacks the Old Regime
12
The Enlightenment17th Century

• The 17th century scene Dogma Fanaticism
• Witch-hunts and wars of religion
• Protestants Catholics denounced each other as
  followers of Satan
• People imprisoned for attending wrong church
• All publications censored by church and state
• Slavery widely practiced, defended by religious
  leaders
• Despotism of monarchsdivine right of kings
• Any opposition was imprisoned or executed
• Reason and Logic had no room for these matters

13
A. The World of the Old Regime

• Built on tradition
• World of hierarchy, privilege and inequality
• Allied with the Church
• Challenged by the reform impulse of supporters of
  the Enlightenment

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B. Conflict with the Capitalistic Middle Class

• Support for the Middle Class social order against
  the traditional social order
• Size and increasing power of the Middle Class
• New notion of wealth
• Tension and discord created by the Middle Class

15
The Enlightenment17th Century

• Political Economic Background
• Wealth from Asia Americas catapulted a new
  class of merchants into prominence, partially
  displacing the aristocracy whose power had been
  rooted in land ownership
• These bourgeoisie had there own ideas about the
  worldmain agents of change in the arts,
  government, and the economy
• Naturally convinced that their earnings were
  result of their individual merit and hard work
• Absolutist kings and dogmatic churches were the
  biggest obstacle to change for the merchant class

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C. Popularization of Science

• The popularity of science in the 17th and 18th
  centuries
• Conversations on the Plurality of the Worlds
  (1686)Bernard de Fontenelle
• The Scientific Revolution looked at the workings
  of the universe

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D. A New World of Uncertainties

• The Idea of Progress
• The anti-religious implications of the
  Enlightenment
• The relativity of truth and morality
• John Lockes New Psychology
• --Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
• -- Tabula Rasa

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William Blakes Newton, 1795
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Deism

• The word "Deism" is derived from the Latin word
  for God "Deus." Deism involves the belief in the
  existence of God, on purely rational grounds,
  without any reliance on revealed religion or
  religious authority.
• Deists
• Do not accept the belief of most religions that
  God revealed himself to humanity through the
  writings of the Bible, the Qur'an or other
  religious texts.
• Disagree with strong Atheists who assert that
  there is no evidence of the existence of God.

20
Deism

• Deists regard their faith as a natural religion,
  as contrasted with one that is revealed by a God
  or which is artificially created by humans. They
  reason that since everything that exists has had
  a creator, then the universe itself must have
  been created by God. Thomas Paine concluded a
  speech shortly after the French Revolution with
  "God is the power of first cause, nature is the
  law, and matter is the subject acted upon.

21
The Philosophes

• 18th century French intellectuals
• Paris was the capital
• Desire to change the world
• Interest in addressing a broad audience
  committed to reform
• Call for a spirit of rational criticism
• Celebrated the scientific revolution
• The Mystique of Newton
• They believed that that natural science should be
  used to examine and understand ALL elements of
  life
• Reason over and above faith everything is
  critiqued
• that the Scientific method can discover ALL laws
  of human society AND nature
• in progress it is POSSIBLE for man to create a
  better society (hope)

22
Who were the philosophes?

• Literary figures, historians, economists
• Today many are thought of philosophers
• Not an organized group BUT agreed that religion,
  government/politics, economy and society needed
  to be reformed for the sake of human liberty
• All applied skepticism and rules of reason when
  questioning the status quo
• Followers commercial class, professional urban
  class, forward thinking aristocracy
• Supported improvement in agriculture,
  transport and industry itransformation of
  society and economy

23
The Problem of Censorship

• The attempt of the Old Regime to control new
  thinking
• Publishers and writers hounded by censors
• Over 1000 booksellers and authors imprisoned in
  the Bastille in the early 1700s
• Battling censorship

24
The Role of the Salon

• Protection and encouragement offered by French
  aristocratic women in their private drawing rooms
• Feminine influence on the Enlightenment

25
A Parisian Salon
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Madame Geoffrins Salon
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The Salonnieres
Madame Geoffrin(1699-1777)
MadameSuzanne Necker(1739-1794)
MademoiselleJulie de Lespinasse(1732-1776)
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Female Philosophes

• Emilie du Chatalet, a French noblewoman(1706-174
  9).
• Wrote extensively aboutthe mathematics
  andphysics of GottfriedWilhelm von Lebnitz
  andIsaac Newton.
• Her lover, Voltaire, learned much of his science
  from her.

29
The Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris
30
Diderots Encyclopedia

• Ultimate strength of the philosophes lay in their
  numbers, dedication and organization
• Written between 1751-1772
• Attempted to illustrate all human knowledge
• Problems with publication
• Emphasis on practical science

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Diderots Encyclopedia (cont)

• Desire to change the general way of thinking
• Greater knowledge leads to human progress
• Emphasized moderation and tolerance
• Human nature can be molded
• Inalienable rights and the social contract
• Knowledge improves goodness

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Pages from Diderots Encyclopedie
Encyclopedia, 28 volumes
33
Pages from Diderots Encyclopedie
34
Pages from Diderots Encyclopedie
35
Subscriptions to Diderots Encyclopedie
36
Reading During the Enlightenment

• Literacy
• 80 o/o for men 60 o/o women.
• Books were expensive (one days wages).
• Many readers for each book (20 1)
• novels, plays other literature.
• journals, memoirs, private lives.
• philosophy, history, theology.
• newspapers, political pamphlets.

37
An Increase in Reading
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Reading in the Enlightenment

• Birth of the Novel
• Writing of History
• Inclusion of political, economic, social,
  intellectual, cultural happenings over time
• Monthly Journals and Magazines daily newspapers
• What is low literary culture and what effect
  did it have on lower-class audiences?

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VIII. Famous Enlightenment Thinkers
40
Timeline
41
THOMAS HOBBES

• In nature, people were cruel, greedy and selfish.
  They would fight, rob, and oppress one another.
• To escape this people would enter into a social
  contract they would give up their freedom in
  return for the safety and order of an organized
  society.
• Therefore, Hobbes believed that a powerful
  government like an absolute monarchy was best for
  society it would impose order and compel
  obedience. It would also be able to suppress
  rebellion.

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Hobbes 2

• His most famous work was called Leviathan.
• Hobbes has been used to justify absolute power in
  government.
• His view of human nature was negative, or
  pessimistic. Life without laws and controls would
  be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

43
Hobbes 3 - Quotes

• A man's conscience and his judgment is the same
  thing and as the judgment, so also the
  conscience, may be erroneous.
• Curiosity is the lust of the mind.
• In the state of nature profit is the measure of
  right.
• Not believing in force is the same as not
  believing in gravitation.
• Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.

44
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

• The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
• Despotism could be avoided if political power
  were divided and shared by a diversity of classes
• Power must check power
• Admires British government
• French parliaments must be defenders of liberty
• Influence in the US
• Attacks traditional religion, advocacy of
  religious toleration, denunciation of slavery,
  use of reason

45
Voltaire (1694-1778)

• Enthusiasm for English institutions
• Reformer not a revolutionary
• Admirer of Louis XIV
• Relationship with Frederick the Great
• Criticism of Traditional Religion believed in
  diesm

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Voltaires Wisdom (I)

• Every man is guilty of all the good he
  didnt do.
• God is a comedian playing to an audience
  too afraid to laugh.
• If God did not exist, it would be necessary
  to invent him.
• It is dangerous to be right when the
  government is wrong.
• Love truth and pardon error.

47
Voltaires Wisdom (II)

• Judge of a man by his questions rather than by
  his answers.
• Men are equal it is not birth, but virtue
  that makes the difference.
• Prejudice is opinion without judgment.
• The way to become boring is to say
  everything.
• I may not agree with what you have to say, but
  I will defend to the death your right to say it.

48
Baron Paul dHolbach (1723-1789)

• Deterministic view of human beings
• Free will, God and immortality of the soul are
  foolish myths
• His views dealt the unity of the Enlightenment a
  severe blow
• Other thinkers repelled by this inflexible atheism

49
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Turns his withering critique of the Old Regime
  increasingly on the Enlightenment itself
• Rather than liberation, rationalism and
  civilization destroys the individual
• Man by nature was solitary, good and free

50
Rousseau (cont)

• Civilization represents decay, not progress
• Emileprotect children from too many books
• The Social Contract (1762) and the General Will
• Civilized man is an alienated man
• Transitional intellectual figure

51
Rousseaus Philosophy (II)

• Virtue exists in the state of nature, but lost
  in society.
• Government must preserve virtue and liberty.
• Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains.
• The concept of the Noble Savage.
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
• Civil liberty ? invest ALL rights and liberties
  into a society.

52
Rousseaus Philosophy (III)

• In The Social Contract
• The right kind of political order could make
  people truly moral and free.
• Individual moral freedom could be achieved only
  by learning to subject ones individual interests
  to the General Will.
• Individuals did this by entering into a social
  contract not with their rulers, but with each
  other.
• This social contract was derived from human
  nature, not from history, tradition, or the Bible.

53
Rousseaus Philosophy (IV)

• People would be most free and moral under a
  republican form of government with direct
  democracy.
• However, the individual could be forced to be
  free by the terms of the social contract.
• He provided no legal protections for individual
  rights.
• Rousseaus thinking
• Had a great influence on the French
  revolutionaries of 1789.
• His attacks on private property inspired the
  communists of the 19c such as Karl Marx.

54
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• One of few philosophes to live to see the French
  Revolution
• Enlightenment was a personal processrelease from
  immaturity
• More optimistic than Rousseau
• Dare to KnowEnlightenment was an act of
  personal courage

55
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

• The Rights of Man, 1791
• Common Sense, 1776

56
John Locke (1632-1704)

• Letter on Toleration, 1689
• Two Treatises ofGovernment, 1690
• Some ThoughtsConcerningEducation, 1693
• The Reasonablenessof Christianity, 1695

57
John Lockes Philosophy (I)

• The individual must become a rationalcreature.
• Virtue can be learned and practiced.
• Human beings possess free will.
• they should be prepared for freedom.
• obedience should be out of conviction,not out of
  fear.
• Legislators owe their power to a contract with
  the people.
• Neither kings nor wealth are divinely ordained.

58
John Lockes Philosophy (II)

• There are certain natural rights that are endowed
  by God to all human beings.
• life, liberty, property!
• The doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings was
  nonsense.
• He favored a republic as the best form of
  government.

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Locke 4 - Quotes

• No man's knowledge here can go beyond his
  experience.
• All mankind... being all equal and independent,
  no one ought to harm another in his life, health,
  liberty or possessions.
• I have always thought the actions of men the best
  interpreters of their thoughts.
• The reason why men enter into society is the
  preservation of their property.

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MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

• She argued that women had not been included in
  the Enlightenment slogan free and equal. Women
  had been excluded from the social contract.
• Her arguments were often met with scorn, even
  from some enlightened men.
• Wollstonecraft and Catherine Macaulay were
  British feminists. The most famous French
  feminist was Germaine de Stael.

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Mary Wollstonecraft 2

• She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women in
  1792.
• Wollstonecraft believed in equal education for
  girls and boys. Only education could give women
  the knowledge to participate equally with men in
  public life.
• She did argue that a womans first duty was to be
  a good mother. But, a woman could also decide on
  her own what was in her interest without
  depending on her husband.

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Mary Wollstonecraft 3 - Quotes

• If women be educated for dependence that is, to
  act according to the will of another fallible
  being, and submit, right or wrong, to power,
  where are we to stop?
• The divine right of husbands, like the divine
  right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this
  enlightened age, be contested without danger.
• Let not men then in the pride of power, use the
  same arguments that tyrannic kings and venal
  ministers have used, and fallaciously assert that
  women ought to be subjected because she has
  always been so.
• Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and
  there will be an end to blind obedience. Virtue
  can only flourish among equals.

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The Womans Question in the Enlightenment

• Most philosophes agreed that the nature of women
  make them inferior
• Mary Astell (1666-1731)
• A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, 1697
• Better education and equality in marriage