Education and Intellectual Trends

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Education and Intellectual Trends

• By Rachel Feder
• Janel Kajisa
• Emily Nolan
• And Andrea David

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Renaissance
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Humanism

• An intellectual movement born out of the
  Renaissance that was based on the study of
  classic Greek and Roman literature
• Humanists studied the Liberal Arts- grammar,
  rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy or ethics, and
  history
• Petrarch was the father of Humanism
• Civic humanism was a movement in which Cicero was
  the model
• Scholars were supposed to live an active life of
  service to their state
• Humanist schools were developed in Italy for the
  upper-class elite to educate them in order to
  make well-rounded citizens

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New Renaissance Movements

• Neoplatonism was the study of Platonic philosophy
• Major beliefs were the hierarchy of substances
  and that all human beings were bound together by
  love
• Hemeticism focused on the occult sciences
• Eventually gave way to pantheism, where divinity
  was embodied in all beings

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Christian Humanists

• Erasmus wrote The Praise of the Folly, in 1511
• In it he criticized the corrupt practices of the
  Church in a humorous way
• Thomas More advocated reform in the Church

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Reformation Education

• Protestant schools were made for a larger group
  than the Humanist schools
• Combined Humanist ideals with religion
• Introduction of the gymnasium, or secondary
  school

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Education During Expansion

• Henry the Navigator established sailing schools
  for boys in Portugal to teach them how to sail
  and therefore explore
• Catholics set up missions to educate Indians who
  were conquered in the ways of the Catholic Church

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Scientific Revolution

• The world machine was developed by Newton and
  dominated Western thought
• God used the forces of motion to move everyone
  and everything
• The Scientific Method was set procedure for
  experimentation based on observation

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Francis Bacon

• The Englishman who founded the Scientific method
• He was an Empiricist who use deductive reasoning
• He urged scientists to move from the specific to
  the general
• He thought human power could conquer nature

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Descartes

• Rationalist who used deductive reasoning and
  focused on mathematical logic
• He began doubting all notions based on authority
  or custom
• Cogito ergo sum -I think, therefore I am
• Started with the self-evident truths
• Uses logical reasoning
• Cartesian Dualism- the belief that the mind and
  body are seperate

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Spinoza

• Thought that God was not just the creator of the
  universe, but that he was the universe
• Believed in pantheism
• Using reason humans can find true happiness

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Pascal

• French scientist who wanted to keep science and
  religion together
• Wrote Pensees in which he tried to convert
  rationalists to Christianity
• Appealed to reason and human emotion
• Thought God was a reasonable bet
• If he exists we gain everything, if he doesnt,
  we lose nothing

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Enlightenment

• As skepticism about religion and God grew, people
  were free to think for themselves
• Free use in reason
• Questioning old ideas
• Worked to make the world a better place
• Product of the philosophes
• Centered in Paris

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Montesquieu

• Wrote Persian Letters in which he criticized
  French institutions like the monarchy and Church
• Format was easy to read and apealed to a wide
  audience
• Most famous work is Spirit of Laws and was a
  study of government
• Wanted to apply the scientific method to social
  and political areas to find how the natural
  laws governed human relations
• Advocated for the seperation of powers
• Fan of Englands system
• Alos advocated for religious toleration, and an
  end to slavery
• Believed in three types of governments-
  republics, monarchies, and despotisms
• Checks and balances

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Voltaire

• Wrote in an entertaining way- satire
• Admired English life
• Advocated freedom of press, religion, and speech
• Criticized traditional religion
• Agreed with deism- God created the universe and
  then stopped being involved in it
• Universe runs according to its natural laws

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Diderot

• Condemned Christianity
• Wrote the first encyclopedia
• It was 28 volumes and was called the
  Encyclopedia, or Classified Directory of the
  Sciences, Arts, and Trades
• Helped the philosophes criticize French society
• Advocated religious toleration
• Wanted religious, social, legal, and political
  reforms
• Helped spread the ideas of the Enlightenment

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Rousseau

• Discourse on the Orgins of the Inequality of
  Mankind
• Humans begin in a happy and primitive condition
  without prejuduces
• Private property is the root of inequality
• Once humans are civilized, they cant go back to
  being uncivilized
• Government was a nessecary evil
• Social Contract
• The agreement on behalf of the entire society to
  be governed by the general will
• Tried to harmonize individual liberties with the
  government
• Participatory democracy
• Whats good for society is good for the
  individual

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Mary Wollsonecraft

• Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Pointed out contradictions in the prejudices men
  have against women
• If they thought that having slaves always obey
  their masters was wrong, then having women always
  obey men was also wrong
• The basis of Enlightenment idea is that reason is
  innate in all humans, so women have that reason
  that men have

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David Hume

• Treatise on Human Nature
• Advocates observation and reflection
• Common sense
• Science of man
• Examining human experiences would lead to the
  knowledge of human nature

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Enlightenment Education

• By the 18th century Europe had many private
  secondary schools
• France and Spain both had large colleges
• These schools were designed to meet the needs of
  upper-class children
• The philosophes reinforced the belief that
  education should function to keep people in their
  own social classes
• Focused mainly on Greek and Latin classics
• Paid little attention to math, science, and
  modern languages
• The curriculm was old-fashioned, which led to
  many complaints
• Reforms were made to introduce new ideas like
  maths and sciences to the schools
• Very few important scientific discoveries
  occurred in the universities
• Literacy was spread mostly by chapbooks
• Habsburg Empire had a system of state-run primary
  schools
• Protestant reformers emphasized reading the Bible
  so much so that a stronger focus was put on
  education and reading

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Enlightened Absolutism

• Arose form the belief in natural rights and
  natural laws
• Monarchs used these principles in their
  monarchies

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Industrial Revolution

• A law passed in 1833 said that children aged 9-13
  had to receive 2 hours of math and reading
  schooling everyday
• Few children actually received the required
  education
• The law was only applied to cotton mills
• In 1850 2/3 of women in England couldnt read or
  write, and 1/2 of the men were also illiterate
• Education was mostly unavailable for children
  working in factories- making it difficult for
  them to rise in social class

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Congress of Vienna

• Believed in the Balance of Power
• No one country would be able to dominate the
  others
• Conservatism- preached by Metternich
• The state was a partnership between those living,
  dead, and yet to be born
• Edmund Burke reflected on the French Revolution
  and criticized its radical republican ideas

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John Locke vs. Thomas Hobbes

• Thomas Hobbes

• John Locke

• Argued against the absolute rule of one man
• Wrote Two Treatises of Government in which he
  said that humans lived in a state of equality and
  freedom naturally.
• Humans have certain unalienable rights (life,
  liberty, and property).
• The governments job is to protect the rights of
  the people, and if it fails to do so the people
  can form a new government.

• Belief in absolute authority over subjects, in
  which the ruler had unlimited power and
  suppressed all rebellions.
• Wrote the Leviathan, his major treatise on
  political thought
• Claimed that in the state of nature human life
  was brutish, guided by animalistic instincts and
  a ruthless struggle for self-preservation

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Socialism

• Socialism-the ideology created by political
  theorists or intellectuals who wanted to
  introduce equality into social conditions and
  believed that human cooperation was superior to
  the competition that characterized early
  industrial capitalism.
• Utopian socialists-against private property and
  the competitive spirit of early industrial
  capitalism. By eliminating these things and
  creating new systems of social organization they
  believed that a better environment for society
  would be established.

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Utopian Socialists

• Fourier-proposed the creation of small model
  communities called phalansteries where the
  inhabitants would live and work together for
  their mutual benefit
• Owen-also believed that humans would reveal their
  true goodness if they lived in a cooperative
  environment. He transformed a squalid factory
  town into a flourishing community, but failed at
  his second attempt in Indiana.

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Utopian Socialists

• Blanc-wrote The Organization of Work in which he
  maintained that social problems could be solved
  by government assistance and called for the
  establishment of government funded workshops.
• Female Supporters-supported by female activists,
  ex Zoe Gatti de Gamond who established her own
  phalanstery in which men and women shared the
  same rights. Flora Tristan preached the need for
  the liberation of women around the world and
  wrote the Workers Union.

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Links

• Enlightenment Primary Sources
• http//www.historywiz.com/enlightenmentsources.htm
  
• http//www.historyteacher.net/APEuroCourse/WebLink
  s/WebLinks-AgeOfEnlightenment.htmdocs
• http//aam.govst.edu/projects/pduignan/primary_sou
  rces.htm