Enlightenment%20Thinking

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Enlightenment Thinking

• Ideas in the 18th Century

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The Enlightenment

• Definition A philosophical movement focusing on
  reason, science, and practical utility over
  conventional religion.

3
The Enlightenment and China

• Jesuit missionaries facilitated exchange of ideas
  between Asia and Europe
• Chinese art and culture went to Europe
• European Enlightenment thinking to China
• In general, Chinese considered Europeans no more
  than clever barbarians
• Chinese only interested in acquiring European
  military technologies
• Artillery
• Hot air balloons

4
Western Science and East Asia

• Reactions against Confucianism and Chinese
  cultural dominance resulted in Japan, Korea, and
  Vietnam looking toward Europe
• Dutch Studies became popular academic pursuit
• Independent Japanese discoveries mirrored
  European thinking
• Empiricism
• Universal Reason--Rationalism

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Enlightenment in Europe

• Ideas best exemplified by the Encyclopedia by
  Denis Diderot in France (1751)
• Focused practical knowledge
• Advocated reason and science as truth
• Drew on ideas of John Locke in politics
• Favored constitutional guarantees of liberty
• Rights of individual citizen
• Optimism rather than Pessimism

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Old European Economic Thought

• Mercantilism an early modern European economic
  theory and system that actively supported the
  establishment of colonies that would supply
  materials and markets and relieve home nations of
  dependence on other nations. Dominated 17th and
  18th centuries
• Long experience of unfavorable trade balance led
  to obsession with cash
• Hoarding of gold, silver BULLION
• Trapped cash inside the realm
• Regulated prices, defying supply and demand
• Disastrous results
• Lack of overseas investment
• Competition for markets led to wars

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New Economic Thought

• Laissez-Faire Economics the principle that the
  economy works best if private industry is not
  regulated and markets are free
• Developed in Britain in response to problems
  inherent in mercantilism
• Becomes dominant thinking in Europe in 1776 with
  publication of Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations
• Absolute belief in the laws of supply and demand
• Taxation in an economic evil
• Helped fuel the American Revolution

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Social Equality

• Focus on freedom brought the beginning of the
  Western feminist movement
• Declaration of the Rights of Woman by
  Marie-Olympe de Gouges (1792)
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary
  Wollstonecraft (1792)
• Both died tragically
• Wollstonecraft in childbirth (1797)
• De Gouges guillotined in French Revolution (1793)

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Anticlericalism

• Enlightenment thinkers saw the Church as the
  greatest obstacle to progress
• Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot all attacked
  Church as superstition
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote Magic Flute
• Anticlericalism came to dominate thinking of
  European monarchs
• 1759 Portugal expelled the Jesuit order
• 1762 Catherine the Great of Russia secularized a
  majority of Western Orthodox property
• 1764-1773 Jesuit order abolished in most of
  Europe
• 1790 King of Prussia proclaimed dominion over all
  churches, Protestant or Catholic in his domain
• Success of science to explain mysteries led to
  crisis in religion

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Religious Revival

• First Great Awakening
• Charismatic Protestant preachers appealing to
  common people rather than aristocrats
• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
• George Whitfield (1740-1758) preached all over
  Britain and the American colonies
• Music as a tool for religious revival
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• George Friedrich Handel
• Wrote Messiah in 1741

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Romanticism

• Belief in the power and beauty of the natural
  world by both Christians and non-Christians
• Inspired by untouched landscapes of the New World
• Brought both the educated elite and the commoners
  together
• Major movement in arts and literature
• Walt Whitman
• Jakob Grimm
• John Keats
• Alaxander von Humbolt

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Rousseau and the General Will

• Broke with the ideas of Diderot and Voltaire
• Believed that a social contract held people
  together
• Those who refuse to follow the general will can
  be compelled to do so by the body as a whole
• Can result in the tyranny of the majority
• Morally justified by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Setting individual interests aside would allow
  for objective goals set by the entire community

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Discoveries in the Pacific

• Captain James Cook in late 1700s explored S.
  Pacific, charting New Zealand and Australia
• Started large-scale scientific exploration of S.
  Pacific using John Harrisons Marine Chronometer
• Contact with aboriginal peoples of the S. Pacific
  led to European interest in the noble savage
• Belief that to be morally admirable a person
  neednt be white, Western, or Christian
• Mythologized in French relationship with the
  Huron of N. America
• Further explored by James Fenimore Cooper in The
  Last of the Mohicans

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The French Revolution

• Enlightenment belief in the wisdom of the common
  man and natural equality provided philosophical
  basis for both the American and French
  revolutions
• French deeply in debt after involvement in the
  American Revolution
• King had to call French General Assembly for
  first time since 1600s in order to raise taxes
• Assembly members came demanding a wide variety of
  social and political reforms
• Passed Declaration of Rights of Man
• 1789 Parisian mob stormed the Bastille

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Revolutionary Radicalism

• From 1790-91 revolutionaries focused on curbing
  the power of the Church in France
• Louis XVIs opposition led to his virtual
  imprisonment by assembly
• Foreign powers feared rev. would spread so
  Austria and Prussia invaded France
• French monarchy was overthrown in 1792
• Royal family executed for treason in 1793
• Aristocrats and priests next in line of execution
• So-called French Reign of Terror began as the
  most militant revolutionaries took power
• Summer of 1794 almost 1600 people guillotined
• Revolutionary unity inspired by terror

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Rise of Napoleon

• Chaos of Revolution drove people to the arms of a
  strong man
• 1799 a military coup brought Frances leading
  general, Napoleon Bonaparte, to power
• Declared self Emperor of the French in 1804
• Military genius and the powerful French army
  spread revolutionary ideology throughout Europe
• At height of his power, Napoleon controlled
  Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands,
  Switzerland, most of Germany, Poland, and parts
  of Austria and Croatia
• Napoleonic Wars led to world wide power struggle
  running until Napoleons final defeat in 1815

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Napoleonic Innovations

• Napoleonic Codes a uniform law code that still
  forms the basis of civil and criminal law in most
  of Europe, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa
• Subordinated the Church to the power of the state
• Abolished ancient monarchies and aristocracies
• Imposed constitutional governments
• Set self up as heir to both Roman and Germanic
  heritage
• Created new states and changed the boundaries of
  old ones
• Largest contribution was the precedent that no
  government was beyond questioning

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The End of the Enlightenment

• French Revolution both the culmination and the
  end of the European Enlightenment
• Ideals continued in newly founded United States
• US Constitution of 1787 embodied the majority of
  the Enlightenment principles
• Most of the world was amazed that the American
  Revolution did not descend into a military
  dictatorship
• Largest impact of the Enlightenment was the shift
  in European thought away from Asia and onto
  Europe itself