The Enlightenment

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The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment codified the vision of the
world as a unified, self-sufficient Nature,
governed by orderly laws, and including man
within itself as a part of Nature and nothing
else. It is the codification, in outline, of the
world we now inhabit. --Ernest Gellner
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The Enlightenment

• Application of the scientific method to social
  problems
• Parallel to the scientific awakening
• Foundation of Classical art and music
• The world behaves according to patterns and these
  ought to be obeyed

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Basic Premises

• Scientific method can answer fundamental
  questions about society
• Human race can be educated and all people are
  important
• Emergence of the middle class
• Belief in God based on reason

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Sir Isaac Newton

• The greatest scientist who ever lived
• Disinterested student
• Cambridgeprofessor of math
• Never married
• Manic depressive

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Newtons Accomplishments

• Principia Mathematica
• Discovery of gravity
• Greatest scientific work
• Discoveries in math and optics
• Developed Calculus
• Introduced Modeling

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• Newton discovered gravity and inertia and
  explained motion in the universe
• For the first time, there was the idea that there
  were natural laws that were constant throughout
  creation
• Newton's three laws of motion 
• 1. A body moves in a straight line unless
  impeded. (Inertia). 
• 2. Every action has equal and opposite reaction. 
• 3. Every body attracts every other body with a
  force proportional to the distance between.

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• Newton bridged the Scientific Revolution and the
  Enlightenment
• Newton gave the Enlightenment an English
  beginning
• Another big influence was the English Glorious
  Revolution

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• A short introduction to English Political
  History
• Elizabeth I (1558-1603) - Practical
  Constitutionalism
• Died without heir, throne passed to
• The Stuart Family - Attempted Absolutism
• Mary, Queen of Scots, granddaughter of Henry
  VII--mother of
• James VIScottish throne in 1598 English in 1603
  with death of his cousin Elizabeth I
• advocated the Divine Right of kings to rule.
  Charles I followed his father in 1625
• Stuarts had financial problems Parliament had to
  approve taxation

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• Also religious problems
• Rise of Calvinism in England
• Stuarts were Anglicans with strong Catholic
  leanings
• Charles I dissolved Parliament tried to rule
  without them
• 1642-1649 English Civil War
• Followers of Charles I called Cavaliers
• Followers of Parliament called Roundheads

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• At first, Cavaliers wontrained army
• Oliver Cromwell, New Model Army
• Defeated Kings forces at Battle of Marston Moor
• Charles taken prisoner
• Beheaded for treason 1649
• Commonwealth 1649-1660
• No king
• Parliamentary Rule
• Cromwell

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• Commonwealth was triumph of Puritan rule
• Parliament banned the wearing of bright colors
• No Christmas celebrations
• No religious wedding ceremonies
• After Cromwells death, England ready to get rid
  of Puritan rule
• Charles II comes home from France to take crown
  in the Restoration
• Very popular king

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• Charles II has no direct heirs
• His uncle (brother of Charles I) James II becomes
  king
• Admits he is Catholic!
• English do not want a Catholic king
• Offer crown to his daughter, Mary, who is married
  to a Dutch prince, William of Orange
• Glorious Revolution!
• English Bill of Rights
• Parliament rule established

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John Locke

• Government
• Forefather of our forefathers
• Second treatise of Civil Government
• Chaos without government
• God gave mankind natural rights
• Life, liberty, pursuit of property
• Innate goodness of mankind led to formation of
  governments
• Governments, which were formed by the people,
  must guarantee the rights of the people
• People have a right to rebel against tyrannies

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John Locke

• Theory of Knowledge
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• Reasoning puts man above animals
• Rejected that ideas are innate
• Outer ideas from experience
• Two Treatises on Government
• -government rules by consent of people
• -basic rights of man

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• The Enlightenment was
• A period of time in which intellectual thought
  focused on 
• a. Reason 
• b. Toleration 
• c. Natural law 
• d. The idea of progresschangeas a positive
  good 

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• Althought began in England, Enlightenment reached
  its height in France
• Philosophes
• Voltaire
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Deism
• Intellectuals believe in God but see him as a
  "watchmaker"
• Deists skeptical of organized religion
• Catholic church was attacked
• Deists struggle with personal standards
• Denial of providence (Voltaire) disputed by
  others (Pope, Rousseau)
• Denial of evil

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• "Does progress in the arts and sciences
  correspond with progress in morality?"
• No!
• As civilizations progress, they move away from
  morality
• Examples Romans, Greeks, Egyptians
• Social Contract
• Heavy Influence on American Revolution
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!

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Adam Smith

• Scottish professor
• Wealth of Nations
• Devised capitalism
• Defined Mercantilism
• Laissez Faire la nature

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• Mercantilism
• accumulate precious metals
• a. Favorable balance of trade necessary
• protect home industries from foreign competition
• colonies exist to provide necessary raw materials
  and a market for home goods.
• goal is to create powerful and prosperous
  nation-state or self sufficient empire (empire is
  good, because of colonies)
• In order to get the above, the gov't had the
  right to pass all laws needed to regulate trade
  between the mother country and the colonies and
  the laws favored the mother country
• Adam Smithopposed, favored laissez faire!

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• The Enlightenment in America
• Glorious Revolution welcomed in America
• James II had behaved tyrannically towards
  colonies
• Ideas of Enlightenment profoundly impacted
  revolutionary thought
• John Locke Rousseau very important
• Founding Fathers such as Jefferson considered
  Enlightenment thinkers

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Benjamin Franklin

• True Enlightenment man
• Birth, Boston, 1706
• Printing business
• Poor Richards Almanac
• Accomplishments
• Pennsylvania Gazette
• Americas first lending library
• Postmaster of Philadelphia
• Served Pennsylvania Assembly
• Philadelphia Fire Dept.
• Univ. of Pennsylvania
• Experiments in electricity
• Franklin stove
• Ambassador to France
• Writer of Declaration of Independence

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The Great Awakening

• revitalization of religious piety that swept
  through the American colonies between the 1730s
  and the 1770s.
• Protestant countries of England, Scotland,
  Germany
• New Age of Faith to act as a counter to
  Enlightment
• But it also drew strength from Enlightenment

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• Elements of the Great Awakening
• Enthusiasm--emotional manifestations(weeping,
  fainting, physical movements) in contrast to
  staid and formal Anglican and Congregational
  worship. Whitefield would preach to crowds as
  large as 30,000 with great emotion.
• Itinerancy--preachers roamed rural and urban
  areas and held meetings
• Democratic religious movement
• insisted that all should have the religious
  experience
• Stirred impulse towards independence among
  colonists
• Broke down strong denominational ties
• Challenged religious authority. Baptists in the
  South preached to slaves and against the
  ostentatious wealth of the planter class

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II. Content of Message

• Salvation came through faith and prayer, not
  rituals or good works
• The individual, not any religious authority,
  judged his or her own behavior based on one's
  understanding of God and the Bible
• Personal piety--break away from the constraints
  of the past and start fresh. (decrease in
  card-playing, drunkenness, increase in church
  attendance, Bible study)
• Individual revival--rejection of cold rationalism
  of Puritanism and Anglicanism and more reliance
  on the "heart" rather than the "head.
• Leading preachers George Whitefield, Jonathan
  Edwards, William  and George Tennent. Originally
  welcomed by local ministers, they often harshly
  criticized local religiious leaders.

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III. Impact of the Great Awakening A. Creation
of new colleges to train "new light"
ministers--Princeton, Brown, Rutgers
B. Divisions in denominations and a sharpening of
the differences between those who defined
religion as a rational process (old lights)  and
those who focused on experience (new lights).
New denominations appeared Baptists,
Presbyterians, Methodists
C. Religious challenges to authority strengthened
political challenges to authority. D.
Development of revivalism tradition in American
religion. E. Beginning of African-American
Native American church traditions
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• New Light Minister
• Attended Yale University
• Grandfather Father both ministers
• Becomes pastor of Northhampton Church,
  Connecticut, 1726
• His preaching style which combined intelligent,
  logical argument grounded in the scriptures with
  emotional imagery helped launch the Great
  Awakening

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
"There are black clouds of God's wrath now
hanging directly over your heads, full of
dreadful storm and were it not for the
restraining hand of God, it would immediately
burst upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God,
for the present, stays His rough wind otherwise
it would come with fury, and your destruction
would come like a whirlwind Therefore, let
everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly
from the wrath to come Let everyone fly out of
Sodom 'Haste and escape for your lives."
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The God that holds you over the pit of hell,
much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome
insect over the fire, abhors you, and is
dreadfully provoked his wrath towards you burns
like fire he looks upon you as worthy of nothing
else, but to be cast into the fire he is of
purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight
you are ten thousand times more abominable in his
eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is
in ours. You have offended him infinitely more
than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince and
yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you
from falling into the fire every moment. It is to
be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go
to hell the last night that you was suffered to
awake again in this world, after you closed your
eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be
given, why you have not dropped into hell since
you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has
held you up. There is no other reason to be given
why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat
here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes
by your sinful wicked manner of attending his
solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that
is to be given as a reason why you do not this
very moment drop down into hell.
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Amen!