THE AGE OF REASON 17001789

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THE AGE OF REASON1700-1789
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Four Trends of the Age

• A growing concentration of political power in the
  great states France, Great Britain, Prussia,
  Austria, Netherlands, Russia
• Return of the aristocracy to prominence
• Rise of the middle-class in politics and culture
  who supported social equality justice, and a
  revamping of society as a whole
• The intellectual cultural movement to be
  labeled The Enlightenment

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The Great Powers

• Saw a growing urbanization
• A fairly rigid class system prevailed
  aristocracy, upper middle class, broad middle
  class, lesser artisans, and metropolitan poor.
• In Great Britain and France, the monarchy would
  diminish, while in Prussia, Austria, and Russia
  it would gain eminence

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The Enlightenment

• The thinkers embraced humanismbelieved that a
  human being becomes a better person through the
  study and practice of literature, music,
  philosophy, and the arts. Thus, a human could be
  perfected. This would agree with John Locke
  and his tabula rasa.
• Had the greatest effects in London, Edinburgh,
  Paris. To a lesser extent in St. Petersburg
  Moscow with Catherine II (the Great)

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Philosophes of the Enlightnment

• Had full confidence in reason
• Believed nature was orderly and fundamentally
  good, and could be studied empirically
• Because humans were perfectable, so was society
• Political, religious, and economic institutions
  should be reformed in a social utilitarianism for
  happiness
• Advocated freedom of religious choice
• Advocated an educational system free of religious
  control
• Supported Deism

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Prominent Philosophes

• Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778
• Author of Candide in which he attached religious
  and political optimism
• Wrote plays, novels, essays, letters
• Source of quoted "If God did not exist, it would
  be necessary to invent Him. While sounding
  pessimistic, it was really a comment on church
  bureaucracies
• Ridiculed Muhammed, but of Islamism he wrote of
  it a wise, severe, chaste, and humane religion.
• Counted Benjamin Franklin as a good friend

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• Denis Diderot 1713-1784
• Chief editor of the Encyclopédie, intended as a
  compendium of all knowledge in the arts,
  sciences, and crafts
• Attacked conventional morality
• Was summoned to Russia to meet with Catherine the
  Great, who had become his patron

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Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu

• 1689-1759
• Believed government should be set up so that no
  man need be afraid of another. This would
  influence James Madison and other Founding
  Fathers.
• Opposed slavery
• Believed women could head governments, but not
  families
• Saw 3 forms of government monarchies honor,
  republics virtue, and despotisms fear

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Physiocrats

• Were concerned with economics in the
  Enlightenment forerunners of Classical
  Economists
• Examined mercantilism closely, believing it to be
  harmful
• Recognized laws of supply and demand
• Believed laissez-faire economics to be the best
  keep government control out of a self-regulating
  economy
• Believed both society and the individual benefits
  when people are allowed to serve their own
  self-interest
• Prominent physiocrats were Anne-Robert-Jacques
  Turgot and François Quesnay

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ARTS IN THE AGE OF REASONRococo and Neoclassicism

• Rococo style arose in France under Louis XIV
• Concentrated on frivolous subjects such as fêtes
  galantes (aristocratic entertainments) and themes
• Embodied by the Flemish painter/decorator
  Jean-Antoine Watteau
• Had an undercurrent of eroticism and sex (so the
  Brits didnt adopt it)

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Departure From Cythera by Watteau
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Marie Antoinette and her Children
By Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun
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Nude on a Sofa by François Bourcher
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The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
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The Countess Levée Or Morning Party From
Marriage à la Mode by William Hogarth
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rocaille

• Fanciful stucco ornaments in the shapes of
  ribbons, leaves, stems, flowers, interlaces,
  arabesques, and elongated, curving lines applied
  to walls and ceilings
• The effect of rocaille was to make solid surfaces
  look more like fleeting illusions.

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Hall of Mirrors Amalienburg, Munich
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Salon de Princessa by Germain Boffrand
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Kenwood House (London) designed by Robert Adam
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Library of Kenwood House designed by Robert Adam
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Pantheon Paris designed by Jacques Germain
Soufflot
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Political Philosophy
Prominent political philosophers were Baron de
Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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• Montesquieu
• Wrote The Spirit of the Laws
• Concluded climate, geography, religion,
  education, etc. account for worlds different
  types of laws and governments
• Promoted idea that Separation of Powers provided
  an adequate defense against despots
• Rousseau
• Wrote The Social Contract
• Humans are free and equal in nature
• Humans can follow whims, so they possess no moral
  purpose

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• The state is founded upon an agreement among
  people, gives its citizens basic rights (life,
  liberty property)
• Each citizen has right to vote, and votes on laws
  in accord with the General Will (what is best for
  community).
• Citizens who obey laws become moral beings.

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Neoclassical Literary Figures

• Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
• Essay on Man
• The proper study of mankind is man.
• Edward Gibbons (1737-1794)
• History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
  Empire in 6 volumes

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Literary Figures of Realism

• Advent of the novel
• Focused on individual persons rather universal
  types, and on particular circumstances rather
  than literary custom
• Focused on character development over time
• Authors adopted a narrative voice

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• Samuel Richardson focused on love between the
  sexes
• Pamela
• Virtue Rewarded
• Clarissa Harlowe
• Henry Fielding depicted a robust world of comedy
  and adventure
• The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling
• The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrew, a
  parody of Richardsons Pamela

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MUSIC

• In France, the style galant would be the rococo
  response to baroque music, with light, charming,
  graceful, and simple melodies.
• Harpsichord would be a favored rococo instrument
• The pianoforte appeared
• Principal French composers were
• François Couperin
• Jean-Philippe Rameau

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• Classical style replaced rococo music. It
  emphasized form and structure
• The sonata form with its exposition, development,
  and recapitulation would be prominent
• Sonata form would be come a basis for symphonic
  works, concertos, sonatas
• If written in four movements, the third movement
  was either a minuet (French)or scherzo (means
  joke in Italian)

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COMPOSERS

• Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
• 30 years as music director for a Hungarian noble
  family
• Composed 104, 4-movement symphonies
• Composed more than 70 string quartets for
  violins, viola, and cello
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
• Composed, concertos, symphonies, trios, quartets,
  quintets, serenades
• Most famous opera is The Marriage of Figaro