Age of Enlightenment

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Age of Enlightenment
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• 18th century the age of Enlightenment
• Everywhere, a feeling that Europeans that at
  last, people had emerged from a long twilight
• Forward looking thinkers, and writers known as
  philosophes
• Forward looking monarchs, Enlightened despots

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Ideas of Enlightenment

• Optimistic beliefs in historical advance of
  reason, science, education, social reform,
  tolerance, and enlightened government

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The Philosphes

• The ideas of the 18th Century were drawn from the
  scientific revolution of the 17th
• Carried the ideas of Bacon and Descartes
• Carried the ideas of Natural Law and Right
• Belief, in a non religious way, that life gets
  better as time goes on

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• Faith of the age in the natural faculties of the
  human mind
• Philosophes
• French for philosopher
• In the 18th, meant to approach any subject in a
  critical and inquiring spirit

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• Social or literary critics
• All written under censorship
• To protect people from harmful ideas
• France, the center of the enlightenment, had both
  censorship and large reading and writing public
• It discourage writers from openly or explicitly
  questioning

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• Examples customs of Persians, double meanings,
  innuendos, jokes
• Paris the heart of the movement
• Mingling of people of ideas in Salons, conducting
  by women

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• Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquei, and Voltaire

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Jean Jacques Rousseau

• Major Works
• Discourse on the Sciences and Math
• Criticizes education
• Not progressing us to anything good
• Education just makes us decieve ourselves and
  others we try to fit in
• Leads to individuality, makes us self interested
  consumers
• Teaches us reason

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• Puts flowers on our chains just hiding
  inequality
• Where ever science and math flourished, luxury
  and leisure flourish
• They are born from our vices, and do nothing to
  improve the moral well being of society

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• Dont contribute anything to love of country,
  friends, or the unfortunate
• Science does not give any guidance for making
  people more virtuous citizens
• We learn to hate ourselves because the masks we
  have to wear
• To cope, we hate the people below us

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• Science is based on a sense of a need for luxury
• Science becomes a means for making our lives
  easier and more pleasurable, not morally better
• Bacon and Descartes avoided this corruption

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• Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• He creates his own state of nature
• Humans physically strong, but simple, very
  independant
• Hobbes had it wrong, he tried to create the state
  of nature without stripping what humans have
  learned
• All he did was strip laws

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• For us to understand the state of nature, there
  can be no laws, property, understanding of
  threat, minimal language skills
• Natural man is isolated, timid, peaceful, mute
  and without the foresight to worry
• Humans have two principles self interest, and
  empathy
• But we have reason

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• We have adaptability leads to progress ie fire
• Humans forced to settle down, but roughly equal

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• Series of events move us from the noble savage
• Organize into temporary groups hunting
• Very basic language
• Next is small families based on love
• If we stayed here, there would be no inequality
• But, agriculture and metallurgy change this

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• Crucial point develops we start to make
  comparisons to others develop self image
• Things become valuable
• Division of labour
• Distinct social classes, workers, rulers
• Leads to invention of private property
• Unnatural, but education teaches us its legit

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• Some people left out of property grab see it as
  illigetimate
• Great Deception rich convince the poor private
  property needs to be protected
• All accepted their chains

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Social Contract

• Very difficult work of his
• 1st step make us all equal
• Give up the natural right to property
• Help us to distinguish between needs and wants
• Help us to resurrect empathy
• Everyone has enough so they dont have to sell
  ourselves

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• When we see each other as equals, we are able to
  see one another as citizens
• Well look forward to what people say

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• Outlines how governments could exist to protect
  equality of citizens
• Concept of general will difficult to interpret
• Based on the well being of the whole, protects
  the rights of all individuals
• Protected by a sovereign, protects the public
  good
• Not the collection of individual wills
• Ultimately my will, and general will merges
• Example majority- collection of individual
  wills

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• If you have lack of prosperity, no population
  growth, legislative body silent, disparity,
  religious faction no social contract
• If the one is being sacrificed by the many no
  social contract