The Enlightenment

1
The Enlightenment

• A cultural movement which applied the insights of
  the Scientific Revolution to the wider world
  politics, religion, and art.
• The Scientific Revolution -The nature of the
  Universe. A small of people in all Europe at
  the time understood what was happening.
• The Enlightenment made the findings of the
  Scientific Revolution more widely available.
• Enlightenment took place in the 18th century and
  was dominated by France, which was also the most
  powerful state of the period.

2
Definitions

• Emphasis on REASON, TOLERATION and NATURAL LAW,
• Confidence in modern man and his achievements -
  the idea of PROGRESS.
• ABOVE ALL PROMOTED THE IDEA OF CHANGE AND
  PROGRESS AS GOOD THINGS.
• Philosophes
• French thinkers known as PHILOSOPHES. not always
  the most original thinkers, but were great
  publicists of the new ideas.

3
England

• Most of the progressive ideas and developments
  had taken place in England in the 17th Century.
• Science Newton,
• Philosophy Locke,
• Politics 1688 the Glorious Revolution.
• Domestic stability of Great Britain made living
  example of society where reforms benefited all
• Religious toleration for all except
  Unitarians/Roman Catholics (not persecuted)
• Relative freedom of press/speech, limited monarch
  power, Parliament sovereignty,
• Influenced Frenchmen

4
French Philosophes

• France
• These new ideas came together and were
  popularized, especially in France.
• Domestic economic life had less regulation
  liberal policies made prosperity stability/loyal
  citizenry contrast to rest of Europe (France)

5
 Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)

• 1726-29 Visited England.
• Spent the latter part of his life in exile near
  Geneva.
• Most famous philosophe
• Very rich bourgeois.
• Concerned with human action and attempts to
  improve human life.
• One of the very best French writers
• Letters on the English 1733
• Lettres philosophiques 1734
• Elements of the Philosophy of Newton
• Candide 1759
• Dictionnaire Philosophique 1764

6
Voltaires Ideas

• Thought
• Promoted Free Speech, Civil Rights and
  Toleration.
• Extremely anticlerical.
• Used to write "Ecrasez L'infame" "destroy the
  infamy" - i.e. removes the Church from power in
  society on all his letters. 
• Inspired by the Calas case (a Protestant was
  falsely accused and killed for killing his son to
  stop him becoming Roman Catholic.)
• Explains extreme anti-clericalism of the French
  Revolution- not present in English ideas.
• Was not a "liberal" in many ways.
• He praised Louis XIV and thought Enlightened
  despotism was the best government, as a monarchy
  could keep down the Church and the aristocracy.
• Anti-Semitic, possibly due to equating Jews with
  the Church, possibly due to problems he had with
  money lenders.
• Powerful because he was such a good writer.

7
Charles-Louis de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755)

• Aristocrat in south-west France President of the
  Parlement of Bordeaux,
• De l'esprit des lois 1748 - The Spirit of the
  Laws Written after 14 years study of laws and
  thinkers, including Locke. It presents two main
  ideas.
• Classified governments not on basis of location
  of power but on the animating principle
• Republics - virtue,
• Monarchies - honor,
• Despotism - fear.
• No one system was suitable everywhere.
• Less hooked on systems than other writers
• Thought that allowance should be made for the
  traditions, economy and religion of a country.
• Thought that despotism was suited to hot climates
  - to force lazy people to work!

8
Theory of separation of powers

• More influential
• Executive, judicial, and legislative
• Based on a certain perception of English
  government, with its King, House of Lords, and
  House of Commons.
• Wanted to use this principle in the politics of
  France
• Gave power to parlements, towns, aristocracy to
  counter the monarchy.
• Recognized that the aristocracy of his day was
  corrupt, he thought this was due to the
  corruption of absolutism.
• Influenced the framers of US Constitution 1787,
  more so than the Declaration of Independence.

9
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-78

• Different views than Montesquieu,
  strange/isolated genius that transcended
  political thought /values of his own time
• Thought it impossible for humans w/current
  commercial values to achieve moral lives
• Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and
  Sciences
• Process of civilization had corrupted human
  nature
• Discourse on Origin of Inequality (1755)
• Blamed much of the evil in the world on uneven
  distribution of property
• In both works, he brilliantly/directly challenged
  current social fabric other philosophes were
  trying to get the good life, he questioned what
  it is.

10
The Social Contact

• In the Social Contract
• All men are born free, but everywhere they are
  in chains,
• Spent rest of book defending chains of organized
  society
• Society was more important than its individual
  members,
• Freedom as obedience to the law
• General will must be free, so sometimes people
  must be forced to be free
• Wanted liberty and equality in society but denies
  these are natural
• Wants civil liberty and equality,
• Granted by the state.
• The rights you have are the ones you have in the
  community, to which you give all your natural
  liberty and equality when you joined it.
• The social contract was not between government
  and people, but between people themselves,
  therefore the best society
• A participatory democracy, like ancient Athens,
  or Geneva
• Society depends on public spiritedness, compared
  with Locke and Smith for whom the most important
  part of life was private.
• Rousseau was out of tune with individualistic
  liberalism and greed.
• The idea of a General Will
• principle behind the validity of the Social
  Contract.
• Political society is seen as involving the total
  subjection of every individual to the General
  Will of the whole.

11
Effects of Rousseau's Thought

• Not much read at first.
• First becomes influential on the French
  Revolution.
• Rousseau's arguments for democracy and equality
  had a generally liberal effect in the US and
  Britain
• The idea of the General Will, which is not the
  same as majority vote, provides a framework for
  totalitarianism in its modern sense. - especially
  the idea that the people may not know their own
  will.

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• Denis Diderot 1713-84
• The Encyclopedia 1751-72
• A central institution of the Enlightenment
  thinkers.
• Aim was to include all knowledge.
• All the leading philosophes wrote for it in
  signed articles
• Shows many different views
• Volume 2 was banned - made it more  popular.
• Publicity
• Encyclopedia shows Philosophes/Enlightenment as
  part of a process of publicity.
• Got their ideas into all the reading public's
  mind.
• About 25,000 were sold, half outside France.
• Groups most criticized, nobles and clergy-
  actually bought it more than other groups.
• Ideals
• Promoted ideals of toleration, reason and
  progress, equality before the law (for all the 3
  estates)
• Saw the state as the agency for progress,
  opposition to the Church and Faith.
• DIFFUSED THESE IDEAS AROUND EUROPE.  

13
Deism and Religion

• Not a great age for theology
• Some movements of popular piety, pietism and
  Methodism,
• Religion did not hold the intellectual leaders as
  it had during the Reformation.
• Deism
• Idea that God set up the Universe as clockwork
  and then just let it run.
• Proposed a non-ritual religion based on REASON.
• Deists also attacked Christianity, especially
  Catholicism, as superstitious.
• The belief of many philosophes and was actually
  made a state religion for a short while during
  the French Revolution
• Called for toleration of ideas
• Age of Reason
• Reformation has Christ suffering for humanity on
  the Cross as the image of God
• Enlightenment has God as a Watchmaker.

14
Enlightenment Criticism of Christianity

• David Hume
• Wrote that no evidence existed to support
  believing in divine miracles
• Voltaire
• Questioned the truthfulness of priests and
  morality of the Bible
• Edward Gibbon
• Explained the rise of Christianity base on
  natural causes- not miracles
• A few philosophes were almost atheists

15
Enlightenment and Jewish Thought

• Baruch Spinoza
• Wrote God is not a distinct personality, but the
  entire universe
• Proposed reading the Bible like any ancient text
• Organized religion led people away from the
  original teachings of scripture
• Kicked out of his synagogue for his radical ideas
• Moses Mendelsohn
• Argued for religious toleration for Jews
• Maintaining a distinct Jewish community
• Hoped Enlightenment ideas would lead to
  additional toleration

16
Enlightenment and Islam

• Most Enlightenment writings hostile towards Islam
• Misunderstood Islamic teachings
• Voltaire
• Islam another version of religious fanaticism
• Little interaction of Christians and Muslims
• The Ulama- taught there was little to learn from
  Christians

17
Enlightenment and Criminal Law

• Marquis Cesare Beccaria
• Wanted laws of kings to conform to the laws of
  nature
• Attacked torture and capital punishment
• Advocated a speedy trial
• Purpose of law to secure the greatest good for
  the greatest number of people

18
Physiocrats and Economic Freedom

• Philosophes believed mercantilist legislation and
  regulated labor hampered trade, manufacturing
  and agriculture
• Called physiocrats in France
• Spokesmen were Francois Quesnay and Pierre Dupont
  de Nemours
• Physiocrats thought primary role of govt. was to
  protect property/permit its owners free use
• Economic production depended on sound
  agriculture, favored consolidation of small
  peasant holdings into large, efficient farms

19
Adam Smith 1723-90

• Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
  of the Nations(1776)
• Most important economic work of Enlightenment
• Urged Englands mercantile system be abolished,
  thought individuals would pursue self-interest
• Smith challenged assumption that nations could
  expand only at expense of others
• Thought water/air/soil/minerals were boundless,
  nations/peoples need not be poor
• Laissez-faire
• Economic thought that favored minimal govt.
  economic control, founded by Smith he wasnt
  dogmatist, believed state should provide
  schools/etc.
• Four-stage theory
• Human societies classified as hunting/gathering,
  herding/ pastoral, agricultural, and commercial
• Smith/other Scottish authors used this to
  describe movement from barbarism to civilization
• Allowed north-western Europe (commercial state)
  to look on other European nations with pity
• Spirit for civilizing mission that would result
  in economic/imperial domination of world during
  the next century

20
Enlightened Despotism

• Enlightenment ideals spread through Europe, they
  affected a generation of monarchs.
• Raison d'etat reason of state rather than
  Divine Right became the justification of their
  rule.

21

• Austria
• Maria Theresa 1740-1780 Joseph II 1780-1790
• These monarchs centralized the state and put an
  and end to local diets (parliaments).
• Non-national state, but as yet there was little
  nationalism.
• Prussia
• Frederick the Great 1740-1789
• Low view of people.
• Ran the state as a military regime. He seized
  Silesia for "reasons of state".
• A great ruler, but left no trained successor
• Napoleon was almost able to destroy Prussia.
• Prussia was made so much stronger than any other
  German state that it was to unite Germany in the
  next century.

22

• Russia
• Catherine the Great 1762-96
• German princess
• Deposed her imbecile husband.
• Russia was still in most primitive condition
• Kept serfdom.
• Division of Poland
• These three monarchies divided Poland between
  them in 1772,1793 and 1795.
• Absolutist states succeeded - and older states
  faded - Poland, The Holy Roman Empire, The
  Ottoman Empire.
•