The Enlightenment
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Transcript The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment
1600-1800
Mr. Zywicki and Mr. Chmiel
MHS
WORLD STUDIES
Scientific Revolution Sparks the Enlightenment
In the wake of the Scientific Revolution came
the Enlightenment.
This was an era in which people used reason to
try to understand more about human behavior
and solve the problems of society
Reason, liberty, and progress
Enlightenment – Age of Reason
The Enlightenment is also called the “Age of
Reason.”
It began in France and spread to Britain,
America, and beyond.
Its motto: “AUDERE SAPERE,” Latin for
“DARE TO THINK”
Europe in the 1600s-1700s
“Old fashioned”
Absolute monarchies
Dominance of the Christianity
Church supported absolute monarchs (“divine
right of kings”)
People were supposed to not ask questions,
accept things based on faith in God, and not
challenge governmental authority.
Philosophes
A group of French philosophers who wrote about government, law, and society
were known as the philosophes.
Baron de Montesquieu believed in employing three branches of government
that could balance each other’s powers.
Voltaire fought the slave trade and religious prejudice with his witty
writings.
Denis Diderot collected Enlightenment articles in an Encyclopedia that
helped to spread ideas throughout Europe and the Americas.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau thought people were basically good and should be
much freer from governmental controls.
Mary Wollstonecraft stood up for their inclusion in the new societies that
were being imagined.
Denis Diderot
► All things must be examined,
debated, investigated without
exception and without regard
for anyone’s feelings.
► We will speak against senseless
laws until they are reformed;
and, while we wait, we will
abide by them.
Diderot’s Encyclopédie
The Encyclopédie
► Complete cycle of knowledge…………...…
change the general way of thinking.
► 28 volumes.
► Alphabetical, cross-referenced,
illustrated.
► First published in 1751.
Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie
Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie
Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie
Subscriptions to Diderot’s Encyclopedie
An Increase in Reading
An Increase in Reading
New Ideas Challenge Society
While churches and monarchies tried to stop
the flow of Enlightenment ideas through
censorship
Enlightenment thinkers found new ways of
spreading their ideas, such as through
novels and salons.
Arts and Literature Reflect New Ideas
The Enlightenment saw the birth of new styles in art, music,
and literature.
Painters embraced the lighter and more informal rococo
style; composers, too, moved away from the baroque and into
rococo and classical music.
This was evidenced in the works of Handel, Haydn, and
Mozart.
In literature, the novel was king as audiences devoured long
stories about their own times.
A Parisian Salon
Madame Geoffrin’s Salon
The Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris
Zoology & Biology
A dissection at the Royal Academy, London.
Chemistry Labs & Botany Gardens
Natural History Collections
► Cocoa plant
drawing.
► Sir Hans
Sloane
(1660-1753).
► Collected from Jamaica.
Natural History Collections
James Petiver’s Beetles
(London apothecary)
Private Collections
The Origins of Modern Museums.
Voltaire
It is dangerous to
be right when the
government is
wrong
Men are equal; it is
not birth, but virtue
that makes the
difference.
The Baron de Montesquieu
Three types of
government:
Monarchy
Republic
Despotism
A separation of
political powers
ensured freedom
and liberty
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Government must
preserve “virtue”
and
”liberty.”
Man is born free,
yet everywhere he is
in chains.
The Social Contract
English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John
Locke both wrote about society and the ideal form of
governing it.
Hobbes thought people needed strict control to rein
in their naturally brutish tendencies.
Locke thought people were moral at heart and were
entitled to certain natural rights, which governments
were obliged to protect.
Thomas Hobbes: 1600’s A.D.
People give up (cede) their own sovereignty
(power) to the state --- government then
provides peace and order
John Locke:
Government limited by consent of the
governed
Natural Rights: inherent to being a human –
life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
Governments who do not protect citizens’
natural rights can be justly overthrown
American Revolution and French
Revolution
Enlightened Despots Embrace New Ideas
Some absolute rulers of the time adopted limited
reforms inspired by Enlightenment ideas.
Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine the Great,
Franz Joseph of Austria
Austria all showed religious tolerance.
Still the monarchs were not willing to share their
power.
New Economic Thinking
Economists also applied reason to their
study of economics during the
Enlightenment.
Adam Smith and a group of French thinkers
called physiocrats urged economies that
operated with little government control.
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Self Interest
Invisible Hand
Power of Market
Wealth of Nations = GDP
Destroys mercantilism
Laissez Fair Tax policies
ASLR1
Price Level
AS1
P1
AD1
o
Q1
Real GDP
The Enlightenment in America
Franklin:
Friends with Voltaire
Lived in Paris and frequented
salons
Publisher
Scientist
Inventor
Lightening
Stove
Politician
Activist
Hospitals
Anti-slavery
The American “Philosophes”
John Adams
(1745-1826)
Ben Franklin
(1706-1790)
Thomas
Jefferson
(1743-1826)
…...…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…………...
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
► Common Sense,
1776
► The Rights of Man,
1791