Transcript File - Coach Wilkinson`s AP Euro Site

o The Scientific Revolution of the 1500’s and 1600’s transformed the way people
saw the world.
o The scientific success experienced during the revolution educated Europeans of
the power of human reason. They figured if you could use reason to determine
natural laws then you could also discover laws that govern human behavior.
o Thus the scientific revolution led to the enlightenment– people who used reason to
solve social, political and economic problems and move society towards a better
future versus the one they had inherited.
• Skepticism- Scientists of the 17th century pursued their work in the spirit of exalting
God not undermining Christianity.
• BUT as scientific knowledge spread, more people began to question religious
truths and values.
• Peter Bayle- (Protestant) attacked superstition, religious intolerance and
dogmatism. Forcing people to believe a particular set of religious ideas was
wrong and not what religion was about.
• Bayle believed that the new rational textual principles should also be applied to
the Bible.
• Skepticism was nourished by travel reports. These reports led to a realization
that there were highly developed civs with different customs elsewhere in the
world.
• CULTURAL RELATIVISM developed as Europeans realized their culture
was just one of many and their view of God was just one of many.
• The intellectual inspiration came from two men- Locke and Newton.
• Intellectuals of the Enlightenment were convinced that following Newton’s rules
of reasoning, they could discover the natural laws that governed politics,
economics, justice, religion and the arts.
• John Locke- Essay Concerning Human Understanding- denied Descartes’ beliefs in
innate ideas. Instead believed everyone was born with a tabula rosa. – knowledge is
derived from our environment, not from heredity; from reason, not from faith.
• People are molded by their environment, therefore if you change the
environment, you can change the person.
• How can the environment be changed? Newton’s idea that reason enabled people to
discover the natural laws.
o
The intellectuals of the Enlightenment were known by
the French term, Philosophe meaning lovers of wisdom.
However, they were not all French. The Enlightenment
was an international movement, but the leaders were
French.
o They were also not all philosophers but people from
ordinary professions intent on social reform, mainly from
the middle to upper classes.
o To the philosophes the role of philosophy was to change
the world, not just discuss it.
o They focused on reason and rational criticism, which was
applied to everything, even religion and politics, the also
focused on freedom of expression.
o The philosophes often disagreed with each other. The
Enlightenment spans almost a 100 years and the ideas
within it evolved over time. Each succeeding generation
became more radical than the one it was building on.
o Let’s start with the three French giants- Montesquieu,
Voltaire and Diderot
Montesquieu: studied the world’s governments throughout history. Published On the
Spirit of the Laws in 1748 which discussed governments.
Attempted to apply the scientific method to the social and political arena to ascertain the
“natural laws” governing the social relationships of human beings.
3 Types of government. 1) republics suitable for small states, 2) despotism, which is
appropriate for large states and 3) monarchy which is appropriate for medium states.
He used England as his model for monarchy and said that England’s “separation of
power” was key to a successful government. He also proposed the idea of checks and
balances as well as the divisions of power in this book.
His ideas would be read by American Philosophes such as
Ben Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams…
The American “Philosophes”
John Adams
(1745-1826)
Ben Franklin
(1706-1790)
Thomas
Jefferson
(1743-1826)
…...…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…………...
Voltaire: possibly the greatest figure of the enlightenment. Well known for his criticism of
Christianity and his strong belief in religious toleration.
“if there was just one religion in England it would be despotism, if there were two they would cut
each other’s throats, but there are 30 so they live peacefully and happily”
He was a champion of Deism– a religious outlook popular among other philosophes. In
this view the mechanic, God, created the universe and it was like a clock. God has
created it, set it in motion and now allowed it to run according to its own natural laws
without his interference.
God did not extend grace or answer prayers as Christians like to believe, Jesus might be
a good fellow, but he wasn’t divine as Christianity proclaimed.
Diderot: a free lance writer, disliked Christianity, calling it fanatical and unreasonable.
His contribution to the Enlightenment was a 28 volume encyclopedia that explained the
new enlightened ideas on topics like government, philosophy and religion. Denounced
slavery, traditional religion and divine right and praised freedom of speech, education for
all.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
► 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.
Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie
Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie
Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie
Reading During the Enlightenment
► Literacy:
 80% for men; 60 o/o women.
► Books were expensive (one day’s wages).
► Many readers for each book (20 : 1)
 novels, plays & other literature.
 journals, memoirs, “private lives.”
 philosophy, history, theology.
 newspapers, political pamphlets.
“Must Read” Books of the Time
David Hume (1711-1776)
► The Natural History of
Religion [][[(1755]).
► Belief in God rested on
superstition and fear
rather than on reason.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
► The Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire (6
volumes), 1787.
 He pointed out problems with
contemporary England and tried to
urge reform.
Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)
► Progress of the Human Mind,
1794
 An expectation of universal
happiness.
 Every individual guided by
reason could enjoy true
independence.
 He advocated a free and equal
education, constitutionalism,
and equal rights for women.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
► Critique of Pure
Reason, 1781
► “What is
Enlightenment?”, 1784
► Metaphysical
Foundations of
Natural Science, 1786
Kant’s Philosophy
► Dare to Know!
► He introduced the concept of transcendentalism  some
things are known by methods other than empirically.
 The belief in the existence of a non-rational way to
understand things.
 The existence of neither time nor space is determined by
empirical understanding.
 These type of things are a priori.
V They transcend sensory experience.
V They are pure, not empirical [[concepts like faith, preexistence, life after death].
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
► A Discourse on the
Sciences and Arts, 1750
► Emile, 1762.
► The Social Contract,
1762.
► Part of a new and later generation of
Philosophes who grew up with the
worldview of the Enlightenment and
began to move beyond their
predecessors beliefs.
Rousseau’s Philosophy (I)
► Question Does progress in the arts and sciences
correspond with progress in morality?
NO!
 As civilizations progress, they move away from morality.
 Science & art raised artificial barriers between people and
their natural state.
 Therefore, the revival of science and the arts had corrupted
social morals, not improved them!
Rousseau’s Philosophy (II)
 Virtue exists in the ”state of nature,” but lost in
“society.”
 Government must preserve “virtue” and
”liberty.”
 Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains.
 The concept of the ”Noble Savage.”
 Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
 Civil liberty  invest ALL rights and liberties
into a society.
Rousseau’s Philosophy (III)
► In The Social Contract:
 To preserve private property, people adopted laws and
rushed not into liberty but chains.
 The right kind of political order could make people truly
moral and free.
 Individual moral freedom could be achieved only by
learning to subject one’s individual interests to the
“General Will.”
 Individuals did this by entering into a social contract not
with their rulers, but with each other.
V This social contract was derived from human nature, not
from history, tradition, or the Bible.
Rousseau’s Philosophy (IV)
► People would be most free and moral under a republican
form of government with direct democracy.
► However, the individual could be “forced to be free” by
the terms of the social contract.
 He provided no legal protections for individual rights.
► Rousseau’s thinking:
 Had a great influence on the French revolutionaries of 1789.
 His attacks on private property inspired the communists of
the 19c such as Karl Marx.
 Precursor to Romanticism, that would dominate Europe at
the beginning of the 19th century.
Marie Jean-Condorcet- victim of the French Revolution and wrote The Progress of the
Human Mind while in hiding.
Believed humans had progressed through the 9 stages of history and now with the
spread of science and reason they were about to enter the 10th phase, one of perfectionhuman perfectibility is possible.
He died in a French revolutionary prison.
Baron Paul d’Holbach- preached a doctrine of atheism and materialism. System of
Nature- human beings are simply machines, matter in motion, God was just a product of
the human mind and people only needed reason to live in this world.
Most philosophes were NOT atheists, but deists, they feared the effect atheism would
have on society.
For centuries male intellectuals had argued that man was superior to woman and thus
the domination of woman was necessary.
Enlightened thinkers offered more positive views of women.
Female thinkers in the enlightenment (18th century) provided suggestions for improving
the position of women.
Mary Wollstonecraft was the biggest advocate and is now seen as the founder of
European feminism.
In her Vindication for the Rights of Women she points to two problems in the views held
by Enlightened thinkers like Rousseau. 1) The same people who say women must obey
men are also arguing that monarch’s who exert arbitrary power over their subjects are
wrong and 2) the enlightenment is based on the ideal of reason in all human beings and
if women have reason then they are entitled to the same rights as men.
• Common people and peasants were not affected by the Enlightenment, it was more
for the middle and upper class.
• Of great importance to the spread of Enlightened idea was the sales of books and
treaties but also, SALONS
• Salons came into being in the 17th century but rose to new heights in the 18th
century.
• Elegant drawing rooms in urban houses of the wealthy where philosophes and their
guests gathered and had conversations over their ideas. (like science academies of
the Scientific Revolution)
• Brought together writers, artists, aristocrats, government officials and wealthy
middle class.
• Women usually hosted these and were in positions of influence, women hosted
them but their reputation was determined by the stature of males the female
hostess could attract.
• Secret societies also developed, the most famous being that of the freemasons.
The Legacy of the Enlightenment?
1. The democratic revolutions begun in America in
1776 and continued in Amsterdam, Brussels, and
especially in Paris in the late 1780s, put every
Western government on the defensive.
2. Reform, democracy, and republicanism had been
placed irrevocably on the Western agenda.
The Legacy of the Enlightenment?
3. New forms of civil society arose –-- clubs, salons,
fraternals, private academies, lending libraries, and
professional/scientific organizations.
4. 19c conservatives blamed it for the modern
“egalitarian disease” (once reformers began to
criticize established institutions, they didn’t know
where and when to stop!)
The Legacy of the Enlightenment?
5. It established a materialistic tradition based on an
ethical system derived solely from a naturalistic
account of the human condition (the “Religion of
Nature”).
6. Theoretically endowed with full civil and legal rights,
the individual had come into existence as a political
and social force to be reckoned with.