Transcript The Background: Europe Before the mid

The Background:
Europe Before the mid-C18th
 From Antiquity to Renaissance Europe was in an age of
relative stagnation. Period known as the “Middle
Ages”.
 Feudalism characteristic of Europe of Middle Ages,
following collapse of Roman Empire
 Feudalism = decentralized social, political & economic
system based largely on agricultural production with
large parts of peasantry legally subject to a diffused
hereditary landholding elite exercising
administrative & judicial power.
* Chart from www.berkaweb.com/world_cultures/feudal.asp
Feudalism(I)
“Feudalism was the system of loyalties &
protections during the Middle Ages. As the
Roman Empire crumbled, emperors granted
land to nobles in exchange for their loyalty.
These lands eventually developed into
manors. A manor is the land owned by a
noble & everything on it. A typical manor
consisted of a castle, small village, &
farmland.
Feudalism(II)
 During the Middle Ages, peasants could no longer
count on the Roman army to protect them. German,
Viking & Magyar tribes overran homes & farms
throughout Europe. The peasants turned to the
landowners, often called lords, to protect them. Many
peasants remained free, but most became serfs. A serf
was bound to the land. He could not leave without
buying his freedom, an unlikely occurrence in the
Middle Ages. Life for a serf was not much better than
the life of a slave. The only difference was that a serf
could not be sold to another manor.
Feudalism(III)
 Serfs would often have to work three or four
days a week for the lord as rent. They would
spend the rest of their week growing crops to
feed their families. Other serfs worked as
sharecroppers. A sharecropper would be
required to turn over most of what he grew in
order to be able to live on the land.”*
* From http://www.mrdowling.com/703feudalism.html
Absolutism
 During C17th & C18th feudalism gradually replaced in
some parts of Europe by “Absolutism”,
(characteristically in France).
 Absolutism featured strong centralized monarchies
making their power dominant over aristocracies & other
regional authorities.
The Renaissance
 Began in northern Italian territories in C14th & C15th &
lasted till about C16th, its effects having spread to other
parts of Europe too.
 Refers to revival of ancient learning & challenge to
traditional religious beliefs by new secular &
scientific values.
 Revitalized European culture & made intellectual
debate more dynamic.
The Mona Lisa
by Leonardo Da Vinci
 Da Vinci (1452-1519) is an esp.
characteristic “renaissance man”.
Most famous for his art, but also an
inventor, engineer, geometer,
architect & much more.
Characteristically for the
Renaissance, he tried to represent
what he was drawing/painting as
objectively as possible, & unlike
pre-Renaissance art, which was
dominated by religious themes, his
art also focused on the secular.
The Reformation
 The Reformation is name given to the C16th historical
movement calling for religious & organizational reform
of Catholic Church
 Ultimately it led to the founding of new Protestant
Churches which denied the authority of Pope &
generally emphasized that the individual conscience,
rather than the Clergy, was the valid interpreter of
Scriptures
Martin Luther
 Most symbolic of the
Reformation & its outset
was the German monk &
religious scholar Martin
Luther who pinned his 95
theses protesting the
practices of the Roman
Catholic Church to the door
of the Wittenberg church
 Luther was especially
angered by the practice of
the selling of indulgences
Indulgences
 Picture shows an indulgence given with the Pope’s
authority to absolve [forgive] a person from his/her
sins. Indulgences were purchased with money!!!
* Map from www.apuritansmind.com/images/MiscImages/EuropeAfterReformation.jpg
The
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C18
The feudal order, the process of
Reformation & the Renaissance
all help fill the background to
French Revolution of 1789, but
it is perhaps the Enlightenment
which most helps us
understand the more immediate
changes in way people thought
during this revolutionary age.
Many Ways That the Enlightenment Mattered
(I)Enlightenment weakened the traditional role of religion and the role
of catholic church as a public institution
(II) Introduced a secular code of ethics and engagement with humanity.
“People are basically good”
(III) Introduced a new spirit of analysis, a more critical one not to accept
routine religious traditions and routine hierarchies anymore .
(IV) Being curious about history and believe in progress were new kind
of understandings introduced by Enlightenment
(V) Prepare the way for French Revolution
Source: http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-202/lecture-5#ch0
Key Features of
Enlightenment Thought
 Belief in possibility/desirability of change
 Belief in power of human reason to
comprehend/manipulate nature to make a
better world
 Belief that the rational order that science
discovered in the physical universe could /
should also exist in human societies
Forerunners of the Enlightenment
 Isaac Newton & John Locke
 Lived & worked just before the Age of
Enlightenment took off, but their
ideas served as a powerful example to
those who followed
Newton & the Law of Gravity
 English physicist, mathematician,
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astronomer & philosopher
(1643-1727)
Formulated the ‘Law of Gravity’.
Demonstrated that physical world,
normally explained through
supernatural, could be explained
rationally by empirical, scientific study
Encouraged, through his example,
thinkers of Enlightenment to believe
society could also be understood &
explained rationally
Ideas of Newton
 Although Newton was a Christian, he insisted that
scientists avoid supernaturalism.
 His work demonstrated that the human mind could
discover truth without the help of revelation.
 All that the search for truth required was the use of
reason to formulate theories that could be confirmed
by empirical observation
Locke & the ‘Tabula Rasa’
English philosopher (1632-1704)
famed for his political thought
Newton’s suggestion that the
universe operated like a
rationally designed machine
led his contemporaries like Locke
to speculate that human nature
and human society might also be
explained mechanistically.
Tabula Rasa
 Argued humans were at birth a ‘Tabula Rasa’, ie
a “blank slate” or blank/clean page. Their minds,
souls & thoughts were not fixed / pre-determined
at birth, so they could change & be developed in
different ways through individuals’ experiences.
 Personality is created when an individual’s senses
expose his or her formless mind to experiences of
the external world.
 This challenged traditional teachings of Church
that mind, personality & soul are inalterably fixed
at birth by God.
Epistemological Considerations-The Way Locke Defines
‘Human Nature’
 What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of
knowledge, for him? What are its sources?
For him, it is the product of environment-and
that, therefore, human nature can be engineered by
controlling the environment that shapes it.
That means people have means to redesign
themselves, they simply do not need a divine grace to
change their lives.
Why Newton and Locke matter that much for the
Enlightenment?
 They created a rationale for a reformist approach
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to society
Their homeland, Great Britain, was a good test case after
the Glorious Revolution of 1688. A good illustration of the
potential for social change.
England tolerated all religions except Unitarianism and
Roman Catholicism.
The English Press and speech were relatively free
The power of England’s monarchy was limited, for political
sovereignty resided in Parliament.
English courts protected citizens from arbitrary action by
government officials
Nations army was small.
The Need for Reform in France
 France demonstrated the urgent need of social
reform at that time.
Why?
Louis XIV’s policies rendered his people so miserable.
(an absolute monarchy, a large standing army, heavy
taxation, religious persecution)
His successors further curtailed freedoms in France.
Voltaire(1694-1778)
 One of the earliest and most influential of the French
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philosophes.
With his essays, histories, plays, stories and letters he
assaulted the evils of his day.
In 1738 his Elements of the Philosophy of Newton
popularized the thought of the English scientist Newton.
His best known satire, Candide(1759) ridiculed war,
religious persecution and sentimental confidence in the
goodness of human nature.
He believed that improvement of human society was
necessary, but he doubted that a perfect society could ever
be created.
Emergence of a Print Culture
 In Europe, printed word created an enormous cultural
environment where the Enlightenment flourished.
 Although books were expensive, still the information they
contained could be widely disseminated.
 During that period, private and public libraries were
founded and thinkers had the chance to disseminate their
enlightened ideas through inexpensive newspapers and
journals.
 Printed materials remained as the chief vehicle for the
communication of ideas until the invention of electronic
media.
 The growing audience for the printed word affected the choice of
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issues discussed in print.
A notable shift occurred from more religious themes of the Middle Ages
to more secular and material concerns of ordinary men and women
acquired the ability to read. It was not any more only the clergy as
dominant literate class. (In Paris, by the 1780s, only the 10 percent of
the books had religious themes)
That was the period when for the first time authorship became an
occupation and authors celebrities (Voltaire).
Even a division emerged between high and low literary culture.
Starting from the middle of the 18th century, the spread of secular
printed materials created a new and increasingly influential social
force: public opinion.
The Encyclopedia
 At the middle of the 18th century, the Encyclopedia began
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to appear and brought together the most advanced ideas of
its day(especially critics of religion, government, and
philosophy).
It was edited by Denis Diderot(1713-1784) and Jean le Rond
d’Alembert(1717-1783).
It served as a collective plea for reform.
It was designed to secularize learning and undermine the
intellectual assumptions lingered from the Middle Ages.
Articles on politics, ethics, and society ignored divine law
and concentrated on issues affecting human well-being.
The Enlightenment and Religion
 The philosophes had a problem related with both Protestant and
Catholic versions of the doctrine of original sin which stated that
human nature was fundamentally flawed and could not be improved
unless God chose to bestow the gifts of grace on them.
 The churches were essential to the power structure of the social and
political status quo of that time mainly because they owned large
amounts of land. The upper clergy were usually sons of aristocratic
families who took an active part in politics.
 Clergymen condemned political disobedience as a sin against God and
provided intellectual justification for the regime.
Deism
 The philosophes were not opposed to all religion but
they wanted a one without fanaticism and
intolerance
 They claimed that authentic religious faith was a
product of reason and ordinary experience, not of
supernatural or mystical communications.
 So God is a divine watchmaker who created the
mechanism of nature, set it in motion, and then
ceased to interfere with it.
 An ordered universe implied the existence of a
rational Creator, and a rational God would want
human beings to behave rationally.
The Enlightenment and Society
 The idea of social science originated with the
Enlightenment when the philosophes believed that a
rational examination of society would reveal that
there were laws for human relationship similar to
those that governed physical nature.
 They hoped to end human cruelty by discovering the
laws that made societies function.
The Philosophes
 Philosophes = the French word for “philosophers”
 Philosophes was name given to a varied group of
prominent C18th individuals who supported the
Enlightenment in their writing & critiques
 Famous eg.’s of Philosophes = Voltaire, Montesquieu,
Diderot, Rousseau [French]; Gibbon, Bentham
[English]; Smith, Hume [Scottish]; Kant [German]
 Were greatly assisted in spreading their ideas widely by
development of the mechanized printing press.
Beliefs of the Philosophes
 Traditional/conservative beliefs, customs, rules restricted
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human progress.
Human liberty should be increased to allow for change,
development, improvement.
God’s help not necessary for human/social improvement.
Generally v. critical of role of Catholic Church (esp. its
privileges / censorship / intolerance / ultraconservatism).
Societies should be secular (the Church should not
interfere in political matters – Church & state should be
separate).
Challenged the Church who supported idea of the ‘Divine
Right of Kings to Rule’.
Divine Right of Kings to Rule
 This doctrine supported political absolutism
 1) The monarch owes his/her rule to the will of God
(not to the people).
 2) Any attempt to get rid of, or limit monarch’s power
was therefore against the will of God.
 3) Therefore everyone with belief in God must accept the
will of the King without opposition.
Enlightened Absolutism(I)
 Not all Philosophes opposed absolutism.
 Some supported the idea of ‘Enlightened
Absolutism’
[= the absolutist rule of an enlightened monarch]
 A form of government in the 18th century in which
absolute monarchs pursued legal, social, and
educational reforms inspired by the Enlightenment
Enlightened Absolutism(II)
 Key e.g.’s of Enlightened Absolutism = Catherine the Great
of Russia*, Fredrick the Great (Fredrick II) of Prussia* &
Joseph II of Austria.
 While supporting the idea that they should maintain
absolutism, these monarchs generally up-held religious
toleration, freedom of speech & the press & tried to support
the arts & science, obey the laws themselves & enforce them
fairly for their subjects, & generally rationalize & reform
their administrations.
 Altough they typically instituted administrative reform,
religious toleration, and economic development, they did
not propose reforms that would undermine their
sovereignty or disrupt the social order.
* Be careful to note difference between Prussia & Russia
Individualism, Relativism, and Rationalism
Fundamental concepts of Enlightenment
 Individualism emphasized the importance of the individual and
his inborn rights.
 Relativism is the concept to explain the idea that different
cultures, beliefs, ideas, and value systems had equal merit.
 Rationalism is the conviction that with the power of reason,
humans could arrive at truth and improve the world.
“These ideas represented the separation and autonomy of man’s
intellect from God—a development that opened the door to new
discoveries and ideas and threatened the most powerful of Europe’s
long-standing institutions.”
Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/enlightenment/section1.rhtml
Summary of Pre- &
Post-Enlightenment Thought
 Before:
- Support for / acceptance of
status quo
- Humans incapable of true
change. People essentially
helpless. Life pre-ordained.
- Greatest value in
maintaining traditional
beliefs without question
 After:
- Challenging status quo is
acceptable / necessary
- Possible & necessary for
humans to change society
for the better
- All traditional beliefs
(including religious ones)
open to questioning