Transcript The Enlightenment - Bishop Ireton High School

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Spread of ideas during the 18th century (1700s)
which emphasized rational thought and reason
 Age of Reason
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Inspired by the Scientific Revolution, especially
Newton and Locke
 Undercut the importance of religion and God
 Secularism
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Began in England, before moving to France, and
finally Germany
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Opposition to authority
Rationalism
The enlightenment movement
Cultural optimism
The return to nature
Natural religion
Human rights
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England at the time was far more liberal than France
because of the “Glorious Revolution”
 French inspired by English, esp. Locke and Newton
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Became opposed to the old authority
 King, nobility, and clergy
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Though an individual should be skeptical of all
inherited truth.
 One should find their own answer to every question, not
accepted “authority’s” answer
 This type of thought led to questioning of the church and the
monarchy
All Enlightenment Philosophers put great importance
on reason
 Thanks to experiments and discoveries by earlier
scientists and thinkers, people realized that nature was
subject to reason
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 Nature’s laws could be reasoned though
 No longer had to accept authority’s answers to questions, as
using reason, they could figure them out themselves
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Philosophers of the Enlightenment wanted to spread this new
rationalism
 Though reason was the basis for a better society
 Poverty and oppression was the fault of ignorance
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Examples:
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des
métiers (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts,
and Crafts) – one of the first encyclopedias to include many
contributors and to focus on medicine.
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Compiled by Diderot
Enlightened Despotism – rulers who aimed to advance society by
fostering education, aiding the economy, and promoting social justice
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Frederick the Great of Prussia
Catherine the Great of Russia
Joseph II of Aurstira
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Many philosopher’s believed that with the of reason
and knowledge that society could only become better
 Eventually society would be rid of irrationality and
ignorance and society would become completely
“enlightened”
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Disclaimer: Nature very similar reason
 Human reason was a gift of nature, not of religion or civilization
Observed less “civilized” people of other cultures, saw they were
happier
 Jean Jacques Rousseau, a key philosopher in the Enlightenment,
emphasized a return to nature
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 Thought that civilization corrupted humankind and that life in a state of nature
was freer
 Goal of individual is to strip away artificial restraints of civilization and return as
far as possible to nature
 Distrust of civilization lead to his criticism of Education and child rearing
practices
▪ Argued that children needed to be understood as individuals and successfully reformed many
educational and child rearing practices
 Glorified emotion
 Politically, he came up with the idea of the “general will” – meaning that the
consensus of the majority should control a nation
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Religion should be in harmony with reason
 Should be stripped of all irrational doctrines and dogmas
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Thought it was irrational not to believe in God
Many professed Deism
 God created the world, but does not intervene in it.
 Some thought that God reveals himself through nature and natural laws
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Believed that people had certain “natural” rights – rights that
everybody was entitled too just by being born
 Freedom of thought and speech
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Can be seen in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen –
one of the most important documents to come out of the early
French Revolution
“Feminism”
 Most thought only men deserved these natural rights
 However there were a few “extremists” who wanted more rights for
women
▪ Marquis de Condorcet published a treatise on the rights of women
▪ Olympe de Gouges demanded equality for men and women
▪ Many of the salons where philosophers went to share their ideas were run by woman
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Voltaire
 Criticized society, injustices, and organized religion
 Helped bring about a desire for change
 Deist
 Freedom of thought
 Also a poet, essayist, dramatists, and satirist
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Montesquieu- argued that there should be separate parts of
government to avoid despotism. Brought about ideas of checks and
balances.
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Hume – religion is mere superstition
Adam Smith – classical economics, “laissez faire”, invisible hand
Kant – Critque of Pure Reason - Categories of understanding
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