Transcript The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment
Late 17th century- most of 18th
century (1600s-1700s)
The philosophes
• Informal, unorganized group of critics, political
reformers and religious skeptics
• Key goals:
– FREEDOM! (speech, trade, movement, religion)
– Motto (from Immanuel Kant): “Dare to know”
– Worldview based on humanity’s claim to be adult,
responsible beings
– Depend on neither church nor state
– Moral sense in natural man
• Humanity can be improved
• Inductive and deductive reasoning
• Historical research
Roots of the Enlightenment
• Scientific Revolution
– Natural world and humanity
• Newton
– Nature through experimentation
– Rational laws of nature
• Locke
–
–
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Applied Newton’s ideas to humanity
Personalities develop through experience
Tabula rasa- blank page
Humans better their lives
• Glorious Revolution in Britain
– Stable and tolerant system
• Impact of printing press
– Printed work readily available
Beginning of the Enlightenment
• Publication of Newton’s Principia
Mathematica (1687)- death of Louis XIV
(1715)
• Philosophes’ strength- numbers, organization,
dedication to reform
The Encyclopedia
• Begun by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert
• 17-volume work
• Questioned:
– Religious faith
– Social institutions
– Political institutions
• Praised:
– Sciences
– Industrial arts
• Censors tried to halt publication but it was widely read
Religious reform
• Criticized church (carefully)- superstitious,
backward, barbarian
• Rejected stain of original sin and unable to create
better life on earth
• Deism
– Rational, orderly God
• Atheists
• Enlightenment (not Renaissance or Reformation)
took control of cultural and intellectual life away
from Church
– Made modern culture possible
• “If you forbid me to speak on religion and
government, I have nothing to say”- Diderot
Economic reform
• Middle class objected mercantilism
– Wanted free enterprise and political power
• High taxation
– easier to tax middle class sales than property of
aristocracy
• Physiocrats
• Challenging mercantilism = challenging
absolute government
– Money should circulate freely
– Economy without gov’t interference (laissez-faire)
Political reform
• Natural rights theory
– Liberty of person, security of property and
freedom of discussion
• Man realizes full potential in society
• Social function of knowledge
• Defended enlightened absolutism
Beccaria
• On Crimes and
Punishments
• Argued against the death
penalty
– State doesn’t possess right
to take lives
– Punishment should be
prevention not revenge
– Prompt = effective
• Called for reform of the
criminal law system
• Education would lessen
crime
Wollstonecraft
• Advocate for women’s
rights
– Women aren’t inferior to
men
– They seem inferior to men
because they lack
education
– Men and women should be
treated as rational beings
– Social order founded on
reason
• A Vindication of the
Rights of Women
Diderot
– A 28-volume set of
books called the
Encyclopedia.
– Purpose was to change
the general way of
thinking
– Explaining ideas on
government, philosophy,
and religion.
Hobbes
• Claimed that before
organized society, life was
poor, nasty, and brutish
• Humans not guided by
morals
• People enter into a social
contract or agreement by
which they gave up their
freedom for an organized
society.
• A government should be
powerful to ensure an
orderly society.
• Lived during English Civil
War and saw need for
powerful monarchy to
protect the people
Montesquieu
• Spirit of the Laws, 1748
– Hatred of despotism and
slavery
– Fundamental laws to
temper monarchy
• Influenced aristocratic
reactionaries (revive
feudalism) and honest
liberals
• Idealized English
constitutionalism
• Separation of powersbasis for balancing power
in gov’t (3 branches)
“Mon-tes-quieu” = “Three bran-ches”
• What were the three
branches of
government that
Montesquieu
proposed?
1. Legislative- makes laws
2. Executive- carries out
laws
3. Judicial- interprets
laws.
Locke
• Against absolute power
• People have natural
rights: life liberty and
property
• Contract b/w ppl & gov’t:
gov’t protect rights and
ppl will respect gov’t.
Gov’ts are there to
protect people’s natural
rights.
• Gov’t should have limited
power and accepted by
all citizens.
• Gov’t has an obligation to
the people it governs. If
it fails, it should be
overthrown.
Rousseau
• Moral and legal equality of man
– Sovereignity of the people;
authority of general will
• Social Contract
1.
2.
3.
4.
Society placed too many
limitations on people’s behavior
Some controls were necessary,
but they should be minimal
Only governments that had been
freely elected should impose
these controls.
The good of the community as a
whole should be placed above
individual interests.
• People give up their rights to the
sovereign and the people are the
sovereign (general will)submitting to the will of
everybody- direct democracy
– You are the author of the laws
you’re submitting to
Smith
• The Wealth of Nations
• Individuals motivated by
self-interest drive the
economy forward
– Not mercantilist state
• Challenged finite
resources- ‘pie’ metaphor
• Attack on mercantilismabsolutism
• Philosophy of capitalism
– Eventually dominant
economic theory of
Western world
Voltaire
• Voltaire’s main
philosophy
– He wanted to battle
inequality, injustice, and
superstition by saying
what he thought. In
other words, he believed
in freedom of speech.
Enlightenment PP Quiz
• Answer all 8 questions on a sheet of notebook paper.
You have 10 minutes.
– 1. What did Wollstonecraft advocate (support)?
– 2. What did Montesquieu propose?
– 3. How was Hobbes different from other enlightened
philosophes?
– 4. Explain Rousseau’s social contract philosophy.
– 5. What was Voltaire’s main philosophy?
– 6. What did Beccaria argue against?
– 7. Explain how the Scientific Revolution affected the
Enlightenment.
– 8. What system did Adam Smith propose?
Enlightenment PP Quiz Answers
• 1. Women’s rights
• 2. Three branches of government
• 3. He thought absolute monarchy was necessary for protection of
the people.
• 4. Minimal control on people’s behavior; government had to be
freely elected; good of the community placed above the individual
• 5. Freedom of speech
• 6. Death penalty
• 7. People found laws to govern the natural world so monarchs have
laws that should govern them as well (no power should be
absolute)
• 8. Capitalism