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Age of
Enligthenment
The Age of Enlightenment
• Was also called simply the
Enlightenment or Age of Reason
was an elite cultural movement of
intellectuals in 18th century Europe
that sought to mobilize the power of
reason in order to reform society
and advance knowledge.
• It promoted intellectual interchange
and opposed intolerance and
abuses in Church and state.
• Originating about 1650–1700, it
was sparked by philosophers
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), John
Locke (1632–1704), Pierre Bayle
(1647–1706), mathematician Isaac
Newton (1643–1727), and
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
Age of Enlightenment
• Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered
Enlightenment figures and even attempted to
apply their ideas of government.
• The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–
1800,
• It covers about a century and a half in Europe,
beginning with the publication of Francis Bacon's
Novum Organum (1620) and ending with
Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
(1781).
• From the perspective of socio-political
phenomena, the period is considered to have
begun with the close of the Thirty Years' War
(1648) and ended with the French Revolution
(1789).
• It all began with Isaac Newton and his use of
reason in physics.
The Enlightenment
• The Enlightenment advocated reason as a means to
establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics,
government, and even religion, which would allow
human beings to obtain objective truth about the whole
of reality.
• Emboldened by the revolution in physics commenced by
Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued
that reason could free humankind from superstition and
religious authoritarianism that had brought suffering and
death to millions in religious wars.
• Also, the wide availability of knowledge was made
possible through the production of encyclopedias,
serving the Enlightenment cause of educating the human
race.
JOHN LOCKE: PHILOSOPHER
JUSTIFYING THE GLORIOUS
REVOLUTION
• John Locke, probably the foremost English
philosopher of the 17th century was born
into an Anglican family with Puritan
leanings.
• During the English Civil War, his father
joined the parliamentary forces but saw
little action.
• Locke was educated at Oxford and later
became known for his liberal views and
friends.
• During the reign of Charles II, Locke felt
obliged to flee for safety to Holland.
In 1689, after James II was overthrown, Locke returned to England.
The next year, in a philosophical justification of the Glorious
Revolution, Locke published his liberal and democratic statement,
Two Treatises of Government.
John Locke
• Locke asserted that
• (1) people in their original state of nature were happy and
'possessed the natural rights to life, liberty, and property,
• (2) for the purpose of protecting these natural rights, people entered
into a social compact to create a government and grant it limited
powers, and
• (3) if the government—which was a party to the compact—failed to
live up to its purpose or exceeded its authority, the people have the
right to alter or abolish it—by revolution if necessary.
• Locke's logic pointed to the conclusion that James II had violated
the social contract and therefore deserved to be deposed by the
Glorious Revolution.
• Locke's ideas greatly influenced later thinkers, especially
• (1) Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the American Declaration of
Independence,
• (2) the framers of the Constitution of the United States, and
• (3) Jean Jacques Rousseau, who wrote the Social Contract, a book
that contributed much to the French Declaration of the Rights of
Man.
The French Philosophers.
• Also known as the philosphes
• In the 18th century the French philosophers
led the Intellectual Revolution, a movement
also called the Enlightenment or Age of
Reason.
• They believed that humans possessed natural
rights and that society could be improved.
Insisting that human institutions should
conform to logic and reason, they challenged
traditional royal and Church authority and
called for the end of the Old Regime.
Despite censorship, the "enlightened" thinking of the French
philosophers reached many people.
The leading philosophers were:
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Rousseau
Montesquieu
• Montesquieu (1689-1755), a baron
and landed aristocrat, wrote the book
The Spirit of Laws.
• To prevent despotism, he urged that
governmental powers be separated
among three branches—executive,
legislative, and judicial—each
checking the other, instead of
permitting power to be concentrated in
one person, the king.
• Montesquieu's proposed separation of
powers was adopted in the United
States Constitution.
Voltaire
• Voltaire (1694-1778), born into a
bourgeois family, won fame as a writer
of literature and of political studies.
• After living in exile in Great Britain for a
while, he wrote Letters on the English.
• Voltaire praised Britain's limited
monarchy and civil liberties and
denounced the French government's
censorship, injustice, and despotism.
• Voltaire urged religious freedom and
was especially bitter against the Catholic
Church.
• He believed that its insistence upon
authority barred human progress.
• Attributed to Voltaire and typical of his
outlook is the saying, "I disapprove of
what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it."
Rousseau
• Rousseau (1712-1778), probably of lower-class
origin, was a maladjusted man who lived a
disorganized life yet influenced millions by his
effective writings.
• In The Social Contract he set forth theories of
government beginning with the charge: "Man is
born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
Rousseau maintained that
(1) humans in their original state of nature were
happy and possessed natural rights;
(2) as inequalities arose, people entered into a social
contract among themselves, agreeing to
surrender all their rights to the community and to
submit to the General Will—the will of the
majority;
(3) the people created government, as a necessary
evil, to carry out the General Will;
(4) if a government fails in this purpose, the people
have the right to overthrow and replace it.
Rousseau
• Rousseau's ideas were patterned, in part, after those of
John Locke
• But whereas Locke was more concerned with individual
rights and limits on the powers of government,
• Rousseau emphasized the concept that the General
Will—the rule of the majority—is supreme.
• Rousseau further claimed that the government, to
enforce the General Will, has unlimited power.
• (Rousseau's philosophy has also been used by
dictatorships to justify totalitarian rule. They have
claimed that the dictator or the single permissible party
alone determines, enforces, and speaks for the General
Will to which all citizens owe obedience.)
Women's Contributions to the
Enlightenment
• Women played an important role in spreading Enlightenment ideas.
In Paris, and elsewhere in France, wealthy women held salons, or
informal gatherings, at which writers, musicians, painters, and
philosophes presented their works and exchanged ideas.
• The salon originated in the 1600s, when a group of noble-women in
Paris began inviting a few friends to poetry readings.
• Only people who were considered witty, intelligent, and well-read
were invited to the salons.
• During the 1700s, middle-class women such as Madame de Geoffrin
(zhahf RAN) began holding salons.
• Voltaire and leading philosophes gathered at Madame de Geoffrin's
salon at least once a week.
• Through their salons, women helped shape the tastes and manners
of the Enlightenment.
• Some women also acted as patrons for artsts and writers.
Enlightened Monarchs
• Many European rulers were impressed by the ideas
of the Enlightenment.
• Some adopted policies that they hoped would
improve social and economic conditions in their
countries.
• They considered themselves "enlightened
monarchs." However, they also used the new ideas
to centralize their power by reducing the privileges of
nobles.
• In Austria, the empress Maria Theresa and her son,
Joseph II, tried to put Enlightenment principles into
practice.
• Maria Theresa passed laws to limit serfdom by
controlling the amount of unpaid work required.
• Joseph took her policies a step further and abolished
serfdom.
• He also allowed freedom of the press, banned the
use of torture, and ended religious persecution. He
gave equal rights to Jews and limited the power of
the Catholic Church.
• However, after his death in 1790, his successors
reversed his reforms.
Enlightened Monarchs
• Other enlightened monarchs studied the new
ideas but made few major changes.
• Catherine the Great of Russia invited Diderot
to visit Russia, and she corresponded with
Voltaire.
• She made some effort to limit torture and
introduce religious toleration, but she did
nothing to end serfdom.
• Frederick the Great of Prussia was so
impressed with the French philosophes that he
invited Voltaire to his court.
• Frederick introduced reforms by allowing
religious freedom and by encouraging
elementary education for children.
• However, like most enlightened monarchs, he
did not change the social structure, which was
based on inequality and serfdom.