AP European History
Kagan, Ch. 17
 “Enlightenment is mankind’s exit from its self-
incurred immaturity.”
 What is immaturity?
 What is self-incurred?
 How are we to free ourselves from self-incurred
immaturity?
 Will it be easy? What obstacles will we face?
 Motto of the Enlightenment
 What does it mean?
Sapere aude!
Newtonian
thought
Lockean
thought
Political
stability and
economic
prosperity in GB
T or F: The long-term influence of the Enlightenment
has been the spirit of innovation and improvement that
Influences
the
first took root within
Western on
societies
Enlightenment
T or F: John Locke fully accepted the Christian view of
humankind flawed by sin.
Print Culture
Public Opinion
Coffeehouses
Salons
Call for administrative
and economic reform
in France after wars of
Louis XIV
 Birth of the Novel
 Writing of History
 Inclusion of political,
economic, social,
intellectual, cultural
happenings over time
 Monthly Journals
and Magazines; daily
newspapers
 What is “low literary
culture” and what effect
did it have on lowerclass audiences?
 …that
natural science should be used to
examine and understand ALL elements of
life
 Reason over and above faith –
everything is critiqued
 …that the Scientific method can discover
ALL laws of human society AND nature
 …in progress: it is POSSIBLE for man to
create a better society (hope)
 Literary figures, historians, economists
 Today many are thought of philosophers
 Not an organized group BUT agreed that religion,
government/politics, economy and society needed to be
reformed for the sake of human liberty
 All applied skepticism and rules of reason when
questioning the status quo
 Followers = commercial class, professional urban class,
forward thinking aristocracy
 Supported: expansion in trade; improvement in
agriculture, transport and industry; enlargement of
business and commercial class; transformation of society
and economy
 Middle class – prolific writer – died a millionaire
 1717 imprisoned for insulting regent; 1726 exiled to
England for barb vs. nobleman (often in exile)
 Fed his struggle vs. injustice and unequal treatment
 Newton: history’s greatest man --- Glorification
of science and reason to better world
 Personal friend Frederick the Great – admired
him as “enlightened”
 Voltaire lived at Sans Souci
 Government:
 Admired England
 “Enlightened” monarch who ruled against ignorance
and thereby enlightened the state and people
 Why is organized / institutionalized religion
detrimental to human progress and happiness?
 T or F: John Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious
became an important defense of medieval Christianity
during the Enlightenment
 Deist believe
 The God exists and that nature itself is proof of God’s
existence. God is a rational force b/c nature is organized
rationally
 There is life after death and it is then that the rewards
and punishments for one’s actions will be administered.
 T or F: All philosophes advocated for religious tolerance.
 What type(s) of tolerance was encouraged? (see pg. 516)
 Tolerance of other Christian religions
 Tolerance of other non-Christian religions (BUT how far were
they willing to go in their tolerance?)
 Radical Critique of Christianity
 T/F: Scottish philosophe David Hume believed that the
greatest miracle of Christianity was that Christians believed
in miracles.
 T/F: Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire argued that the supernatural forces of Christianity are
what caused Rome to fall. (see handout)
Baruch Spinoza
Moses Mendelsohn
 1632-1677, Netherlands
 1729-1786, Germany
 Secularized Judaism
 Assimilation of Judaism
 Pantheism vs. organized
 One can be a practicing
religion (which leads
Jew (religious
away from God)
community) and a loyal
citizen (national
 Jews should separate
community)
themselves from their
traditional faith
communities.
T/F:
Gotthold Lessing’s Nathan the Wise actually
called for religious toleration of non-Christians.
Typical Understanding
of Islam
 False religion:
Muhammad = divine
(not true)
 Muhammad – impostor
and false prophet
 Extremely carnal b/c of
harem and polygamy
 Unable to adapt to
changing modern
society
Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu’s opinion
 Turkish women are very
free and well-treated;
burka often women
security
 Praised Ottoman
architecture
 Encouraged the adoption
of smallpox vaccine

Encyclopedie: 28 volumes –
scientific, technical, historical
knowledge (skeptical / critical of
society)
 Contains all the great
philosophes!
 Attempted summarization of all
human knowledge!
 25,000 sets sold before the
French Revolution!
 Read by ALL – nobles, clergy,
and “Third Estate”
What is social science?
The
Encyclopedia,
1751-1772
Editors:
Denis
Diderot, 17131784
Jean Le Rond
d’Alembert,
1717-1783
17 volumes of
text
11 volumes of
illustrations
 Cesare Beccaria, On Crime and Punishment, 1764
“Such punishments…ought to be chosen as will make the
strongest and most lasting impressions on the minds of
others, with the least torment to the body of the
criminal.”
Punishment should be better
Utilitarianism:suited
a doctrine
that the useful is the
to the Crime!
good and that the determining consideration of right
conduct
should bephysical
the usefulness
of its
Imprisonment,
labor, discipline
consequences; specifically : a theory that the aim of
action should be the
largest possible balance of
Rehabilitation
pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the
greatest number
Francois
Quesnay:
royal
court aphysician;
economist The
T/F: Francois
Quesnay
headed
French mercantile
Economical
Tableto
, 1758
association
opposed
physiocratic thought.
Pierre Dupont de Nemours: associate of Turgot (Dupont of
US!)
Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot: minister to Louis XVI:
Searching for “natural laws” of economics
1) Land (agriculture) = only true source of wealth
2) Supply and demand, individual economic self-
interest NOT government, should influence economy
– (sound familiar?)

Laissez faire: “let them do as they see fit”
Against government regulations, price controls,
mercantilism…
 Government should - provide defense, security and
reasonable laws (even in area of economy, when needed)

 Economic Liberty

“unleash individuals to pursue their own selfish economic
interests.” pg. 521
 Natural Resources

Unlimited and should be exploited to the economic
advantage of mankind
 Education, see pg. 522
T/F: Adam Smith wrote that, “All men are born free, but everywhere
they are in chains,” to call attention to the need for laissez-faire
economics.
 Stage One
 Hunting and gathering = no settled life
 Stage Two
 Pastoral herding = nomadic groups with some sense of
private property
 Stage Three
 Agricultural = settled with clearly delineated private
property arrangements
 Stage Four
 Commercial = advanced cities; wide-spread national &
international trade; mass consumption of many
different types of items; elaborate property agreements
 Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, 1748
 No one right political system for all nations
 Monarchical gov’t. regulated by parlements
 Division of power within government: executive;
legislative; judicial (sound familiar?)
 Sensitive / suspicious – obsessed w/conspiracy vs. him
 Committed to “Enlightenment” – but broke away, attacks
rationalism / civilization as destroyer of the individual
 Basic goodness of man (influences Romanticism)
 Do away with elite superiority – all are equal, esp.
financially
 Sig. contribution to Fr. Rev. --- appeals to the masses

The Social Contract:
(not political – but among men - “man is
born free, and everywhere he is shackled”
 The general will: common interest uniting men - (BUT
some must be forced to be free)
 Popular sovereignty – (Government is 2ndary to will of
the people)
 Emile: education of male child – learning by experience –
natural (BUT only for boys)
 Denise Diderot, Immanuel Kant, and Johann
Herder
 Criticized what they saw as immoral spread of
European civilization and ideology at the cost of
native population
 Different culture/appearance ≠ less humanity or
less right to be respected/understood - “culture
of man”
 What is cultural relativism?
 Major opponents of New World slavery
And so, with the Enlightenment…
“Mankind grew out of its self-inflicted immaturity”
(Immanuel Kant)
BUT… what about the WOMEN of the Enlightenment
!!!
Dressing in the 18th Century
Suzanne Necker
 Wife of finance minister to Louis XVI,
Jacques Necker; mother of Madame de
Staël
 Friday afternoons from during the
1770s & 1780s
 Necker's Notes
The Marquis de Chastellux was once
invited to one of Suzanne Necker's
famous dinner parties. Having arrived
early, he was left alone in the drawingroom where, snooping around, he
found a notebook under Necker's chair.
Idly leafing through its pages, he
discovered that the book contained
snippets of entertaining conversation.
The Marquis was later amused, during
the course of the meal, to hear Mme
Necker reciting word for word
everything which he had found written
in the book.
“Fortune does not
change men, it
unmasks them.” –
S.N.
Julie de Lespinasse
 Held salon every evening for 12
years
 Met from 5-9pm
 “Politics, religion, philosophy,
anecdotes, news, nothing was
excluded from the
conversation, an, thanks to her
care, the most trivial little
narrative gained, as naturally
as possible, the place and
notice it deserved.”
 Memoir of Baron de Grimm
Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797
 Daughter of handkerchief weaver
 1784 opened a school w/ her sister,





Eliza and friend, Fanny
Befriended many radical political
and religious thinkers and
supporters of American
independence
1786 Thoughts on the Education of
Girls
1789 Vindication of the Rights of
Man
1790 Vindication of the Rights of
Women
Admired by other radical thinkers,
like Tom Paine and William Blake –
detested by Edmund Burke
Bluestockings
 Literary Salons of England
 More casual than in France,
focused on moral and
intellectual training
 Primarily women’s group
 Traveled, wrote, and
studied together
 Precursors to feminists of
the 19th century
The Nine Living Muses of England , by Richard
Samuel, 1779.
(Left to right) Elizbaeth Carter, Anna Letitia
Barbauld, Angelika Kauffmann, Elizabeth
Linley, Catharine Macaulay, Elizabeth Montagu,
Elizabeth Griffith, Hannah More, and Charlotte
Lennox.
Rococo 1715 – 1774
.
► Centered in France --> associated with Louis XV. [also
Germany and Italy]
► Light, elaborate, decorative style. Complex
compositions.
►A backlash to the darkness of the Baroque --> less formal
& grandiose.
►Gaiety, lightness, and airiness; use of pastels --> the
Rococo style “dances.”
►Portrays the carefree life of the aristocracy -landscapes like fairy tales.
►Eventually replaced by Neo-Classicism, the artistic style
of the American & French Revolutions.
“The Pleasures of the Ball”
Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1717
“The Pleasures of Life”
Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1718
“The
Swing”
Jean
Honoré
Fragonard
1766
“The Stolen
Kiss”
Jean
Honoré
Fragonard
Late 1780s
“La Toilette” – François Boucher, 1742
“The
Marquis de
Pompadour”
François
Boucher
1756
Overview of Neo-Classicism
Art produced in Europe and North America from
the mid-18c to the early 19c.
More than just an antique revival  a reaction
against the surviving Baroque & Rococo styles.
Linked to contemporary political events:
Revolutions established republics in France and
in America. [Neo-Classicism was adapted as
the official art style].
Association with the democracy of Greece and
the republicanism of Rome.
Napoleon  used the style for propaganda.
1. Excavations of the Ruins
of Italian Cities
Pompeii in 1748.
Herculaneum in 1738.
2. Publication of Books on Antiquity
James Stuart & Nicholas Revert
Antiquities in Athens: 1762-1816.
3. Arrival of the Elgin Marbles
Thomas Bruce,
7th Lord of Elgin
British Museum, 1806
From the top façade of the
Parthenon in Athens.
4. Johann Winckelmann’s Artists Circle
Artists should “imitate”
the timeless, ideal
forms of the classical
world.
A circle of international
artists gathered about
him in the 1760s in
Rome.
German art historian.
Characteristics of Neo-Classicism
Return to the perceived “purity” of the arts of
Rome.
Model the “ideal” of the ancient Greek arts and,
to a lesser, extent, 16c Renaissance
classicism.
A conviction that there is a permanent, universal
way things are (and should be), which obviously
entails fundamental political and ethical
commitments.
Sometimes considered anti-modern or even
reactionary.
Claude Nicholas Ledoux
Rotunde de la Villette, Paris
John Wood
“The Royal Crescent [Circus]” at Bath, England (1754).
The “Empire Style”: Charles Percier &
Pierre François Léonard Fontaine
Napoleon’s official
architects.
They remade Paris in
the intimidating
opulence of Roman
imperial
architectural
style.
The “Federal Style” in America
$ 1780 – 1820.
$ Thomas Jefferson’s influence.
University of VA
Monticello, VA
U. S. Capitol
“The Oath of Brutus”
Gavin Hamilton, 1767
The oath was sworn as a promise of individual revenge
against a corrupt monarchy.
“The Death of Socrates”
Jacques-Louis David, 1787
The death of Socrates was a symbol of republican virtue.
“The Oath of the Horatii”
Jacques-Louis David, 1784
A depiction of dutiful patriotism.
“The Consecration of Napoleon & Josephine”
Jacques-Louis David, 1805-1807
A very different theme:
The celebration of worldly splendor and power.
“The Apotheosis of Homer”
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1827
This assembly of great artists and writers of all ages gathered
to honor the ancient Greek poet before a classical temple.
Furniture
The furniture designs used Greco-Roman
motifs.
Became known as style étrusque [“Etruscan
style”] in France.
Were favored by the court of Louis XV and
later by Napoleon I.
Josiah Wedgwood
Greek vases found in excavations became
models for this new type of ceramics.
Neo-Classicism Continued
Into the 19c and Beyond….
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
Buckingham Palace, London
The Gate of Alcala, Madrid
By the mid-19s, several European cities were transformed
into veritable museums of Neo-Classical architecture.
American Renaissance” Movement
American Museum
of Natural History
National Gallery of Art
Lincoln Memorial
A Neo-Classical expression in Beaux-Arts architecture.