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18th century – the age of Enlightenment
Everywhere, a feeling that Europeans that at
last, people had emerged from a long twilight
Forward looking thinkers, and writers known
as ‘philosophes’
Forward looking monarchs, Enlightened
despots
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Optimistic beliefs in historical advance of
reason, science, education, social reform,
tolerance, and enlightened government
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The ideas of the 18th Century were drawn
from the scientific revolution of the 17th
Carried the ideas of Bacon and Descartes
Carried the ideas of Natural Law and Right
Belief, in a non religious way, that life gets
better as time goes on
Faith of the age in the natural faculties of the
human mind
Philosophes
French for philosopher
In the 18th, meant to approach any subject in a
critical and inquiring spirit
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Social or literary critics
All written under censorship
To protect people from ‘harmful’ ideas
France, the center of the enlightenment, had
both censorship and large reading and
writing public
It discourage writers from openly or explicitly
questioning
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Examples: customs of Persians, double
meanings, innuendos, jokes
Paris the heart of the movement
Mingling of people of ideas in Salons,
conducting by women
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Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquei, and Voltaire
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Major Works:
Discourse on the Sciences and Math
Criticizes education
Not progressing us to anything good
Education just makes us decieve ourselves
and others – we try to fit in
Leads to individuality, makes us self
interested consumers
Teaches us ‘reason’
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Puts flowers on our chains – just hiding
inequality
Where ever science and math flourished,
luxury and leisure flourish
They are born from our vices, and do nothing
to improve the moral well being of society
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Don’t contribute anything to love of country,
friends, or the unfortunate
Science does not give any guidance for
making people more virtuous citizens
We learn to hate ourselves because the
masks we have to wear
To cope, we hate the people below us
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Science is based on a sense of a need for
luxury
Science becomes a means for making our
lives easier and more pleasurable, not morally
better
Bacon and Descartes avoided this corruption
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Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
He creates his own state of nature
Humans physically strong, but simple, very
independant
Hobbes had it wrong, he tried to create the
state of nature without stripping what
humans have learned
All he did was strip laws
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For us to understand the state of nature,
there can be no laws, property,
understanding of threat, minimal language
skills
Natural man is isolated, timid, peaceful, mute
and without the foresight to worry
Humans have two principles – self interest,
and empathy
But we have reason
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We have adaptability – leads to progress ie
fire
Humans forced to settle down, but roughly
equal
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Series of events move us from the ‘noble
savage’
Organize into temporary groups – hunting
Very basic language
Next is small families based on love
If we stayed here, there would be no
inequality
But, agriculture and metallurgy change this
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Crucial point develops – we start to make
comparisons to others –develop self image
Things become valuable
Division of labour
Distinct social classes, workers, rulers
Leads to invention of private property
Unnatural, but education teaches us its legit
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Some people left out of property grab – see it
as illigetimate
Great Deception – rich convince the poor
private property needs to be protected
All accepted their chains
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Very difficult work of his
1st step – make us all equal
Give up the ‘natural right’ to property
Help us to distinguish between needs and
wants
Help us to resurrect empathy
Everyone has enough so they don’t have to
sell ourselves
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When we see each other as equals, we are
able to see one another as citizens
We’ll look forward to what people say
Outlines how governments could exist to protect
equality of citizens
 Concept of general will – difficult to interpret
 Based on the well being of the whole, protects
the rights of all individuals
 Protected by a sovereign, protects the public
good
 Not the collection of individual wills
 Ultimately my will, and general will merges
 Example – majority- collection of individual wills
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If you have: lack of prosperity, no population
growth, legislative body silent, disparity,
religious faction – no social contract
If the one is being sacrificed by the many – no
social contract