“Was this an Enlightened Age?” History 3340: Lecture 2 Topics for today • France; The Enlightenment; The French Enlightenment • Simple, right? • Also: How Enlightenment Comes to the Andes Before that… • … my attempts at figuring out who all of you are Understanding “France” leading up to 1789 • By European standards • A large nation • News took several days to spread • A diverse nation (culturally, linguistically) • Still, especially going into 1789, a shared understanding • All subject to the same king • All aware that things were changing 4 The Times They Were A-Changin’ • Longish term: • The Enlightenment was one of several intellectual currents that had a disruptive effect • The Catholic Church had its own internal problems as well • Short-term: • Louis XVI’s difficulties running France • The financial crisis following the American Revolution Some quick notes about what was, and was not, France • France included: • Mountainous regions • Alps, Pyrennes • ‘Massif central’ • • • • • • • Major Rivers Long coast of the Atlantic Long coast on the Mediterranean Long border with German speaking lands Border with Austrian lands in modern-day Belgium Borders with Swiss, Italians Islands and overseas colonies 6 Map, etc. 7 Where people lived: cities and towns • The cities of France can be divided into two categories • 1) Paris (around 600,000+, many of them relatively new arrivals) • 2) Not Paris • 9 cities over 50k • The smaller cities had an importance beyond their populations • Places of trade, administration, cultural networks • An urban elite? • A question to keep in mind – was there a “revolutionary bourgeoisie”? • Still, most of the population lived in the countryside 8 The ‘social historical dynamics’ leading up to 1789 • The different regions all had their own fault lines, rivalries, etc • Towns v. countryside • Protestants v. Catholics • Landowners v renters • But throughout, resentment toward the nobility • “Is it appropriate for today’s nobility to hang on to the language and attitudes of the gothic age? Is it appropriate for the Third Estate, at the end of the eighteenth century, to stagnate in the sad, cowardly habits of the old servitude?” • “the nobility has ceased to be the monstrous feudal power that could oppress with impunity. It is the nobility that is now no more than the shadow of what it was, and this shadow is still trying to terrify a whole nation, but in vain – unless this nation wants to be regarded as the vilest on earth.” 9 A time of intellectual and cultural activity • And sometimes political activity, too • A growing reading public • (Though not perhaps a revolution in reading) • An awareness of ideas, and of the possibility of reforming France • A time when people were proposing all sorts of major overhauls of this or that institution, but –until 1789 – relatively little reform The Enlightenment • An intellectual movement that in Western and Central Europe during the eighteenth century • Many of the key ideas and ideals of the “western” tradition go back to this time, including key ideas about religious toleration, the rule of law, and civil liberties • “in every place, and upon every occasion, rallying the friends of mankind with the cry of reason, toleration, and humanity.” 11 So, what was The Enlightenment? • (with apologies to last semester’s students for the repeated material) • I will give you several answers, because it was a multi-faceted movement. But I want to start with what I think is the key belief underlying the movement: • The Enlightenment was based in the belief that people, using their reason, could make the world a better place. 12 Adding in some Kant quotes • (Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and, though a late arrival to the movement, the one whose description of it is most often cited). • “Enlightenment is man's release from his selfincurred immaturity… Sapere aude! ’Have courage to use your own reason!’ -- that is the motto of enlightenment.” • “If we are asked, ‘Do we now live in an enlightened age?’ the answer is, ‘No,’ but we do live in an age of enlightenment.” Enlightenment: time and place • Three main centers of the Enlightenment: Britain, France, Germany • Together, they last from roughly the 1680s until the 1780s, though the start and end are debatable • Primarily an 18th century movement • Different in each place: British writers tended to have more practical aims; in France, it was more of a cultural phenomenon; in Germany, it was more based in the advances of high philosophy 14 My starting place: Sir Isaac Newton • Mostly known today as a scientist but had major impact on all intellectual fields • His goal: to understand and explain the laws of the natural world 15 Newtonianism • Newton’s accomplishment: not just to show what the laws of motion were, but to show that such laws exist and can be discovered • A shift in scientific explanations • Not trying to deduce from 1st principles, but to start with verifiable empirical evidence • It was also a shift in explanations from why to how 16 The Enlightenment in France • France saw the Enlightenment's largest growth as an overall phenomenon, but did not see the sort of great works that came from England or from Germany • Several major thinkers/authors emerged, but there were also many thinkers/authors who published and participated, but who are rarely read now • Those authors made France’s Enlightenment a more widespread phenomenon than it was elsewhere 17 The French Enlightenment as Newtonianism? • What followed in much of Europe – but especially in France – was a desire to be the “Newton of the political world” – to discover and explain the rules that governed human activity, in the way that Newton had done for the natural world • So, this was philosophy & political science, but using techniques inspired by the natural sciences 18 French Newtonianism? • “Newton did more, perhaps, in favour of the progress of the human mind, than merely discovering this general law of nature; he taught men to admit in natural philosophy no other theories but such as are precise, and susceptible of calculation; which give an account not only of the existence of a phenomenon, but its quantity and extent.” • -Condorcet French Enlightenment as cultural phenomenon • Two things that distinguished France: • The many cultural institutions that developed, to spread Enlightenment ideas through the educated classes • The cult of celebrity around several key authors 20 France’s Enlightenment Institutions • Academies: quasi-universities in which educated men would meet to discuss the ideas of the day • Sometimes women also welcome as members, though not usually • Salons: smaller gatherings, more elite, often led by women – but with similar activities • The French Enlightenment was urban • Paris the most important center, but wealthy French people could participate in the Enlightenment in other cities as well 21 Many of the philosophical works… • … were only so-so • Voltaire was a great writer, but not the quality of philosopher that Locke or Kant were • Writers like d’Holbach, Helvetius, St. Pierre wrote philosophical texts that today, don’t really stand up very well • (You don’t need to remember those names) • But the sheer volume of production was impressive, as was the way that people had to get around censorship • And Rousseau was impressive in his own way 22 The cult of celebrity • More than any other part of Europe, France’s most successful Enlightenment philosophers (philosophes) came to be famous people, sought out by other famous people, including kings (though not France’s kings), artists, etc. • I’ll come back to this with Rousseau 23 The French Enlightenment's radical critique • There were several ways in which Enlightenment critiques, even though this was elite philosophy, did threaten France’s (and Europe’s) status quo • They were especially critical of: • Established religion/the Catholic Church • Superstition • Tradition 24 The anti-clericalism of the French Enlightenment • A belief that as an institution, the Catholic Church was holding society back, and needed to be removed from any sort of power • A belief in religious toleration and religious freedom • People needed religion, but they also needed to be able to be free to choose that religion • Religion’s role was in maintaining the social order 25 Secular measures for religion’s value • In saying that religion was useful for maintaining social order, Enlightenment thinkers – especially Voltaire – were saying that society should measure religion, rather than what had previously been the case – religion and the church evaluating society • The importance of utility 26 Enlightenment critiques of superstition • A belief among the writers of the Enlightenment that too many people believed untrue things • Which… was accurate, but… who is to say? • An elite/elitist view of popular beliefs, which made it difficult to reach a wider base 27 From Condorcet’s Sketch • Then will arrive the moment in which the sun will observe in its course free nations only, acknowledging no other master than their reason; in which tyrants and slaves, priests and their stupid or hypocritical instruments, will no longer exist but in history and upon the stage; in which our only concern will be to lament their past victims and dupes, and, by the recollection of their horrid enormities, to exercise a vigilant circumspection, that we may be able instantly to recognise and effectually to stifle by the force of reason, the seeds of superstition and tyranny, should they ever presume again to make their appearance upon the earth. Traditions don’t matter • This was in some ways the most radical aspect of France’s Enlightenment – the belief that traditions and traditional institutions don’t matter, and that people should reinvent society in ways that improved it • This was the logical consequence of the Enlightenment belief in the importance/value of men using their reason to improve the world • Raynal: “what doth it signify to me, what other people in other ages have done? … Let us, therefore, hasten to substitute the light of reason and the sentiments of nature to the blind ferociousness of our ancestors.” 29 Enlightenment: progress • Again: the belief that people, using their reason, could improve the world • Hence Condorcet: there had been progress, and there would be more progress Condorcet • The most important philosophe to participate in the Revolution • It didn’t end well: in 1793, expelled from the legislature; went into hiding; wrote his Sketch; got caught; executed Condorcet’s key beliefs • People, using their reason, will make the world a better place: • this progress, which at present may appear chimerical, is gradually to be rendered possible, and even easy… [and] must in the end obtain a durable triumph; by what ties nature has indissolubly united the advancement of knowledge with the progress of liberty, virtue, and respect for the natural rights of man… the moment knowledge shall have arrived at a certain pitch in a great number of nations at once, the moment it shall have penetrated the whole mass of a great people, whose language shall have become universal, and whose commercial intercourse shall embrace the whole extent of the globe. This union having once taken place in the whole enlightened class of men, this class will be considered as the friends of human kind, exerting themselves in concert to advance the improvement and happiness of the species. Condorcet on non-Europeans • He does talk about the “barbarity of African tribes, and the ignorance of savages” • But also: “Run through the history of our projects and establishments in Africa or in Asia, and you will see our monopolies, our treachery, our sanguinary contempt for men of a different complexion or different creed, and the proselyting fury or the intrigues of our priests, destroying that sentiment of respect and benevolence which the superiority of our information and the advantages of our commerce had at first obtained.” Condorcet on women • Philosophers and legislators: “have they not all violated the principle of equality of rights by quietly depriving half of mankind of the right to participate in the formation of the laws, by excluding women from the rights of citizenship?” • “Either no individual in mankind has true rights, or all have the same ones; and whoever votes against the right of another, whatever be his religion, his color, or his sex, has from that moment abjured his own rights.” But, also, Condorcet on Women • “"I am afraid women will be angry with me, if they ever read this piece… Ever since Rousseau earned their approval by stating that women were only made to take care of us and to torment us, I cannot hope to gain their support.” • An odd quote, perhaps – I’m going to leave it here for now, but I think we’ll have opportunities to come back to it. Slavery and the Enlightenment • The rise of the Enlightenment occurred at the same time when England and France were getting rich off of the slave trade, and off of the labor of millions of enslaved people, most of them African or of African descent • So what are we to make of this? And how do we start to think about this? • Correlation or causality? 36 Slavery in the Atlantic th 18 -Century • English colonies: • Jamaica, Bermuda, Barbados, South Carolina among West Indies islands where the majority of the population was enslaved Africans • French colonies • Saint Domingue, Guadalupe also mostly enslaved people 37 The anti-slavery Enlightenment • There is a nice story to tell here: some writers of the Enlightenment saw slavery for the horror it was, and worked to eliminate it • Their work helped change people’s views on slavery, and provided a way for people to understand slavery’s evils • This was, moreover, a way that was consistent with larger principles in the Enlightenment 38 Raynal • For Raynal, slavery was a crime against what he saw as the inherent rights that all humans had; • “Will these eternal and immutable truths, the foundation of all morality, the basis of all rational government, be contested? They will, and the audacious argument will be dictated by barbarous and sordid avarice.” • It was therefore as an Enlightenment thinker that he called for the slave trade to end Enlightenment Universals • (We’ve seen this already in Condorcet and Raynal) • This was a key way that Enlightenment thought differed from earlier European philosophies • Traditionally, liberties were defined historically and linked to certain people • Liberties, not liberty • Freedoms, not freedom • One characteristic of Enlightenment thought (at least outside of Great Britain) was to reject those historical claims in favor of claims based on Natural Law, or inherent human conditions 40 Universals, and universal rights • Discussion of the rights of “man” – which implies half of the world’s population, and possibly (though it’s questionable – Condorcet was in the minority) the other half as well • But: also a rejection of the idea that those rights are part of history, or the privileged property of a specific people 41 Société des amis des Noirs • The “Society of the friends of Black people” • French writers who were influenced by/participants in the Enlightenment, who argued that France should liberate the enslaved people in France’s colonies • Included philosophers, and writers who would be part of the Revolution 42 A pro-slavery Enlightenment? • There were situations where the Enlightenment could provide benefits for enslavers • New management techniques aimed at introducing efficiency, productivity were, for the enslavers, ways that people using their reason could make the world a better place • Studies on how to prevent people from dying during the middle passage [shipping people as cargo from Africa to the New World] were based on increasing profit for slavery merchants 43 “Race science” and the Enlightenment • Beliefs among white/European people that they were the only people capable of being Enlightened (or that not all people were equally capable) • Encyclopedie/Negroes: “Their hard nature demands that they be treated neither with too much indulgence nor too much severity.” • Encyclopedie/Slave Trade: Americas “barely populated by savages and ferocious beasts” 44 France’s Enlightenment • So, circling back: these were issues that France had discussed during the eighteenth century • At the time, France was receiving money from the slave labor in the Caribbean, but made a point of not having slavery in (what we think of as) France itself • And at a time when people were debating the ideas of the Enlightenment 45 The elitism of the Enlightenment • In doing this, there were real attempts to improve the world by getting rid of superstitions • But it can also become part of the general disdain of popular practices, and an insistence on learned knowledge over practical knowledge • With one major exception 46 Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Other philosophers respected him, but he had different priorities • More open to popular traditions, folk beliefs, and extremely emotional literature “L’ami Jean-Jacques” • Cult of personality: true of many Enlightenment philosophers, truest of Rousseau • As Group A saw: people wrote him letters expressing their love - women especially • As for men, many wanted to be him • Darnton, elsewhere: “gutter Rousseaus” • A lot of men tried to become Celebrity Philosophers; few succeeded So… that was, in brief, the French Enlightenment • This course, of course, is a course on the French Revolution • In histories of the Revolution, certain questions/debates reappear • Key: the relationship between the Enlightenment and the Revolution • Did the Enlightenment cause the Revolution? Probably the best way to answer that • The Revolutionaries considered themselves, in one way or another, to be followers of the Enlightenment and to be putting Enlightenment ideals into practice, and used the language of the Enlightenment as justifications • Subsequent generations have seen the Enlightenment through the Revolution’s lens • So the “influence” was backwards, rather than forwards The Enlightenment did not… • … cause the French monarchy to fall, though. • The French monarchy fell on its own, because it ran out of money. French Finances • French taxes were high, but also inefficient • Unequally distributed • Hit the poorer hardest • But also just very arbitrary • Tax farmers kept much of the take • When the government ran out, where to get more? • New taxes? • Needed Parlement’s approval • Parlement’s offer: approve new taxes if the king would call the Estates’ General 52 It was this financial crisis, more than anything else… • … that brought down the Old Regime. • The French Government was running out of money, and this lack of money made it unable to ignore other issues it has traditionally ignored 53 The Abbé Sieyes • His “What is the Third Estate? was the most influential pamphlet of the day • Crystallized anger against the nobility • A spokesman for the bourgeoisie? 54 Sieyes’ views • What is the Third Estate? Everything. • What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. • What does it want to be? Something. 55 Sieyes, cont. • Who is bold enough to maintain that the Third Estate does not contain within itself everything needful to constitute a complete nation? It is like a strong and robust man with one arm still in chains. If the privileged order were removed, the nation would not be something less but something more. What then is the Third Estate? All; but an “all” that is fettered and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? It would be all; but free and flourishing. Nothing will go well without the Third Estate; everything would go considerably better without the two others. 56 Sieyes as spokesman for the bourgeoisie • “Look at the available classes in the Third Estate… those classes where some sort of affluence enables men to receive a liberal education, to train their minds and to take an interest in public affairs. Such classes have no interest other than that of the rest of the People. Judge whether they do not contain enough citizens who are educated, honest and worthy in all respects to represent the nation properly.” 57
