University of Edinburgh
Date
Name of the course
Name of tutor
To what extent is it possible to speak of a
European Enlightenment in the eighteenth
century
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Student No. XXXXXXXX
The 18th century was a time of great cultural change in Europe. Until recently,
historians like Peter Gay viewed the Enlightenment as a unified cross-European
intellectual movement amongst a core group of intellectuals, or philosophes, who shared
an anti-religious and progressive outlook on the world.1 More recent scholarship,
however, finds the Enlightenment’s scope to be greater than originally believed. Studies
like Robert Darnton’s on eighteenth century reading habits attest to the popularity of
titles outside the realm of traditional enlightened philosophy.2 Such findings call for a
reconsideration of the Enlightenment’s effect on those outside the intellectual elite and
the variance of its ideas. In order to gain an understanding of the Enlightenment’s extent
in eighteenth century Europe, the intellectual progress that occurred in both the elite and
other social strata will be recognized, followed by a look at the actual diffusion – or lack
thereof – of such progress across regional and national divisions. It will be found that the
European Enlightenment consisted of both a high and low enlightenment of society but
that such enlightenment was nonexistent in many European areas and differed in outlook
from nation to nation.
The extent of enlightenment in eighteenth century Europe is more easily
understood when viewed, as Roy Porter does, in terms of two enlightenments: a high
enlightenment and a low enlightenment.3 The ‘high enlightenment’ can be seen as the
intellectual progress achieved by the elite of the time – the nobles, intellectuals and
professional elite– who attended salons, joined intellectual societies and could afford
1
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (New York: Knopf, 1966) as cited in
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 3.
2
Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1982), 2.
3
Roy Porter, The Enlightenment (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1990), 6.
2
subscriptions to publications such as Diderot’s Encyclopédie.4 While the high
enlightenment received impetus from the writings of the natural philosophers whose
names are well known today, it was not confined to them. It includes the increase in
popularity and presence of intellectual curiosity that occurred in response to those works
and the academic institutions created to accommodate it.5 In these we find definite proof
of a high enlightenment across different parts of Europe. Intellectuals of the time formed
a ‘republic of letters’ whose works were read internationally, thanks to translations.6
Many who did not themselves write were involved in the reading and debate of such
ideas through newly formed societies and salons centred on them.7 Even a select few
leaders – and many more advisors – showed interest in the ideas of the Republic of
Letters. For example, Catherine the Great and Frederick the Great communicated with the
philosophers Diderot and Voltaire, respectively, and Frederick, in line with enlightened
ideas, demonstrated great religious tolerance in his treatment of Jews, Jesuits and
Huguenots.8 While the existence of this high enlightenment is apparent, defining its ideas
proves more difficult. The individualistic nature of high enlightenment thought led to
such variety in ideas that parameters inclusive of all are hard to come by. An example of
Enlightenment contradictions is David Hume’s Essay on Miracles (1748), which used
reason to question the existence of miracles, and Thomas Sherlock’s Trial of the Witness
4
Denis Diderot, Encylopédie (Paris: Hermann, 1976) as cited in Jeremy Black,
Eighteenth Century Europe, 1700 - 1789 (London: Macmillan Education, 1990), 212.
5
Outram, 51.
6
ibid, 21.
7
Thomas Munck, The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History, 1721 - 1794
(London: Oxford University Press, 2000),66, 68.
8
H. M. Scott, ed., Enlightened Absolutism : Reform and Reformers in later eighteenthcentury Europe (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990), 282; Porter, 51.
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of the Resurrection of Jesus (1729), which used reason to confirm their existence.
9
Further, there is no central organization or party charter to which historians can look for a
definitive set of Enlightenment principles.10 There are, however, a few generalizations
that can be made about high enlightenment thought: it emphasized the importance of
intellectual curiosity, debate and independent thought; was open to the revaluation of all
current bodies of knowledge, and encouraged the pursuit of practical ideas that could help
advance man and society.11 Even these, however, have their exceptions.
The ‘low enlightenment’ refers to the cultural developments of the working class
whose access to new ideas was limited by wealth and status. While traditionally viewed
as relatively unaffected by Enlightenment thought, the study of literacy rates and reading
habits tells a different story in parts of the eighteenth century working class. Print media
was the most significant medium through which new ideas could be spread; this makes
literacy an important historical yardstick for changes in the accessibility of new ideas to
the working class. Unfortunately, literacy’s many definitions make it a slippery statistic.
The ability to sign one’s name was the traditional test of literacy but is not always
synonymous with the ability to read a book.12 It was common for women to be able to
read but not sign their name and for men to have the inverse skill set.13 Nonetheless, this
statistic, when taken alongside book and pamphlet sales, gives insight into reading trends
of the time. The statistics available show a significant increase in literacy and book sales
9
Black, 210.
Porter, 10.
11
Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into
a category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge: Polity, 1989) as cited in James Van Horn
Melton, The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001), 8; Gay as cited in Porter, 7.
12
Munck, 47.
13
Melton, 82.
10
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over the course of the eighteenth century.14 Male literacy in France increased from 29%
in 1690 to 47% in 1790 while women’s literacy rose from 14% to 27% in the same time
frame.15 Similar statistics of growing literacy were found in England, the United
Provinces and Prussia.16 Such figures demonstrate an appreciation amongst the masses
for the utility of literacy, if only to avoid fraud.17 Alongside literacy – or as a result of it –
came huge increases in the production and sale of printed media. The Vox Stellarum, a
popular British almanac, increased its sales from 107,000 in 1768 to 220,000 in 1789.18
In north-eastern France, semi-literate peasants enjoyed the bibliothèque bleu, a
predominantly religious series of paperbacks that also covered farming methods,
condensed novels, and cooking recipes.19 Similar series were read in provincial
England.20 Later in the century, theological books became less popular – falling from
40% of the Prussian market in 1740 to 14% in 1800 – as readers tended towards the
natural sciences, agriculture and most significantly, the novel. 21 The close of the century
also saw the rise of underground scandalous literature; what Darnton refers to as ‘grub
street’.22 Such trends show that the majority of readers in 18th century France and
Germany were not engrossed in the high enlightenment ideas previously described.
Nonetheless they did still undergo significant cultural change, or enlightenment, in their
sudden increase in literacy and subsequent changes in reading habits. In this sense, the
14
ibid, 48-49.
ibid.
16
ibid.
17
Munck, 47.
18
R. A. Houston, Literacy in Early Modern Europe: Culture and Education 1500 - 1800
(London: Longman, 1989) as cited in Melton, 88.
19
Outram, 28; Melton, 88.
20
Munck, 90.
21
ibid, 92-93.
22
Darnton, 17.
15
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low enlightenment was a cultural change distinct from, yet comparable in significance to
the high enlightenment.
The Enlightenment was a cosmopolitan cultural shift whose scope was
comparable to nothing since the Renaissance. Despite its widespread impact, it was by no
means a blanket covering all of Europe; rather, its appearance would have been closer to
that of a moth-eaten quilt. That is, the Enlightenment was a patchwork of national
enlightenments, none of which were total. Rather than simply cataloging the numerous
differences between nations’ enlightenments, the reasons behind such differences should
be understood. As previously mentioned, two commonalities of high enlightenment
thought were independent thinking and the pursuit of practical ideas to help advance man
and society. It should not be surprising then that enlightened thinkers, thinking
independently, sought to solve the problems of society affecting them most and best
understood by them: their own. While it is true that cosmopolitanism was valued and
practiced by many of the philosophes, their travels were often to learn about the workings
of other societies in order to understand more clearly how to help their own. This helps to
explain the hostile outlook towards the state held by French intellectuals in comparison
with the less frictional English.23 The very reforms called for in the works of the French
philosophes – greater religious toleration, parliamentary representation, increased
freedom of expression and publishing – were already present in eighteenth century
England.24 National differences also affected low enlightenment reading as censorship
laws ranged from the laissez-faire attitude of the United Provinces to the strict policing of
23
24
Porter, 54; Munck, 8.
Porter, 54.
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the French Republic.25 Translation was not yet perfected and certain languages caused
meanings to be warped while others, like those of the Scottish Highlands and areas of
provincial France, spoke dialects that could not be translated and were therefore isolated
from Enlightenment ideas.26 Within Prussia, those in Protestant areas had a greater low
enlightenment than those of Catholic ones, as Protestantism, through its emphasis on
scripture readings, was more conducive to literacy.27 France, the flagship of
Enlightenment thought, still contained areas like the provincial Cher where literacy
actually declined in the 18th century.28 Enlightenment was often relative to economic
wellbeing as economic growth increased consumer demands for products like books and
broke down social barriers through increased trade.29 This helps to explain the limited
enlightenment of less prosperous central and southern Europe. The Enlightenment was
thus far from homogenous or all-encompassing as national and regional differences
naturally influenced thought and the transmission of ideas.
The Enlightenment was a profound intellectual change occurring in parts of both
the elite and lower classes of eighteenth century Europe and should be seen as such. Such
a view should not be blind, however, to the limits of its extent. The Enlightenment took
on a different face in each country it affected and had little or no impact in large regions
of Europe. In this sense it is possible to speak of enlightenment in Europe in the
eighteenth century but not of a singular and widespread European Enlightenment.
Works Cited
25
Munck, 85.
ibid, 50.
27
ibid, 51.
28
ibid, 49.
29
ibid, x.
26
7
Black, Jeremy. Eighteenth Century Europe, 1700 - 1789. London: Macmillan Education,
1990.
Darnton, Robert. The Literary Underground of the Old Regime. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1982.
Melton, James Van Horn. The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Munck, Thomas. The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History, 1721 - 1794.
London: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Outram, Dorinda. The Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Porter, Roy. The Enlightenment. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1990.
Scott, H. M., ed. Enlightened Absolutism : Reform and Reformers in later eighteenthcentury Europe. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990.
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