THE PHILOSOPHES
Voltaire
Montesquieu
Rousseau
Friday, January 20, 2012
Philosophes - public intellectuals dedicated to solving
the problems of the World
- wrote for a broad, educated public audience
- fought to eradicate bigotry, religious fanaticism,
superstition
- promoted “Natural Rights” - intellectual freedom,
freedom of the press and religion, human progress
- spread their ideas through books, essays, letters
pamphlets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xd_zkMEgkI
Friday, January 20, 2012
PHILOSOPHES
- Paris was headquarters
- they met in salons and
coffee houses to share ideas
-Mme. de Geoffrin - famous hostess of such a
salon - she provided a platform to promote
discussion, spread of Enlightenment ideals
Denis Diderot - edited Encyclopedia- a 17-volume
collection of Enlightenment literature
Friday, January 20, 2012
Conflicts w/ Church and State
David Hume - Scottish, atheist philos. - The Natural
History of Religion - argued the belief in God rested on
superstition rather than on reason.
Deists - believed in a benevolent God who put the world
in motion, but did not intercede in daily life
- Philos. campaigned against judicial use of torture
- attacked the Church & state for its support of
colonization and slavery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xd_zkMEgkI
Friday, January 20, 2012
Views on colonies, slavery, natives, lower
classes
- Raynal - French clergyman who wrote about the
horrors of colonization and slavery
natives - seen by some Philosophes as primitive &
innocent, or as violent and savage by others
- slavery - widely condemned by Philosophes
-Abolitionists began to petition gov’ts to ban slavery
Philosophes - saw lower classes as ignorant, violent,
superstitious - pinned hopes on elite, enlightened rulers
Friday, January 20, 2012
MONTISQUIEU
- Attacked Absolutism - called it “despotism”
- promoted idea of Separation of Powers to prevent
abuses in government
- admired English Constitutionalism
-SPIRIT OF THE LAWS - opposed divine
right of kings and absolutism
Friday, January 20, 2012
VOLTAIRE
AKA -Francois-Marie Arouet - a deist
Philosophical Dictionary - attacked organized Christianity as a
source of fanaticism and brutality among humans
- champion of religious toleration &
free speech
- His motto - “Crush the infamous thing!” (the thing
was bigotry and ignorance)
Friday, January 20, 2012
The Individual and Society
- shift from theological focus to secular study
of society & the individual
- 2 major results of secular focus:
a. secularization of political life
b. foundation for the social
sciences of the modern era
Enlightenment = origin of modernity - the belief that
human reason, rather than theological doctrine, should be
set the patterns of social & political life
Friday, January 20, 2012
Adam Smith vs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- views on the individual & society differed
Smith - the best expression opportunity
for the individual lay in free-market
capitalism (founder of modern economics)
Rousseau - emphasized needs of
community over those of the individual his work led to both democracy and
communism
Friday, January 20, 2012
PHYSIOCRATS
- Early political economists - sought to explain the
relationship between commerce and people and gov’t
- Adam Smith - English economist
who promoted capitalism
- laissez-faire - “leave alone” gov’t should not interfere in
business
- wrote Wealth of Nations
Friday, January 20, 2012
ROUSSEAU
- a social misfit, he both disdained and
was supported by wealthy patrons
- said man was prone to good,
but civilization was a source of
human evil
- gov’t should submit to the
general will of the people
The Social Contract (1762) - promoted a conscious,
calculated nationalism that made all people feel like they
belonged
Friday, January 20, 2012
- an early Romantic
BACKLASH:
- reason and secular science viewed as soulless
- some sought “inner enlightenment” of the spirit
- Pietism -German Lutheran movement
- John Wesley - Anglican revivalist
- Great Awakening -American colonial religious revival
of the 1740’s (George Whitfield)
- birth of Romanticism, which would mature in the early
19th century
Friday, January 20, 2012
John Wesley Anglican”itinerant”
preacher - preached to
the masses in England
George Whitfield itinerant preacher stressed individualism in
spiritual matters
Friday, January 20, 2012