Enlightenment
• Era in which people adopted views and
methods of scientists and scientific
philosophers… as Immanuel Kant said,
“Dare to Know”
• Cast off ideas of past and use reason to
probe for answers on the nature of
Mankind: Applied to politics, economics,
and human behavior
• Enlightened thinkers not organized like
the scientists
• Met in Salons (informal discussion
groups organized mainly by women)
• Typically called philosophes
(popularized the Enlightenment)
• Ideas printed in pamphlets and
distributed
–Called the Republic of Letters in France
Central Themes
• Progress: Humanity improves via:
– Knowledge of the natural world & Technology
– Overcoming ignorance bred through superstition
– Overcoming cruelty & violence through social
improvements & government action
• Reason: Logic over tradition/superstition
• Education: Education! Academies
• Empiricism: You don’t know until you experience!
Enlightened People…
• Believed in absolutes
• Universe is a closed system
• Supernatural NOT involved in human
life
• This is a sharp contrast to earlier
thought: Open universe where God,
Satan, etc interact with humans
Various ‘Schools’
Rationalists: Advocated perfectibility of
society: Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning, or deduction, starts out with a general statement, or hypothesis,
and examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion. If something is
true of a class of things in general, it is also true for all members of that class. For
example, "All men are mortal. Harold is a man. Therefore, Harold is mortal."
• Descartes…
• Spinoza (1632-1677)
–Equated God and nature
–Mechanical universe (Deism)
Empiricists: Emphasized observation
as basis for epistemology: Inductive
Reasoning
Inductive reasoning makes broad generalizations from specific observations. Even if all
of the premises are true in a statement, inductive reasoning allows for the conclusion
to be false. Here’s an example: "Harold is a grandfather. Harold is bald. Therefore,
all grandfathers are bald."
• Francis Bacon…
• John Locke…
• Baron Paul d’Holbach
–Humans are machines governed by
outside forces
–Freewill, God, immortality of soul
are foolish
• Leibnez
–Optimism theory
• Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron
de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
–Spirit of Laws: theorized
separation of powers and checks
and balances
–Basis for American governmental
structure
Greatest of the Philosophes
• Francois-Marie Arouet AKA Voltaire
(1694-1778)
–Hated Catholic Church and
“narrowness and bigotry that was the
heart of all religious traditions”
–He was a deist
–Spent 11 months in Bastille for his
sharp tongue
• Voltaire cont.
–Felt man needed to be free from
religion “Écrasez l’infame!” (Crush
the horrible thing!)
–He LOVED the English
• Relative religious tolerance
• Freedom to express oneself in print
• Honor English showed to Newton at his
funeral
• Voltaire cont.
–Published Candide
•Pessimistic work
•Attacked Optimism reflected in
Enlightened ideas
Various Wise Guys
• Marquis di Beccaria:
–Try to humanize criminal law
• Mary Wollstonecraft (gender
theory)
–Men are the problem…
Economic: Physiocrats: Opposed
mercantilism
• Quesnay
–Reform agrarian order
• Adam Smith
–Wealth of Nations
–‘Bible’ of capitalism
–Laissez-faire
Enlightened Despots
• Catherine the Great of
Russia (r 1762-1796)
• Joseph II of Austria (r 17651790)
• Frederick II of Prussia (r
1740-1786)
Critics of the Enlightenment
• Some reacted against the mechanical
universe typical of the Enlightenment
• Some rejected the methodology, or
premise
• Some divided the universe into parts
• Some rejected the whole thing and
reinstituted the open system and
supernatural universe
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
“All men are born free, but everywhere they
are in chains”
–Most radical of Philosophes
–Theory of direct democracy
• General Will
• Noble Savage
–Rationalism & Civilization are destroying the
individual
–Influenced the later Romantic movement
David Hume (Scottish)
• Emphasized limitations of human
reasoning
• Mind is a bundle of impressions
• Became a dogmatic skeptic: undermined
the Enlightenment
• Live with “total suspension of judgment”
Immanuel Kant
• Two ‘realities’
–Physics: Phenomena
–Metaphysics: Noumena
• Science describes natural world
but does not help with morals
• Source of knowledge…
• Categorical Imperative
–Morals/ethics based on internal
rationale
–Self-serving action is not virtuous
–Action that obeys the rational law of
morality is virtuous
• Rational law of morality = duty, service to
the whole, self-sacrifice…
• Act as if the maxim (premise) from which
you act were to become ‘universal’
through your will
Other Movements
• German Pietism
• Methodism & John Wesley
• Great Awakening in English Colonies &
Jonathan Edwards
• Roman Catholic Jansenism
• Jewish Hasidism
• Romantic Movement (late 18th – Early
19th centuries)
Rembrant
Anatom
y
Lesson
1632
Vemeer
Woman
Weighing
Gold
1657
Rubens
Country Fair
1635
Velázquez
Spinners
1599-1660