The Heritage of World Civilizations
Brief Fifth Edition
Chapter
21
The Age of European
Enlightenment
The Heritage of World Civilizations, Brief Fifth Edition
Albert Craig • William Graham • Donald Kagan • Steven Ozment • Frank Turner
The Age of European Enlightenment
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The Scientific Revolution
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment and Religion
The Enlightenment and Society
Enlightened Absolutism
Enlightenment Salon
Introduction
• Scientific Revolution
 Transformed every part of the world
 Impact of science on every area of life
remains a dominant theme
• Eagerness to embrace scientific change is
one of the primary intellectual inheritances
from that age
Introduction (cont’d)
• Movement fostered by the Enlightenment
 Confidence in reason, over tradition and
religion
 Innovation and improvement
Global Perspective:
The European Enlightenment
• How did Enlightenment values as well as
Enlightenment admiration of science
become one of the chief defining qualities
of societies regarded as advanced,
progressive, and modern?
• How has the political thought of the
Enlightenment influenced the development
of modern political philosophies and
modern governments?
Global Perspective:
The European Enlightenment (cont'd)
• How could modes of thought developed to
criticize various aspects of eighteenthcentury European society be transferred to
other traditions of world civilizations?
The Scientific Revolution
Scientific Revolution
• A new view of the universe in 1500s,
1600s
 Not everything actually new
 Reexamined and rethought older knowledge
and made new discoveries
• Slow-moving, complex movement
 Brilliant people suggested erroneous as well
as useful ideas
Scientific Revolution (cont’d)
• Limited to a few hundred people
• Authority and application of scientific
knowledge
 Comes to define modern Western civilization
 Achievements in many areas
 Astronomy most captures attention
Ptolemaic system
• Standard explanation of the place of the
Earth in the heavens
• Combination of mathematical astronomy
of Ptolemy (Almagest, 150 C.E.) with the
physical cosmology of Aristotle
Ptolemaic System (cont’d)
• Geocentricism
 Earth as center of universe
 System of concentric spheres
 Outer region was realm of God and angels
• Numerous problems
 Planets appeared to move backward
 Ptolemy presented epicycles as the solution
The Ptolemaic System
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
• Polish astronomer
• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres
• Challenged Ptolemaic universe
 Ptolemaic ideas (i.e., epicycles) applied to
heliocentric universe
 Earth moved about sun in a circle
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
(cont’d)
• System no more accurate
• A way of confronting some difficulties in
Ptolemaic astronomy
 Allowed people to think in new directions
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
• Danish astronomer
 Spent most of life opposing Copernicus
 Suggested that moon and sun revolved
around the Earth
• Other planets revolved around sun
• Astronomical observations with the naked
eye
 Constructed most accurate tables of
observations
Tycho Brahe
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
• German astronomer
 Influenced by Renaissance Neo-Platonists
• Kepler believed that to keep sun at center
the concept of circular orbits had to be
abandoned
 Proposed that orbits had to be elliptical
 Used Copernicus’s sun-centered universe
and Brahe’s empirical data
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
(cont’d)
• On the Motion of Mars (1609)
• New problem: Why were planetary orbits
elliptical?
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
• Turned a telescope to the sky
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

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Mountains on the moon
Spots moving across the sun
Moons orbiting Jupiter
Heavens far more complex than anyone knew
• Concept of a universe totally subject to
mathematical laws
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) (cont’d)
• Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of
the World
 Supported the Copernican system
 Condemned by Catholic church
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
• “Father of empiricism and
experimentation”
• Novum Organum (1620), New Atlantis
(1627)
 Attacked scholastic belief that knowledge was
already discovered and only required
explanation
 Urged contemporaries to strike out on their
own in search of new understandings of
science
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (cont’d)
• Desirability of innovation and change
• Human knowledge should produce useful
results
 Science had a practical purpose and the goal
was human improvement
• No major scientific contributions, simply
directed people to new method and new
purpose
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
• Addressed question of planetary motion
 Basis for physics for 200 years
• The Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy (Principia Mathematica)
 Gravity: physical objects moved through
mutual attraction
 Explained how planets moved in an orderly
manner
 Proved relationship mathematically
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) (cont’d)
• Upheld importance of empirical data,
observation
 Observe before attempting to explain
 Mathematic application to scientific
investigation
Newton’s Telescope
Women and the Scientific
Revolution
• General absence of women
 Universities and monasteries – institutions of
celibate male clerical culture
• Women got few opportunities
 Generally through marriage or social standing
 Noblewomen and women from artisan class
Women and the Scientific
Revolution (cont’d)
• Margaret Cavendish (1632-1673)
 Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy
(1666) and Grounds of Natural Philosophy
(1668)
 Only woman to attend Royal Society meeting
• Criticized the Society for focusing on novel
scientific instruments rather than solving
practical problems
Women and Learning
Women of the Artisan Milieu
• Artisan women had greater freedom
 Astronomy was often studied under the
tutelage of husbands or fathers in the
workshop
 Maria Cunitz – book on astronomy
• Two husband and wife astronomy teams
 Elisabetha and Johannes Hevelius
 Maria Winkelmann and Gottfried Kirch
Women of the Artisan Milieu (cont’d)
• Women did acquire knowledge of science
 Margaret Cavendish, A Description of a New
World, Called the Blazing World (1666)
• Designed to introduce women to science
• The pursuit of natural knowledge was still
considered a male vocation
John Locke (1632-1704)
• Hoped to achieve for philosophy a lawful
picture of the human mind similar to that
which Newton had presented of nature
 Most profound impact on European and
American thought during eighteenth century
John Locke (1632-1704) (cont’d)
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(1690)
 Rejected idea of original sin
 Knowledge derived from sense experience
 Humans can take charge of own destiny
• Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
 Each person responsible for salvation
 Governments should not legislate on religion
Locke (cont’d)
• Two Treatises of Government (1689)
• Law is the voice of reason
 Humans are equal and independent
 People shouldn’t harm one another because
all people are images and property of God
Locke (cont’d)
• Rulers are not absolute in their power
 People enter political contracts with rulers
 Rulers are empowered to judge disputes and
preserve natural rights
 Monarchs who broke trust could be
overthrown
• Argument used in Declaration of
Independence
Overview
The Enlightenment
Enlightenment
• Movement of the eighteenth century
stating that change and reform were
desirable through the application of reason
and science
Enlightenment (cont’d)
• Led by philosophes
 Popularized seventeenth-century rationalism
and scientific ideas
 Exposed contemporary social abuses
 Argued that reform was necessary, possible
 Problems that they confronted included
• Vested interests
Enlightenment (cont’d)
• Political oppression
• Religious condemnation
 By mid-century they had brought enlightened
ideas to the European public in a variety of
ways
Voltaire (1694-1778)
• François Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
 Most influential of the philosophes
 Believed that human society should be
improved
• Letters on the English (1733)
 Praised English virtues & criticized French
society
Voltaire (1694-1778) (cont’d)
• Elements of the Philosophy of Newton
(1738)
 Popularized the thought of Newton
• Candide (1759)
 Attacked war, religious persecution, and
unwarranted optimism about the human
condition
 Reform, if achieved, might not be permanent
- Hopeful but not certain
- Pessimistic undercurrent
The Encyclopedia (1751-1772)
• One of great monuments of Enlightenment
 Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
 Collective effort of more than 100 authors
 Articles from all major French philosophes
• Collective plea for freedom of expression
• The most advanced critical ideas in
religion, government, and philosophy
 Looked to antiquity for intellectual models
Denis Diderot
The Encyclopedia (1751-1772)
(cont’d)
• Rather than to Christian centuries
 Designed to secularize learning
• Good life – application of reason to
relationships
The Encyclopedia Praises
Mechanical Arts and Artisans
The Encyclopedia Praises
Mechanical Arts and Artisans
Illustration from the Encyclopedia
Map 21–1. Subscriptions to Diderot’s
Encyclopedia throughout Europe
The Enlightenment and Religion
Deism
• Philosophes
 Religion should be reasonable
 Should lead to moral behavior
• Nature was rational
• John Toland, Christianity Not Mysterious
(1696)
 Religion a rational, natural phenomenon
• God as a divine watchmaker
Deism (cont’d)
• Two major points
 Belief in a rational God
 Belief in life after death
• Deism – empirical, tolerant, reasonable
Toleration
• Primary social condition was the
establishment of religious toleration
• Voltaire, Treatise on Toleration (1763)
• Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781)
 Nathan the Wise (1779)
 Plea for toleration
Toleration (cont’d)
• Belief that human life should not be
subordinated to religion
 Secular values, consideration more important
Chronology: Major
Publication Dates of
the Enlightenment
Islam and the Enlightenment
• Islam seen as rival to Christianity
 False religion and a divine Muhammad
 Islam sometimes criticized on cultural and
political grounds
• Voltaire
 Islam was simply another example of
religious fanaticism
• Deist John Toland
 Islam as a form of Christianity
Islam and the Enlightenment
(cont’d)
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)
 Lived in Constantinople with her husband
 Book published posthumously praised
Ottoman society
 Rare voice in support of Muslim life and
values
• Muslims felt little could be learned from
Europe
Map of Turkey and View of Constantinople
(Istanbul)
The Enlightenment and Society
Printing Shops
Montesquieu (1689-1755)
• The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
• No single set of laws could apply to all
people at all times and in all places
 Good political life – many variables
• Monarchy limited by intermediary
institutions
 Including the aristocracy, towns
Montesquieu (1689-1755) (cont’d)
• Division of power
 Executive, legislative, judicial
 Influence on later liberal democracies
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
• Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations (1776)
• Economic liberty – foundation of natural
economy
 Mercantile system should be abolished
 Best way to encourage economic growth
• Allow people to pursue their own selfish
economic interests
 Resources of nature are limitless
Adam Smith (1723-1790) (cont’d)
• Nations did not have to be poor
 Founder of laissez-faire economic thought
• However the state should provide schools,
armies, roads, etc.
• Four-stage theory justified economic and
imperial domination
Rousseau (1712-1778)
• Transcended thought and values of age
• Antipathy toward world and society
• Men could not achieve moral, virtuous, or
sincere lives living according to
commercial values
• Civilization had contaminated human
nature
Rousseau (1712-1778) (cont’d)
• Questioned concepts of material and
intellectual progress and morality
• Said real purpose of society should be to
nurture better people
Rousseau
Writings of Rousseau
• Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
(1755)
 Evils blamed on uneven distribution of
property
Writings of Rousseau (cont’d)
• The Social Contract (1762)
 “All men are born free, but everywhere they
are in chains.”
- Rousseau defended these chains, suggesting that
society is more important than its individual
members
- Independent human beings can achieve little
Writings of Rousseau (cont’d)
• The Social Contract (1762)
 Law to be obeyed is that created by general
will of majority who acted with adequate
information and under virtuous customs and
morals
 People should be good even if it means being
poor
Enlightened Critics of European
Empires
• Critics of imperialism were a minority
 Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, and Johann
Herder
• Most frequent topics were the treatment of
Native Americans and the enslavement of
Africans
Enlightened Critics of European
Empires (cont’d)
• Arguments:
 No single definition of human nature should
be made the standard throughout the world
 Cultures should be respected and understood
 Humans developed distinct cultures
possessing values that cannot and should not
be compared
• Inner social and linguistic complexities
make any comparison impossible
Women and the Enlightenment
• Salons
• Role of marquise de Pompadour important
in opposing censorship of the
Encyclopedia
• However, philosophes not strong feminists
 Montesquieu - traditional view of marriage
 Diderot - few articles by women
 Rousseau - women subordinate to men
- “separate spheres”
Women and the Enlightenment
(cont’d)
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
 A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Enlightened Absolutism
Enlightened Absolutism
• Many eighteenth-century rulers embraced
reforms set forth by philosophes
 Monarchical government dedicated to rational
strengthening of central absolutism
• Relationship between rulers and
philosophes
 Some of it purely public relations
Enlightened Absolutism (cont’d)
• Still, these rulers wanted for their subjects
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Better health
More accessible education
Economic prosperity
More rational government
Austria:
Maria Theresa (1740-1780)
• Habsburg ruler
 Maintained control during War of Austrian
Succession
• More efficient tax system
 Funds even from clergy and nobles
• Central councils to deal with problems
• Concerned with welfare of peasants
 Extended authority of royal bureaucracy over
that of nobilities to help the peasants
Austria: Joseph II (1780-1790)
• Habsburg “Revolutionary Emperor”
 Increased power of central government
• Freedom to Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek
Orthodox
 Jews gain rights of private worship
 Josephinism – Catholic church under control
Austria: Joseph II (1780-1790)
(cont’d)
• Abolished legal status of serfdom
 More freedom for peasants
• Taxes across social lines
• Too far and too fast
Russia: Catherine the Great (17621796)
• German princess married to Peter III
 Peter III murdered with Catherine’s approval
• Catherine familiar with Enlightenment
 Russia must reform to be a great power
Catherine the Great
Charter of Nobility
Russia: Catherine the Great (17621796) (cont’d)
• Legislative Commission called in 1767
 Catherine wrote series of Instructions
 More than 500 delegates selected to advise
on revising the law and government of Russia
 Gathered information but dismissed before
they made any revisions
• Still firmly tied to absolutism
• Continued expansion
 Drive for warm water ports
Map 21–2. Expansion of Russia
Partition of Poland
• Prussia, Russia, and Austria carve up
Poland
 First Partition, 1772
 Second Partition, 1793
 Third Partition, 1795
• Poland disappears until after World War I
Partition of Poland (cont’d)
• Representative of the power of the
evolving states of Prussia, Russia, and
Austria in Eastern Europe
 Weakness of the antiquated Poland
Review Questions
1. What was the Scientific Revolution? What
were the major contributions of
Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo,
Bacon, and Newton? Do you think they
regarded themselves as revolutionaries?
Review Questions
2. How and to what extent did women
participate in the Scientific Revolution?
Review Questions
3. Define the Enlightenment. Is it best seen
as a single movement or as a series of
related movements? What was the
relationship of the Enlightenment to the
New Science? How did the
Enlightenment further the idea of
progress and the superiority of European
civilization?
Review Questions
4. Why did the philosophes believe they
must comment so extensively on
religion? Why did they criticize
Christianity? Why did some of them
champion deism?
Review Questions
5. What were the differing views of the
philosophes toward Islam?
Review Questions
6. Was there a single Enlightenment view of
politics? Why could writers so dedicated
to reform have so many different political
paths to achieve reform?
Review Questions
7. How has the political thought of the
Enlightenment influenced the
development of modern political
philosophies and modern governments?
Review Questions
8. Summarize the Enlightenment critique of
European empires. Do you see any flaws
in this line of reasoning? Why do you
think it was not more influential?
Review Questions
9. What were the prevailing attitudes of the
philosophes toward women and women’s
roles? Do these attitudes present any
contradiction to other Enlightenment
positions? Explain.
Review Questions
10.Define enlightened absolutism. What
were the similarities in the policies of
Frederick the Great, Joseph II, and
Catherine the Great? To what extent do
their policies actually seem to stem from
the ideas of the Enlightenment
philosophes?