Chapter 17
The Eighteenth Century:
An Age of Enlightenment
©2003 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
The Age of Enlightenment in Europe
The Enlightenment
Paths to Enlightenment
“Dare to know” – Immanual Kant
Scientific method to understand life
Popularization of Science
• Bernard de Fontenelle (1657-1757), Plurality of Worlds
A New Skepticism
• Attacked superstition, religious intolerance, and dogmatism
• Skepticism about religion and growing secularization
The Impact of Travel Literature
Travel books became very popular
• Captain James Cook
• Literature on China
The Legacy of Locke & Newton
Newton
reasoning could discover natural laws that
govern politics, economics, justice, religion,
and the arts
Locke, Essay Concerning Human
Understanding
knowledge derived from the environment
denied Descartes’ belief in innate ideas
The Philosophes and their Ideas
Came from all walks of life
Paris was the “capital”
Desire to change the world
Call for a spirit of rational criticism
3 French Giants: Montesquieu, Voltaire,
and Diderot
Montesquieu and Political
Thought
Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755)
Persian Letters, 1721
Attacks traditional religion, advocacy of
religious toleration, denunciation of slavery,
use of reason
The Spirit of the Laws, 1748; comparative study
of government
Voltaire and the Enlightenment
Francois-Marie Arouet, Voltaire (16941778)
Criticism of traditional religion
Treatise on Toleration, 1763
Deism
Diderot and the Encyclopedia
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Encyclopedia, 28 volumes
Attacked religious superstition and
advocated toleration
Lowered price helped to spread the ideas of
the Enlightenment
Toward a New “Science of Man”
David Hume
Physiocrats and Adam Smith founders of
modern economics
François Quesnay (1694-1774)
Leader of the Physiocrat – natural
economic laws
Rejection of mercantilism
Supply and demand
Adam Smith & Laissez-Faire
Economics
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Attack on mercantilism
Advocate of free trade
Government has only three basic functions
• Protect society from invasion
• Defend individuals from injustice and oppression
• Keep up public works
The Later Enlightenment
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of
Mankind; Preservation of private property had
enslaved
Social Contract, 1762; Tried to harmonize
individual liberty with governmental authority
Concept of General Will
Emile, 1762; important work on education
The “Woman’s Question” in the
Enlightenment
Agree that the nature of women make them
inferior
There were some exceptions, for example Diderot
Mary Astell (1666-1731)
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, 1697
Better education and equality in marriage
Mary Wollstonecraft
Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792
Subjection of women by men wrong
Social Environment of the
Philosophes
Salons
The influence of women
Marie-Thérèse de Geoffrin (1699-1777)
Marquise du Deffand (1697-1780)
Other gathering places
Innovations in Art, Music, and
Literature
Rococo Art
Characteristics
Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)
Fragility and transitory nature of pleasure, love, and life
Baroque-Rococo architectural style
Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753)
Secular and spiritual interchangeable
Baroque Music
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
Franz Joseph Haydn (1756-1809)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Antoine Watteau
Return From Cythera
Balthasar Neumann
Vierzehnheiligen and Bishop’s Palace
Development of the Novel
Decisive time in the development of the
novel
Samuel Richardson
Virtue Rewarded
Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones
The High Culture of the
Eighteenth Century
Characteristics
Increased readership and publishing
Development of magazines and newspapers
for the general public
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele’s Spectator
Female Spectator
Education and Universities
Crime and Punishment
Punishment in the eighteenth century
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), On Crimes
and Punishments
Punishment should serve only as deterrent
Punishment moved away from spectacle
towards rehabilitation
Torture Devices
Public Executions
World of Medicine
University of Leiden
Royal College of Physicians
Barber-surgeons
Apothecaries, midwives, and faith healers
Hospital conditions
Popular Culture
Festivals, carnivals, and fairs
Gathering places
Taverns and Alcohol
The gap between high culture and popular
culture
Literacy and Primary Education
Spread of literacy
State-supported primary schools
Hannah More
Religion and the Churches
The Catholic and Protestant Churches were
conservative
Church-State relations
Community activities of the churches
Toleration and Religious Minorities
Toleration and the Jews
• Experiences of Ashkenazic Jews
• Experiences of Sephardic Jews
• Some Enlightenment thinkers favored acceptance of the Jews
Joseph II
• Limited reforms toward the Jews
©2003 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Religious Population in EighteenthCentury Europe
Popular Religion in the
Eighteenth Century
Catholic Piety
Protestant Revivalism
John Wesley (1703-1791)
Methodist societies
Brought the Gospel to the people
Discussion Questions
What do you see as a possible reason the
Enlightenment was centered in France?
Why and when did it emerge?
Do you see any connection between
Enlightenment and changes in religion in
Europe?
How did the Enlightenment affect the idea
of Crime and Punishment?
Web Links
Immanual Kant
Isaac Newton
John Locke
Adam Smith
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
John Wesley