Enlightenment, Deism and
Religion
Voltaire: “Crush the infamous
thing”
Deism
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God established
universe
Seen as Clockmaker
who let his creation
run
Proposed non-ritual
religion based on
REASON
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Believed in life after
death
Rational morality
God’s existence
Religious toleration
Attacked Catholic
church and Jewish
beliefs as
superstition
Enlightened Political thought
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Hobbes: Leviathan
based on Scientific
observation
Universe is mechanical
as is politics
Natural Law
Idea of Reason of State
vs. Divine Right
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Locke: Man rational
& born equal
Natural state:
harmony with one
another
People make
contract with
government to
protect their rights
Adam Smith
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Wealth of Nations
1776
Positive trade
balance should be
promoted by
government
intervention and
tariffs
Economic Theory
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Allow individuals to
promote their
interest freely within
the law
This will promote
interests of society
People will calculate
their chances in
market
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People motivated by
pleasure
Proposed existence
of laws supply and
demand
“invisible hand” will
ensure that all will
work out for the
best
Laissez Faire/Nature and
Economics
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Laissez Faire
government should
not interfere with
economy;
Government’s role:
army, navy police,
judiciary, schools,
roads, new trade
routes
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Exploit nature for
good of man—
common in all
systems
Middle class used his
theories to believe
that greed benefited
society, to escape
guilt that Christianity
had attributed to it
Smith as Equalizer
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His ideas leveled society:
Hunter-Gatherers
Pastoral peoples
Agricultural societies
Commercial societies
Europeans felt superior to all others and
justified imperial domination
Montesquieu
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Charles-Louis de
Secondat, Baron de
Montesquieu 16891755
Aristocrat
President of
Parlement of
Bordeux—inherited
from his father
Spirit of Laws
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14 years of study
Published in 1748
Three types of
government:
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Republics-virtue
Monarchies-honour
Despotism-fear
On Governments:
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No one system was suitable everywhere
Governments should reflect traditions,
economy and religion of a country
(despotism suited to hot climates to force
lazy people to work!)
Separation of powers: executive, judicial,
legislative—based on English government:
King, House of Lords, House of Commons
For France
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Use ideas of separation of powers in
France:
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Power to parlements, towns, aristocracy
Counter for monarchy
Influenced framers of US Constitution of
1787 (not so much on Declaration of
Independence)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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Born in Geneva
1712-1778
Lower class
background
Mother died after his
birth
Many psychological
problems
Personal Life
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Wrote Confessions which showed his
problems
Paranoid
Treated his five children badly
Put them in an orphanage
Met philosophes of Paris in 1741, when
he moved there
On the Social Contract (1762)
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“All men are born
free, but everywhere
they are in chains.”
Concerned with
virtue of people
Political Vision
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Social contract:
basic law of society
Liberty is obedience
to laws that people
have accepted
Equality is all equally
dependent upon
society and not on
individuals
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Contract should be
written by legislator
who departs—forces
men to be free
Denies that liberty
and equality are
natural
Wants civil liberty
and equality granted
by the state
Political vision, continued
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Rights are those in the
community
People give their natural
liberty and equality to
community when they
join it
Social contract not
between government
and people, but
between people
themselves
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Best society is
participatory
democracy: Athens,
Geneva
Society depends upon
public spiritedness
People are source of
legitimate sovereignty:
General Will
General Will
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Principle behind validity of Social
Contract
Political society involves total subjection
of every individual to the General Will of
the whole.
For Rousseau: General Will not wishes
of majority; but what is in their best
interest.
Effects of Rousseau’s thought
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Not popular at first
Influential on Jacobins and Robespierre
Arguments for democracy and equality
had liberal effect in US and Britain
General Will provides framework for
totalitarian governments—do people
know what is good for them?
Rousseau and Romanticism
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Forerunner to romantic period
Emile encouraged parents to love their
children (he was bad example)
Cult of women readers developed
Spread respect for feelings and common
people
People inspired by him to look after their
children
Began modern humanitarianism
Rousseau’s other ideas
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Also promoted idea of Noble Savage in
his work Discours sur l’Origine de
l’inegalite parmi les hommes of 1755.
Rousseau is contradictory: democracy
and totalitarianism
Noble savage and need for education
America and the
Enlightenment
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American thinkers: Ben Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson
America as an Enlightened Project
Constitution uses many of the ideas
presented here
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Locke: Life, Liberty, Property
Montesquieu: separation of powers
Enlightened Despotism
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Rulers that embraced enlightened
reforms but strengthened their central
absolutist administration at the cost of
lesser centers of political power
Marie Theresa and Joseph II of Austria
Frederick the Great of Prussia
Catherine the Great of Russia
Maria Theresa 1740-1780
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Strengthened crown
outside of Hungary
Efficient system of tax
collection even from
clergy and nobles
Put education under
service of crown
Expanded primary
education
Limited serf labor
Joseph II 1780-1790
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Reduced Hungarian
autonomy
Reorganized local
governments
German became
official language
Religious toleration
Internal tariffs
abolished
Joseph’s contributions
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Built roads and
improved river
transport
Uniform law codes
Abolished serfdom
Personal freedoms
granted to peasants
Goal: better workers
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Robot (state work)
was abolished
Land taxes imposed
upon all members of
society
Frederick II 1740-1789
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First servant of the
State
Allowed freedom
from religious
persecution
State benefited
economically from
foreign workers
Frederick II’s contributions
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New law codes
Rationalization of
existing laws
Drained swamps
Introduced new
crops
Peasants forced to
migrate and paid
taxes
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Ran state as a military
regime
Seized Silesia for
Reasons of the state:
made it a
manufacturing region
and imported workers
Prussia emerges as
strongest German state
Catherine II 1762-1796
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Russia backward
and in need of
reform
Assembles 500
delegates to advise
her on revisions to
law and government
Info gathered: need
autocracy
Reforms
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Limited reforms to
local power of
nobility
1777—local
governments
reorganized
Charter of Nobility,
1785 rights and
privileges granted to
nobles
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Suppressed internal
trade barriers
Exports grew
Small urban middle
class grows
Russian territory
expanded
Crimea annexed—
warm water port
1st Partition of Poland 1772
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Russia gained
territory along
Danube
Austria upset:
Frederick II
proposes secret plan
to split Poland
between the three
countries
2nd Partition of Poland 1793
3rd Partition of Poland 1795