The Age of
Reason &
Enlightenment
• While the Enlightenment ended before the French
Revolution, enlightened thought contributed to the
revolutionary movement
• The principles of the Scientific Revolution were applied
to human society and institutions
• Progress could be achieved if natural laws could be
applied and understood
• Fontenelle Conversations on the On the Plurality of
Worlds attempted to make the findings of the Scientific
Revolution available for everyone
• Centered in Paris - the modern Athens; spread to
western Europe and then North America
• Initially it was believed that natural science and reason
could explain all aspects of life
• It saw man as an intellectually curious creature
• It moved away from religion and accepting ideas on
faith
• In the end it focused more on emotion and the ideas of
liberty and freedom
• The philosophes (thinkers) questioned the physical
universe, the role of government, freedoms and liberties,
the role of man in society, and nature
• For example they were against slavery because it
violated human freedom
• Believed in natural laws - very secular
• Criticized:
a) Absolutism
b) The established Church, especially the role of the
church in politics
• Very important to American Revolution – Franklin,
Madison and Jefferson spent time in Paris during the
Enlightenment
John Locke
• English philosopher who advocated Constitutionalism
and supported the Glorious Revolution
• Letter on Toleration (1689) suggested religious toleration
and included the Jews
• Two Treaties of Government (1690) advocating that
people come together in a social contract
• Government is created by mutual consent to protect life,
liberty, and property – opposite of Hobbes
• If a government fails in its obligations, the people have
the right to rebel
John Locke
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) stressed
the importance of environment on human development
• Advocating the tabula rasa theory – every human is
born a blank slate and learns through experience –
unlike Descartes
• For progress to occur in society, education is critical in
determining human development
• This conflicted with the Christian view that humans
were essentially sinful
Philosophes
• The Enlightenment was a revolution of ideas
• The philosophes advocated reform by using the written
word, but not professional philosophers like Descartes
• They shared the same ideals, but they were also great
differences between the philosophes
• They often disagreed with each other, but defended each
other against outsiders
• They disagreed over the best form of government and
over religion
• Five philosophes dominated the era: Locke,
Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot
Voltaire
• Frenchman, born François Marie Arouet, was perhaps
the most famous philosophe
• Like Montesquieu, Voltaire was an anglophile
• As a young writer he was imprisoned in the Bastille for
being critical of the king’s relatives
• He believed only a representative government could
guarantee the rights of the people, but not hopeful
• So he advocated enlightened despotism - best
government was a good monarch
• Greatest criticism was for the Church - Candide
• Deism - God was a clockmaker who built the universe
and then let it work. Rejected fundamental doctrines of
Christianity
• Miracles and prayer did not fit with natural law
• Voltaire called for religious toleration, but most
philosophes hated complete religious toleration
• He said, “Ecracsez l’infame” (crush the infamous thing)
• Believed in equality before the law, but not of the
classes
• Madame du Châtelet - who believed women were
unequal because of their lack of education
• Died a millionaire because of shrewd business
investments
• He was a reformer not a revolutionary
Baron de Montesquieu
• French attorney who hated Absolutism
• He advocated different political theories for different
times
• Established separation of powers
• Wrote The Persian Letters (1721) which criticized
European customs and showed that laws of nature were
universal
• He also attacked the idea of slavery
• Wrote The Spirit of the Laws (1748) showed that
governments were shaped by history.
• He applied the scientific method to social and political
issues
• A strong upper class was necessary to prevent abuses:
despotism could be avoided if power was shared: but he
was not a democrat
• Admired the English system, and especially the English
Parliament and representative government with
independent courts – checks and balances
• He argued that only constitutionalism could save a
country from becoming a despotic monarchy
• He believed the nobility would prevent the monarch
from becoming too powerful and would protect the
people
• Sovereignty comes from the people – not from God
• Greatly influenced Franklin and the founding fathers in
the United States
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Swiss, brilliant but a neurotic romantic loner
• He was exiled from France for criticizing the monarchy
and the Church
• Focused on the emotions, instincts, and spontaneity
People are good
• Attacked by other philosophes, including Voltaire, for
putting reason above emotion
• He believed too much emphasis on property and not
people was the root cause of social injustice
• The general will, a consensus of the majority should
control a nation (later used to justify extreme
nationalism and tyranny - Robespierre)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Social Contract (1762) based on two concepts: the
general will and popular sovereignty
• “All men are born free . . .” Sovereignty resides in the
people who surrender their natural rights for security
• Thought that man was a “noble savage” and was
corrupted by materialism of civilization
• Natural education as seen in Emile – self-expression and
experience
• Ironically, had 5 illegitimate children and put them in an
orphanage without education
• Did not believe in equality for women
The Encyclopedia
• Took 25 years to complete and was edited by
d’Alembert and Diderot to teach people to think
critically
• Collection of enlightened knowledge that was based on
rationale thought
• Initially banned by the governments because it
contained ideas that could be viewed as anti-monarchy
• also put of the Index of Prohibited Books by the pope
• Not every article was original but the overall effect was
revolutionary
The Encyclopédie
► Complete cycle of knowledge…………...…
change the general way of thinking.
► 28 volumes.
► Alphabetical, cross-referenced,
illustrated.
► First published in 1751.
► 1500 livres a set.
The Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris
Law and Order
• The Marquis of Beccaria was the greatest advocate of
the reform of crime and punishment
• On Crime and Punishment (1764) – the state should
protect the people and respect the rights of the people,
included those accused of crimes
• Punishment should not be linked to religion but should
be evaluated based on rationale proof
• Critics of the old legal system and denounced torture
and capital punishment. Influenced Frederick the Great
who abolished torture
• Rehabilitation of criminal. “It is better to prevent
crimes than to punish them”
Characteristics of Mercantilism
Critical of mercantilism they developed classical
economic liberalism and laissez-faire capitalism
Colonies would provide captive markets for
manufactured goods & sources of raw
materials.
Manufactured goods
Mother
Country
Colony
Raw
materials
Economic Thought
• The physiocrats believed that land not gold and silver
was the source of wealth
• Believed in the “invisible hand” of free competition and
no government controls
• Government has three duties:
a) defense against invasion
b) maintain civil order
c) sponsor public works
• Did not call for harsher laws, but more police to protect
economic interests, especially property
The
Physiocrats
François Quesnay
• In France the Physiocrats advocated laissez-faire
economics.
• Quesnay, advisor to Louis XV denounced mercantilism
and wanted to remove price controls
• Initially prices would rise but that would encourage
production which would lower the prices
• Should be one tax on wealth derived from the land
• Bad weather and poor harvests caused people to hoard
grain which in turn led to riots and forced the
government to intervene
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
• On his travels to France, he was influenced by the writings of
the physiocrats.
• 1776  The Theory of Moral Sentiments and an Inquiry Into
the Nature of Causes of the Wealth of Nations was published.
• Wealth of Nations was a vehement attack of the mercantilist
system and considered the “Bible” of capitalism
• He wanted trade barriers removed, an end to
monopolies and protectionism, and for there to be free
market competition
• The invisible hand would force supply and demand to
meet
• Production comes from the workers
• Government regulation only interferes with a natural
self-governing style
Later Philosophes
• Baron Paul d’Holbach – System of Nature – argued that
humans are essentially like machines and determined by
outside forces, which undermined the Enlightenment
• David Hume – Claimed that desire, and not reason governed
humans
• Marquis de Condorcet – Progress of the Human Mind – also
undermined the Enlightenment. There have been 9 stages of
human development and the 10th would bring perfection
• Immanuel Kant – separated science and morality into
separate branches of knowledge. Science could not guide
morality
Popularizing
the
Enlightenment
• Women played a major role in the salon movement
which made scientific discussion a social event
• Coffee house because popular meeting places
• But, overall the number of women actually involved in
the Enlightenment was limited
• Not all men advocated equality for women and only the
Marquis de Condorcet supported female suffrage
• Madame de Geoffrin (French) patronized Diderot
• Mary Wollstonecraft (English) promoted political and
educational equality – Vindication of the Rights of
Women (1792)
• Olympe de Gouge (French) during the Revolution she
demanded women be given the same rights as men –
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female