It is our memories that give us
context and change our
purposes…..
~Mohinder Suresh
Key Topics
• The intellectual and social background of the
Enlightenment
• The philosophes of the Enlightenment & their
agenda of intellectual and political reform
• Efforts of “enlightened” monarchs in Central &
Eastern Europe to increase the economic &
military strength of their domains
• The partition of Poland by Prussia, Russia, &
Austria
Economic change & political
reform….
• Possible AND desirable
• New idea? Not for us– but 1700???
–RADICAL
Movement of people & ideas
ENLIGHTENMENT
Think of possibilities…not just actualities.
Philosophes: A bunch of guys sitting around
in some woman’s living room, chatting &
discussing current events—asking
themselves:
“What’s wrong with our society?”
“How can we fix it?”
Can I have another cigar and brandy?
Apply rules of reason to nearly all
the major institutions & social
practices….
• Voltaire
• Diderot
• Rousseau
• Gibbon
• Lessing
• Montesquieu
• D’Alembert
• Hume
• Smith
• Kant
Not an organized group
Disagreed on many issues
Family-like dynamics—do all family members
agree?
CHIEF BOND:
Common desire to reform thought, society, &
government for the sake of HUMAN
LIBERTY
In touch with everyday life/common people
Influences….
1. Isaac Newton—Newtonian
Worldview
2. John Locke
3. Great Britain—post-1688
4. France & Louis XIV
5. Print Culture—reading is a GOOD
thing!!
Isaac Newton
Law of universal gravitation
Principia Mathematica
Study nature directly
Avoid metaphysical/supernaturalism
If nature was rational, society could
also be organized rationally…
John Locke
An Essay in Human Understanding
Tabula rasa
Experience only shapes character
Human nature is changeable
Human nature can be molded by changing
environment
change environment!
Great Britain—post-1688
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Enlightened reforms benefit all
Religious toleration (Voltaire)
Relative free speech/press
Limited monarchy
Parliament—political sovereignty
Courts protected citizens
Small army
Domestic economy—less regulated
Great Britain—post-1688
Liberal policies:
Prosperity/stability/loyalty
Britain=significantly freer than
ANY European nation
France & Louis XIV
• Absolute monarchy
• Large standing army
• Heavy taxation
• Religious persecution
(Protestants/Jansenists)
• Restrictions on free speech/press
(censorship)
Print Culture…
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Journals
Books
Newspapers
Pamphlets
Printed word  chief vehicle for
communication
– Ideas/opinion/thought
–NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE
POWER OF THE PEN OR THOSE
WHO BUY INK BY THE BARREL
…Print culture…
Who are the readers?
Monarchs
Nobles
Upper middle classes – bourgeoisie
Professional groups
public opinion (Rousseau)
• “Opinion, queen of the
world, is in no [way]
subject to the power of
kings; they themselves
are her first slaves.”
~Rousseau
The Social Contract
• “Therefore it is all in vain;
neither reason, nor virtue, nor
laws will prevail over the public
opinion, so long as there is no
contrivance to change it. Once
more I say it, force will not do
so.”
~Rousseau
The Social Contract
…Print Culture…
• Governmental reaction:
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Censorship
Book trade regulated
Confiscation
Book burning
Imprisonment
• FEAR of print culture’s political POWER
• The Encyclopedia —Diderot et.al.
The Enlightenment & Religion
The Enlightenment & Religion
• “Crush the Infamous Thing”— Voltaire
• What is this THING?
“Churches hindered the pursuit
of a rational life and the
scientific study of humanity
and nature”
Deism
• God is a watchmaker
• God who created nature must be
rational
• God-worship must be rational
• God exists – through empirical
study of nature – life after death
• Tolerant
• Empirical
• Reasonable
• Capable of encouraging
virtuous living
• Where have we heard this
before?
Deism
• Toleration must be #1
• “…life on Earth and human relationships
should not be subordinated to religion.”
• KOT
• However—at the same time
• John Wesley & Methodism
– Not break away from Anglican Church
– Urge spiritual enthusiasm
– Important revival of Christianity
• More on this later (Romanticism)
Methodism proved that the
need for spiritual experience
had not been expunged by the
18th-Century search for
REASON….
• ~Spielvogel
“If there were just one religion in
England, despotism would
threaten, if there were two
religions, they would cut each
other’s throats, but there are thirty
religions, and they live together
peacefully and happily.”
~Voltaire
Philosophic Letters on the English, 1733
The Enlightenment & Society
The Enlightenment & Society
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Criminal Law—Beccaria
On Crimes and Punishments
What is the purpose of laws?
Positive law (monarchs & legislatures)
must conform with rational laws of nature
• Attacked torture & capital punishment
• Speedy trial & certain punishment
• Punishment as deterrent
Beccaria
• Purpose of laws?
• “…not to impose the will of God…[but to]
secure the greatest good or happiness for
the greatest of human beings.” (KOT italics added )
• Utilitarianism (we’ll talk about this later)
Physiocrats
• Philosophe economists
• Primary purpose of government is
to protect property and to permit its
owners to use it freely
• All economic production depended
on what? (agriculture)
Adam Smith…
Wealth of Nations --1776
1. FREE TRADE– fundamental
economic principal
•
Condemned mercantilist use of
protective tariffs to protect home
industries
•
“a tailor does not make his own
shoes; a cobbler does not make his
own coat…”
If a country can supply
another country with a product
cheaper than the latter can
make it, it is better to purchase it
than to produce it.
~Spielvogel
…Adam Smith…
2. Labor theory of value
What is something truly worth?
LABOR is the TRUE wealth of
a nation
Not specie
Not dirt (agriculture)
…Adam Smith…
3. LAISSEZ-FAIRE
Government has 3 purposes ONLY
a. Protect society from invasion
b. Defend individuals from injustice &
oppression (police)
c. Public works (roads/canals/bridges)
…Adam Smith…
• Government should not interfere in
economic matters
• Government-- “passive policemen” stays
out of lives of individuals
• Later basis for 19th century economic
liberalism
…Adam Smith
• 4-stage theory
• Study economics to determine
one’s place in society
• COMMERCIALISM is highest
–Rationale for economic/imperial
domination of “lower” stages
Philosophes & Political Thought
Baron de Montesquieu
• The Persian Letters – satire
–2 guys visiting Europe
–Criticism & exposition of the cruelty
& irrationality of much
contemporaneous European life.
Montesquieu
• Spirit of the Laws – British model
is wisest of all
–Importance of checks & balances
created by means of separation of
powers
• Sound familiar?
Montesquieu
• Political Science
• (empirical method)
• No single set of law/methods
for all 3 basic types of
government
Montesquieu
• REPUBLICS
–Small states
–Based on citizen involvement
Montesquieu
• Monarchy
–Middle-sized states
–Grounded in the ruling class’
adherence to law
Montesquieu
• Despotism
–Large empires
–Dependent on FEAR to inspire
obedience
Montesquieu
• Misread / misinterpreted
• Defend French aristocracy’s
political privileges
• American philosophes
• Franklin // Jefferson // Adams // etc
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• “much of world’s evil is caused by
uneven distribution of wealth”
• Discourse of the Origin of Inequality, 1755
“In monarchies, never can private
wealth raise a man above the
prince; but in a republic it may
easily set him above the law.
Then the government has no
longer any weight, and the rich
man is the real sovereign.
~Rousseau
The Social Contract
Rousseau
• “process of civilization and
enlightenment had corrupted
human nature”
• Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, 1750
“I do not like verbal explanations. Young
people pay little heed to them, nor do they
remember them. Things! Things! I cannot
repeat it too often. We lay too much stress
upon words; we teachers babble and our
scholars follow our example. Our real
teachers are experience and emotion, and
man will never learn what befits a man
except under its own conditions.
~Rousseau
Emile
Rousseau
• “family squabble”
• Life would improve if people could enjoy
more of the fruits of the Earth or could
produce more goods.
• Raised the more fundamental question of
what constitutes the “good life”
“The threads of our experiences
weave the tapestry of our
lives….”
Jean-Luc Picard