AN OVERVIEW AND ORIGINS OF
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
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Political History – Reform
Intellectual History – Newtonian Physics and Reason
Cultural History – Individualism
Social History – Increased Literacy
Economic History – Mercantilism to Capitalism
POLITICS
Britain – Constitutional Monarchy
France – Absolutism
Prussia, Habsburg Empire, Austria – Enlightened Despotism
Ottoman Empire – Traditional empire
THE ORIGINS OF THE
ENLIGHTENMENT
SCIENCE
Newton’s system was synonymous with the empirical
and the practical
Scientific laws could be expressed as mathematical
formulas
Science allowed alternatives to be imagined in all subject
areas
THE ORIGINS OF THE
ENLIGHTENMENT
RELIGION
Attempting to explain God’s work through his work in nature
and not through biblical reference
Support for a rational religion free from mysteries, miracles,
and superstitions
Deism – the belief in God (or supreme being) but not in any
organized religion. One’s belief was based on nature and
reason. God was uninvolved in the daily life of man.
Pantheism – the belief that God and nature are the same.
Believed that God’s work was revealed through nature and
not through scripture.
ENLIGHTENMENT
CHARACTERISTICS
 Rationalism
 Optimism and Self-
 Cosmology
Confidence
 Freedom
 Education of the Masses
 Legal Reform
 Constitutionalism
 Cosmopolitanism
 Secularism
 Scientific Method
 Utilitarianism
 Tolerance
THE PHILOSOPHE
 The philosophe was an enlightened individual who
publicized reforms meant to correct the evils of
society.
 They took advantage of the print culture and the more
educated populace to promote their theories.
 The philosophes generated the great debate about the
foundations of society: Logic and Reason or Traditions
and Superstitions.
THE GREAT SOCIETY DEBATE
Logic and Reason vs.
Traditions and
Superstitions
Rationalism
Empiricism
Tolerance
Skepticism
Deism
Nostalgia
Organized Religion
Irrationalism
Emotionalism
HOW SHOULD SOCIETY BE ORGANIZED?
THE GOALS OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
“…freedom from arbitrary power,
freedom of speech, freedom of trade,
freedom to realize one’s talents, freedom
of aesthetic response, freedom, in a
word, of moral man to make his way in
the world.”
Peter Gay - historian
Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784)
 Diderot published the
Encyclopedia. It was an exercise
in freedom of expression and
included critical ideas on religion,
government, and philosophy.
 It also contained practical
information about all human
knowledge therefore secularizing
learning and removing elitist
attitudes
MARQUIS DE CONDORCET
(1743-1794)
Progress of the Human
Mind 1794
*Universal happiness
*Reason leads to
indepenedence
*Free and equal
education
*Equal rights for women
*Constitutionalism
JOHN LOCKE (1632 – 1704)
Letter on Toleration, 1689
Two Treatises of Government,
1690
Some Thoughts Concerning
Education, 1693
The Reasonableness of
Christianity, 1695
JOHN LOCKE’S PHILOSOPHIES
*Individuals must become rational creatures
*Virtue can be learned and practiced
*Humans possess free will
*Governments owe their power to a contract with the
people
*Neither kings or wealth are divinely ordained
*Some natural rights are granted by God: Life, Liberty,
and Property
*A republic is the best form of government
*The “Divine Right” of kings should not exist
IMMANUEL KANT
(1724 – 1804)
Critique of Pure Reason, 1781
What is Enlightenment?,
1784
Metaphysical Foundations of
Natural Science, 1786
KANT’S PHILOSOPHIES
*Dare to Know!
*He introduced Transcendentalism – to learn by ways
other than empiricism.
It is the belief in the existence of non-rational
ways to understand things.
*The existence of time and space is determined by
something other than empiricism.
They transcend sensory experience
They are pure and not empirical (similar to
concepts of faith, pre-existence, and life after death)
THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809)
Common Sense, 1776
The Rights of Man, 1791
The American Philosophes
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
John Adams (1745-1826)
Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
…Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…
FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET
(1712 – 1778)
Essay on the Customs and
Spirit of Nations, 1756
Candide, 1759
Philosophical Dictionary,
1764
VOLTAIRE’S PHILOSOPHIES
“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do”
“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to
laugh”
“If God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him”
“It is dangerous to be right when the government is
wrong”
“Crush the Infamous Thing” (in reference to the Church)
“Love truth and pardon error”
VOLTAIRE’S PHILOSOPHIES
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his
answers”
“Men are equal: it is not birth, but virtue that makes the
difference”
“Prejudice is opinion without judgement”
“The way to become boring is to say everything”
“I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will
defend to the death your right to say it”
Jewish Thinkers of the
Enlightenment
 Baruch Spinoza, in his work Ethics, stated
the spiritual and material worlds were
almost one and the same. His critics
argued that there could be no personal,
individual immortality of the human soul
after death.
 His ideas were close to deism
 Even though he lived in the century before
enlightenment he seemed to anticipate its
coming
Jewish Thinkers of the
Enlightenment
 Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) argued
that a Jew could combine loyalty to
Judaism with adherence to rational,
Enlightenment values.
 In Jerusalem; or On Ecclesiastical Power
and Judaism (1783) he argued that
religious diversity within a nation did
not harm loyalty to the government,
therefore, governments should be
religiously neutral and Jews should
enjoy the same civil rights as other
subjects.
Cesare Beccaria (1738 – 1794)
 In his book On Crimes and
Punishments he wanted laws to
conform with the rational laws of
nature.
 He attacked torture and capital
punishment and stated that the
intent of punishment should be to
deter further crime.
 The purpose of laws was not to
impose the will of God, but to secure
the greatest good or happiness for the
greatest number
DAVID HUME (1711-1776)
 The Natural
History of
Religion, 1755
 The belief in God
was dependent
on superstition
and fear rather
than reason.
EDWARD GIBBON (1737-1794)
 The Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire
(6 volumes) 1787
 He pointed out the
problems with
contemporary
England and urged
reform
ECONOMICS AND
ENLIGHTENMENT
 Physiocrats argued
against mercantilism
 Francois Quesnay
(1694-1774) argued
that the role of
government should be
to protect property
and permit its owners
to use it freely. He
believed that a
nation’s wealth was
measured in its land.
ECONOMICS AND
ENLIGHTENMENT
 Adam Smith argued against
mercantilism and the physiocrats.
In Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations
(1776) Smith argued that economic
growth is achieved when people are
free to pursue their own selfish
economic interests.
 He said governments should
practice Laissez-faire politics
The invisible hand
motivates all
economic
decisions
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU
(1689-1755)
Persian Letters, 1721
On the Spirit of Laws, 1758
MONTESQUIEU’S
PHILOSOPHIES
There are three types of governments:
Monarchy
Republic
Despotism
A separation of powers in government ensures political
freedom and personal liberty
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
(1712-1778)
A Discourse on the
Sciences and Arts,
1750
Emile, 1762
The Social Contract,
1762
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHIES
As civilization progresses the arts and sciences move
away from morality
Science and art raise artificial barriers man and his
natural state
Therefore the revival of science and the arts has
corrupted social morals, not improved them.
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHIES
Virtue exists in a “state of nature” but is lost in society.
Government must preserve “virtue” and “liberty”
“Man is born free but is everywhere in chains”
The “Noble Savage” concept
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Invest all rights and liberties into a society
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHIES
In the Social Contract
The right kind of political order could make people truly
moral and free.
Individual moral freedom could be achieved only by
learning to subject one’s individual interest to “The
General Will”
Individuals did this by entering into a social contract,
not with their ruler but with each other.
The social contract was derived from human nature, not
from history, tradition, or the Bible.
ROUSSEAU’S PHILOSOPHIES
People would be most free and moral under a republican
form of government with a direct democracy.
However, Rousseau offered no legal protections for
individual rights.
His theories greatly influenced the revolutionaries of
1789.
THE SPREAD OF
ENLIGHTENMENT THOUGHT
Suggestions for social reform came from salons - weekly
social gatherings at the private house of an aristocratic
lady, at which social, artistic, and scientific questions
were discussed.
Suggestions were also popularized in literature
Efforts were made at self-improvement, therefore rates
of literature increased (80% men 60% women),
manners improved, and people sought to appear to be
improving through fancier dress and home
furnishings.
Typical rococo style for 18th century France
Typical rococo style for 18th century France
FASHION
WAS ALSO
TAKEN TO
EXTREMES
Typical 18th century French Furnishings
Rococo Architecture
Rococo Architecture
A SALON OF MADAME
GEOFFRIN
ROCOCO ART
 Artist Francois Boucher
painted many versions of
Madame Pompadour.
Rococo art celebrates the
leisurely lifestyle of the
wealthy
ROCOCO ART
 Antoine
Watteau
painted
The
Pleasures
of the
Ball
4th Duke of Marlborough and Family by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Rococo Art
Rococo decorations were all
about being elaborate and
pretty, not utilitarian or very
functional