APEURO Lecture 4B
Mrs. Kray

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 Political History  Age of Reform
 Britain – constitutional monarchy; France – royal absolutism;
Prussia, Austria, & Russia – enlightened despotism; Ottoman
Empire – traditional empire
 Intellectual History  Newtonian Physics; Age of Reason
 Rise of the Enlightenment -- An effort to apply the methods and principles of the Scientific Revolution to issues of political, economic, and social reform
 Cultural History  Individualism
 Social History  Increased literacy; “Age of Aristocracy”
 Economic History  Mercantilism to Capitalism

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Rationalism
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 reason is the arbiter of all things ; reason is the absence of intolerance, bigotry, and superstition
Humans should rely on reason, not miracles, to improve society
 Belief in Natural Laws
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Natural laws regulate the universe and human society
They can be discovered by human reason
Scientific method
Secularism
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 application of the methods of science to religion & philosophy
Deism = preferred religion
Utilitarianism  greatest number for the greatest good
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Tolerance  No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for
Cosmology
 new concept of man, his existence on earth, & the place of the earth in the universe

 Optimism & Self-
Confidence
 Man is intrinsically good
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Belief in social progress
Don’t need to accept misery in this world to gain salvation; happiness is an inalienable right
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Education of the Masses
Legal Reforms
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Justice, kindness, and charity  no torture or indiscriminant incarceration
Due process of law
Equality
 Freedom
 Of thought and expression
 Bring liberty to all men
(modern battle against absolutism)
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Constitutionalism
 Written constitutions listing citizens rights
Cosmopolitanism

 Most WERE NOT professional philosophers
 Most WERE writers, social critics, and publicists of the new ideas
 Key principles they emphasized:
 Reason  optimistic view of man’s ability to progress by using reason
 Secularism
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Equality
Progress

 Rationalism
 Empiricism
 Tolerance
 Skepticism
 Deism
 Nostalgia for the past
 Organized religion
 Irrationalism
 emotionalism

 Outspoken atheist
 “All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings”
 “We will speak against senseless laws until they are reformed; and while we wait, we will abide by them”
 Goal: bring together all the most current and enlightened thinking about science, technology, mathematics, art, and government

 Used experts
 Designed to convey practical knowledge
 28 volumes
 Alphabetical, cross-referenced, illustrated
 First published in 1751
 1500 livres a set
 Helped disseminate enlightened thinking across Europe & N. America
 Undermined established authority by including articles about controversial political and religious subjects

1711-1776
 Actual philosopher
 Stable knowledge comes from our immediate observations
 The Natural History of Religion
(1755)
 Belief in God rested on superstition and fear rather than on reason

1724-1804
 Actual philosopher
 Critique of Pure Reason, 1781
 “What is Enlightenment?,”
1784
 Metaphysical Foundations of
Natural Science, 1786

 “Dare to Know!”
 Introduced concept of transcendentalism  some things are known by methods other than empirically
 Belief in the existence of a non-rational way to understand things
 Constructivism
 The perceptual “lenses” of our intuitions construct the world out of our experiences
 Ethical act is objectively determined by testing whether it could be applied universally without contradiction

 Huguenot
 Wanted to limit abuses of royal absolutism
 Member of Bordeaux parlement
 Persian Letters , 1721
 Foreigners visit France and encounter what seem to be ridiculous beliefs and customs
 On the Spirit of Laws , 1758
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Separation of powers/checks and balances
Large nations tend toward depotism; medium-sized toward monarchy; smaller nations toward democracy
Admired Britain’s system

 Criticized mercantilism for violating natural laws of economics
 Economic activities should be freed from artificial restrictions
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Wanted to remove feudal restriction to promote agricultural development
Favored a laissez-faire policy
 Land = source of true wealth
 Many later became supporters of capitalism

1723-1790
 The Wealth of Nations , 1776
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Father of modern economics/capitalism
Built off ideas of physiocrats
 Labor = ultimate source of value
 Invisible hand
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Self-interest/competition
Supply and demand
 Comparative advantage
 Favored free trade
 Division of labor
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Yielded greater efficiency
Opposed guilds

Voltaire, 1694-1778
 Francois Marie Arouet
 Best known and most influential philosophe
 Symbol of the ideals of the Enlightenment
 Championed religious tolerance
 Disliked intolerance of organized
Christianity
 Important works
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Essay on the Customs and Spirit of Nations,
1756
Candid, 1759
Philosophical Letters on English, 1764
 Admired British form of government

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Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do
 Judge of a man by his questions rather than his answers
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh
Crush the infamous thing !
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong
Love truth and pardon error
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Men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue that makes the difference
Prejudice is opinion without judgment
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

Some historians believe that after about 1700, the Enlightenment entered a new phase. According to this interpretation, some
philosophes grew more insistent and radical in their criticisms of existing society and called for the adoption of an explicitly mechanistic and materialistic view of the world.

 Committed to defending individual freedom and changing the existing social order
 Distrusted reason and science
 He trusted emotions and spontaneous feeling more than cold logic
 Foreshadowed the romantic reaction to the Enlightenment

 Changed European child-rearing; made it more nurturing
 Presented his ideas on education in the novel Emile, 1762
 Argued that a “ natural education ” should replace the rigid schooling typical of his time
 Key principles of a natural education included:
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Children are naturally good (noble savage) and entitled to an education that emphasizes freedom and happiness
People develop through various stages , and individuals vary within these stages. Education must therefore be individualized since “every mind has its own form”
Children should be encouraged to draw their own conclusions from experience ( discovery learning )

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The Social Contract , 1762
 Rousseau argued that individuals entered into a social contract with one another thus creating a community or organized civil society
 Differed from Hobbes and Locke - -argued social contact was w/people & the ruler
 Sovereign power in a state does not lie in a ruler, it resides in the general will of the community as a whole
 The general will or “public spirit” is as any action that is right and good for all
 Rulers are servants of the community. If they fail to carry out the people’s will, they should be removed
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Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!
 These concepts influenced leaders of both the American and French revolutions
 20 th c. dictators would justify their rule by claiming to embody nation’s general will

 Contribued to Diderot’s
Encyclopedie
 The System of Nature , 1770
 God, souls, angels, and spirits could not exist since they did not possess a material nature
 Many found his ideas repugnant
 Voltaire

1743-1794
 Progress of the Human Mind , 1794
 Portrayed human civilization as the advance toward scientific thinking and science’s connection to greater freedom and happiness
 Advocated a free and equal education, constitutionalism, and equal rights for women

1738-1794
 18 th c. lacked modern police forces and prisons
 Punishments tended to be harsh and public
 On Crimes and Punishments , 1762
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Reason and the certainty of punishment
(not its severity) should act as guides to law and the penal system
No torture
 Rehabilitation of inmates through discipline
 Led to development of rational codification of laws

Madame Geoffrin,
1699-1777
Madmoiselle
Julie de Lespinasse,
1732-1776
Madame
Suzanne Necker,
1739-1794

 Meeting place for the middle class to discuss New Science or the latest novel

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Attracted many famous intellectuals, including Mozart, and many early U.S. Presidents
Emphasis on tight-knit camaraderie, select membership, and betterment through education and technology

 Emile du Chatalet , 1706-1749
 French noblewoman
 Wrote extensively about the mathematics and physics of
Gottfried Wilhelm von Lebnitz and Isaac Newton
 Her lover, Voltaire , learned much of his science from her

1759-1797
 A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman , 1792
 Penned first modern statements of the feminist movement
 No legitimate basis, other than physical strength, could be devised to discriminate between men and women

Viewed enlightened ideals primarily as a tool to exercise power.
When push came to shove, most rulers chose the path of power and compromised on ideals. Even so it laid the groundwork for the revolutionary movements of the late 18 th and early 19 th c.

 Philosophes urged Europe’s absolute rulers to use their power for the good of the people
 Most, with exception of Rousseau, did not support democracy
 Enlightened despots would combat ignorance and superstition by:
 eliminating irrational customs
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 promoting religious toleration reforming legal codes
 Supporting education

1740-1786
 “first servant of the state”
 Forms of Government , 1781
 Promoted efficiency and reason but not equality
 Increasing centralization
 Simplified and codified the laws
 Put interests of the state above principle

Frederick Adds to the
Hohenzollern Empire
 War of Austrian
Succession
 Seven Years’ War
 Partition of Poland

1780-1790
 Son of Maria Theresa
 Most dedicated to Enlightenment principles
 Freedom of the press, legal equality, equal taxation
 Abolished serfdom
 Edict of Toleration , 1781
 Edict of Idle Institutions
 Disbanded monasteries and diverted funds to est. secular hospitals
 Most of his reforms were reversed

1762-1796
 Most famous and admired woman of her era
 Instruction to Legislative Commission,
1767
 Expressed her belief in reason & equality
 Compromised adherence to
Enlightenment principles in favor of practical political realities
 Pugachev Revolt & serfdom
 Est. schools for girls
 Codified laws, abolished torture and capital punishment, religious toleration

 Emelian Pugachev declared himself true tsar, Peter III. Tens of thousands flocked to his banner. Upper classes of Moscow terrified.
 To defeat revolt, Catherine makes concessions to nobles
 No more compulsory gov’t service, no more talk of freeing serfs

 Catherine added more territory to Russia than any ruler in history
 Partition of Poland
 Russia appeared immense and powerful to the outside world but inside much suffering and unfinished reform hid behind this façade
 Potemkin Villages

John
Adams
Thomas
Jefferson
Ben Franklin
. . . “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

1737-1809
 Involved in the American and
French Revolutions
 Common Sense , 1776
 The Rights of Man , 1791
 Defended the radical movement for equality and liberty

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Reform, democracy, and republicanism had been placed irrevocably on the Western agenda o Democratic revolutions begun in America put every Western government on the defensive o New forms of civil society arose o clubs, salons, fraternals, private academies, lending libraries, and professional/scientific organizations o 19 th c conservatives like Edmund Burke blamed it for the modern
“egalitarian disease” o “Once reformers began to criticize established institutions, they didn’t know where and when to stop!” o Est. materialistic tradition o Individual endowed with full civil and legal rights had come into existence as a political and social force to be reckoned with