The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment The Age of Reason 18th century

John Locke 1632-1704 • Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1690 • Second Treatise on Government 1690

Essay Concerning Human Understanding • Tabula Rasa • At birth every human beings mind is a blank page, and that all knowledge comes from experience • Locke repudiated the view that human beings were born with a tendency to submit to authority

Second Treatise on Government • Social-Contract theory • Government was created to protect mans natural rights of life liberty and property • When the government fails to protect these rights the people have a right to rebel • The thinkers of the enlightenment accepted Locke’s doctrine of the natural rights of human beings.

What’s going on? • Bach composes St. Matthew Passion 1729 • Handel’s Messiah has its first performance 1742 • Mozart’s Opera the Marriage of Figaro is first performed

Philosophes • Many of the leaders of the enlightenment were French • Philosophes were critics of the old regime who developed new ideas about government, economics, religion and advanced proposals for the improvement of the human condition and the reform of society. • Philosophes shared the enlightenments faith in the supremacy of human reason. • Reason could be used to reveal the natural laws that regulated human affairs. • Philosophes believed in the progress of human beings and society toward a more perfect condition.

Voltaire 1694-1778 • Critic of the Old Regime • Reformer not a revolutionary • Age of Louis XIV written in 1743 • Candide 1759 • Satirical tale, attacked superstition, religious persecution, and war.

Letters on the English 1733 • While in England Voltaire was attracted to the philosophy of John Locke and ideas of Sir Isaac Newton. He studied England's constitutional monarchy, its religious tolerance, its philosophical rationalism and most importantly the natural sciences. Voltaire also greatly admired English religious tolerance and freedom of speech, and saw these as necessary prerequisites for social and political progress. He saw England as a useful model for what he considered to be a backward France,

Voltaire • “I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it” • Ecrasez L’infame “crush the infamous thing” • The best one could hope for in government was a good monarch because “human beings are rarely capable of ruling themselves”

Deism • Voltaire believed in a distant God • A great clock maker who built an orderly universe and then stepped aside to let it run • Seen by the philosophes as a more natural and rational approach to religion • God was the first cause, he was not involved in the daily lives of humans and did not respond to prayer

Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778 • Emile 1762 • Social Contract 1762

Rousseau • Believed that people living in a state of nature had once been virtuous, free, equal and happy. • People had been corrupted by civilization. • What they needed therefore was a natural education, free of the corruption and artificiality of society

Emile 1762 • Rousseau set forth his ideas on education in Emile. • The story has two heroes; Rousseau the teacher and Emile the pupil. • Emile learned by direct experience rather than from books, he was not forced to read at a young age nor was he subjected to severe discipline.

Social Contract • “All men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains”. • Although government restricted individual freedom, it was a necessary evil • The General Will- reflects the common interests of all the people and is sovereign

Baron de Montesquieu1689-1755 • The Persian Letters 1721 • The Spirit of the Laws 1748

The Persian Letters • Social satire, criticized existing practices and beliefs in France. • Done through the view of travelers from Persia.

The Spirit of the Laws • As a member of the French nobility Montesquieu was dismayed that royal absolutism had triumphed in France • He argued that Despotism could be avoided if political power was divided and shared by a variety of classes and legal orders • He admired greatly the English model of balance of power with its King, Parliament and independent courts • He believed that the high courts in France, the Parlements, would aid against the development of absolutism

Denis Diderot 1713-1784 • Encyclopedia • Edited by Diderot and Jean d’Alembert • Wanted the Encyclopedia to change the genral way of thinking

Francois Quesnay 1694-1774 • Physiocrat • Laissez-Faire • Rejected Mercantilism • Land is value, not gold • Trade should not be limited

Adam Smith 1723-1790 • Scottish Economist • Wrote “Wealth of Nations” 1776 • Attacked Mercantilism • People should pursue own economic self-interest without government interference

Baron d’Holbach • System of Nature 1770 • Human beings are machines completely determined by outside forces • Free will, God and immortality of the Soul were foolish myths • Aggressive atheism turned off Deists such as Voltaire

David Hume • The human mind is really nothing but a bundle of impressions • Since our ideas reflect our sense experiences, our reason cannot tell us anything about questions that cannot be verified by sense experience • Existence of God, origin of the Universe

Marquis de Condorcet • Progress of the Human Mind 1793

The Enlightenment