Download The Age of Enlightenment Eighteenth-Century Thought

The Age of Enlightenment
Eighteenth-Century Thought
The eighteenthcentury sentiment
that economic
and political
reforms were
possible was
fostered by
people and ideas
of the
Enlightenment.
Enlightenment
• The intellectuals, writers,
and critics who championed
this reform in the emerging
print culture were known as
philosophies. The
philosophies were interested
in greater freedoms and
liberties, and they sought
rational improvement on
many levels of society.
Formative Influences on the
Enlightenment
• Isaac Newton’s determined the role of
gravitation in relationship between objects
enabled other Europeans to realize that much
remained to be discovered. His use of empirical
support for general laws became an important
feature of Enlightenment thought.
Formative Influences Continued..
• John Locke’s view of
pyschology--- that all
humans begin life as a
tabula rasa, or a blank
page--- gave
enlightenment thinkers
grounds for arguing that
the human condition could
be improved by modifying
the surroundings social
and political environment.
Continued…
• Britain’s domestic
stability, religious toleration,
freedom of the press, small
army, unregulated domestic
life, and the political
sovereignty of Parliament all
suggested to Enlightenment
thinkers that absolutist
monarchy might not be the
best path.
Continued…
• Louis XIV’s heavy taxation,
absolute monarchy, religious
persecution, and large standing
army were perceived by
philosophies as obstacles to
reform. Voltaire suggested
reforms in his book, Letters on
the English, that he believed
could improve French life,
modeling his theories on the
English system. In Candide he
attacked war and religious
persecution.
Continued…
• The emergence of a
print culture during the
Enlightenment helped
spread the ideas of
philosophies like
Voltaire. The public
became more literate
during this era, a
process that enabled
these printed materials
to be more influential in
shifting public opinion.
The Encyclopedia
• Assembled by Denis Diderot
and Jean le Rond
d’Alembert, the Encyclopedia
was a major undertaking by
Enlightenment thinkers. The
book was the product of
writing by more than 100
authors, and it survived many
attempts at censorship. It
included the most advance
ideas of the day, secularized
learning and was, in part, a
plea for freedom of
expression.
The Enlightenment and Religion
• Many philosophies were
critical of Christianity. Voltaire’s
famous slogan “Crush the
Infamous Thing,” summed
up their general attitude.
Philosophies felt that
Christianity focused attention
on the world to come to the
detriment of the present
condition. Philosophies also
objected to the power
structure of the old regime,
which gave special rights to
the clergy.
Continued...
• Deism, or the belief that
religion and reason
could be combined, was
popular among some of
the philosophies, who
believed that God must
be rational and religion
should be so as well.
Deists believed that God
existed and could be
empirically justified in
the study of nature.
The Enlightenment and Society
• The philosophies, were
concerned with the application
of laws of reason to the social
condition. The Italian
philosophe, Cesare Beccaria
(1738-1794) attacked torture
and capital punishment in his
work On Crimes and
Punishments, and he used
critical analysis to address the
problem of making
punishments just and effective.
Continued…
• Many philosophies believed that economic
policy could be reformed in a way that
was consistent with the operation of
natural laws. These reformers, known as
physiocrats, believed that mercantilist
policies hampered the expansion of trade.
Their leaders included Francois Quesnay
and Pierre Dupont de Nemours.
• The English economist Adam Smith
believed that economic liberty was the
foundation for a natural economic
system, and he urged that the
mercantilist system of England be
abolished. Smith believed that
individuals should be able to pursue
their own economic interests, and he is
widely credited with the founder of
laissez-faire economic thought and
policy, Smith’s four stage theory of
human social and economic
development enabled Europeans to see
themselves dwelling at the highest level
of achievement, which served as a
major justification for their economic and
imperial domination of the world.
Political Thought of the
Philosophies
• In his 1748 book, Spirit of the
Laws, Baron de
Montesquieu held up the
British constitution as an
example of the wisest model
for regulating the power of
government. A political
conservative, Montesquieu
championed the aristocracy
in improving French political
regime.
Continued…
• In The Social Contract (1762),
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
envisioned a society in which
each individual could maintain
personal freedom while
participating as a loyal
member in a larger
community. He saw human
beings as enmeshed in social
relationships, and he believed
that loyalty to the community
should be encouraged.
Women in the Thought and
Practice of the Enlightenment
• Women helped promote the careers of
philosophies by giving them access to
their social and political contacts and
providing a forum for them to circulate
their ideas. Louis XV’s mistress, the
marquise de Pompadour, helped the
Encyclopedia overcome censorship
efforts. Madame de Tencin promoted
Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws by
purchasing it and circulating it among
friends. The philosophies were by no
means ardent feminists; Mary
Wollstonecraft addressed their
shortcomings and critiqued Rousseau
in A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman, in 1792.
Enlightened Absolutism
• The phrase, “enlightened absolutism,” refers to the
phenomenon (observed during the last third of the
eighteenth century) of several European rulers’ embrace of
the reforms set out by the philosophies. Monarchs most
closely associated with this phenomenon included
Frederick II of Prussia, Joseph II of Austria, and
Catherine II of Russia. These monarchs pushed for
innovations that would increase their revenue.
For Additional Review
• Consider the contributions to
Enlightenment thought of Baruch Spinoza
and Moses Mendelsohn.