Chapter 17: The Age of Enlightenment: 18th Century Thought Page 550
I. Background
A. Catalysts for thought:
1. Scientific Revolution: challenged traditional thoughts
a. Newton with physics: showed universe was orderly; therefore, society could be too
b. Locke: said humans are influenced by environment; therefore, improve the environment = better people (like behaviorist psychology)
c. “Natural Law”
2. Social changes:
a. Toleration in Great Britain
i. liberal policies coincided with economic prosperity J
ii. limited monarchy, limited religious toleration, some free speech
b. BUT much discontent in France due to:
i. government: bureaucracy, corruption, costly wars, no toleration
ii. church power
iii. physiocrats think government should protect property and permit owners to use it freely.
B. “Print Culture”
1. prose and novels were popular
2. higher literacy in western and central European cities
3. coffeehouses and libraries flourished
4. writing began to create and influence public opinion = governments’ actions do not go unnoticed.
a. media is like a watchdog.
b. governments seek to censor and punish and ban some authors
5. Denis Diderot published the Encyclopedia with Enlightenment ideas and other articles on a variety of topics.
II. The Philosophes
A. Characteristics
1. advocated change (i.e. toleration, reform)
a. in government, religion, thought, society, economy for the sake of human liberty.
2. reason and common sense should guide institutions
a. governments
b. religious organizations
c. economy
3. Many viewed current religious institutions as obstacles to progress
a. Voltaire, “crush the infamous thing”
b. rise of Deism
i. religion must appeal to reason and human nature
ii. belief in God could be justified through contemplation of
nature
iii. nature is rational & orderly = rational God = need for rational morality & virtue
c. religious fanaticism = bad L
i. differing doctrines were the cause of much warfare &
suffering
d. many church authorities were enmeshed in government and
were part of or linked to the aristocracy; therefore, will not
want change
e. some religious men do support the Enlightenment; whereas
some Enlightenment thinkers leaned toward atheism and
materialism (these were both a minority of their respective groups.
4. supported ideas for advancement and economic growth
B. Where ideas were discussed:
1. in German Universities
2. coffeehouses of Europe
3. salons of the Parisian women
a. women were connected to an affluent male.
b. Presences at prominent homes gave some writers protection & prestige
4. some monarchs’ courts
C. appealed to:
1. prosperous commercial or professional urban classes (upper middle class; ‘new money’)
2. “forward-looking” aristocrats (nobles)
a. Some ppl started local philosophical clubs & societies
3. Freemasons
III. Enlightenment thinkers
A. Thomas Hobbes
1. actually comes a century before the Enlightenment
2. wrote the Leviathan (1651)
a. negative view of human nature
b. humans are selfish = will be in conflict; therefore need a government to regulate behavior (enter into social contract)
c. favored strong, absolute ruler
B. John Locke
1. Wrote Treaties on Government (1690)
a. Positive view of human nature
b. Govt to preserve rights
c. Natural rights: life, liberty, & property
d. Right to revolution: if govt fails to protect natural rights, get a new one.
e. Favored govt with limited authority
C. Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)
1. Proponent of freedom of speech
a. offended French monarch and later other monarchs
b. was imprisoned then exiled from France
2. advocated religious toleration; wrote Treatise on Tolerance
3. favored monarchy b/c he distrusted the masses
4. Wrote Candide, a satire which attacked war, religious persecution, and positive outlooks on the human condition (although advocated improvement himself)
D. Marquis Cesare Beccaria: On Crimes and Punishment(1764)
1. punishments should be just and effective
2. attack torture and capital punishment
3. speedy trails
4. punishment should be a deterrence
5. utilitarian: greatest good for the greatest number
E. Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations (1776)
1. advocate laissez faire economics (natural economic system)
iv. market forces should regulate the economy (supply & demand)
v. individuals should pursue their own selfish economic interests
vi. government should not intervene in economy
-EXCEPTIONS: providing common goods (i.e. schools, roads) &
new dangerous expensive ventures (i.e. new trade routes; today,
space programs)
vii. therefore, opposed to controlling mercantilist economics
viii. Four Stage Theory Barbarianism → civilization
-hunter/gatherer
-pastoral & herding
- agricultural
-commercial (this is where W. Eur. was)
F. Baron de Montesquieu
1. French noble; political conservative, but advocates reform
2. The Persian Letters: satire about contemporary institutions
3. Spirit of the Laws (1748)
a. advocated s.o.p., checks & balances, constitutional limits on power
b. political laws were not universal
c. advocated different gov’ts for different countries depending on their social, religious, and political conditions.
G. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1. Social Contract (1762)
a. “All men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains”
b. The common good (greater good; the collective over the individual)
c. Majority rules in government and law (direct democracy)
d. Advocated a civic religion for unity
e. Disapproved of selfish economic interests (unlike Smith)
i. did not see how morality and materialism/commerce
could co-exist
2. Not very influential during his time; influence later writers.
3. Emile (1762)
a. Saw women as subordinate to men.
b. Gender roles (women domestic role)
H. Immanuel Kant & Denis Diderot (Encyclopedia)
1. Disagree that European culture and civilization was superior to others (unlike most other Eng. Thinkers)
2. criticize the treatment of natives & Africans by Europeans.
3. Ideas were more influential later
I. Mary Wollstonecraft
- Vindication of the Rights f Woman (1792): argued on behalf of women’s rights.
IV. Enlightened Despots
A. Background
1. Philosphes were not opposed to power if they could utilize it to somehow
benefit themselves
2. use rational economic and social policies to increase military and political
power (new revenues & increased political support)
B. Frederick the Great of Prussia
1. much loyalty from many groups; therefore, greater ease in discussing new ideas
2. Promotion through merit
a. a civil services system with tests
b. ennobling
3. Allowed university professors wide latitude in discussions
4. Religious Toleration, but tended to appoint Protestants to key positions.
5. enlightened legal reform (i.e. outlaw torture), but it increases his own power
6. BUT still problems of unfair taxes
B. Catherine the Great
1. Married to Peter III who inherits power in 1762
a. he was a poor leader
b. nobles & Catherine dispose of him
2. Ruling
a. Charter of the Nobility: guaranteed nobles rights b/c she needed their
support
b. Reduced trade barriers in Russia & increased exports
c. War with Ottomans to gain a warm water port on the Black Sea (Treaty
of Kuchuk-Kainardji 1774)
d. Annexed the Crimea in 1783
C. Joseph II of Austria (1765-1790)
1. increased centralized authority of Habsburgs; some policies failed
2. allowed for religious toleration for Christians; and relaxed some laws which
were oppressive to Jews
3. took control of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria
a. deemphasize the importance of the papacy
b. priests were state employees
c. reorganized seminaries to better train for parish life
4. Economic & Agrarian reform
a. sought to tax nobles = L nobles; failed
b. abolish serfdom
c. invested in internal improvements
D. The Partition of Poland: in order to settle Russian, Prussian & Austrian power struggle (Poland has a weak govt and no army)
1. 1772:
a. Prussia received most of the territory between Prussia and East Prussia
to make it contiguous
b. Austria received Galicia in Southern Poland (salt mines)
c. Russia gained a large part too
2. 1793: partition again
3. 1795: partition again and Poland disappears
E. By the end of the 18th century, these realms became the most ‘unenlightened’
(1789 was the French Revolution = made many monarchs concerned)
1. regimes became oppressive
a. nobles resist change in Austria and Prussia
b. Russia fears a peasant uprising
- Pugachev Rebellion 1773 to 1775
V. The Arts
1. Rococo style
a. pastels
b. play of lights
c. associate with the aristocracy
d. Louis XV like and often had he and his mistresses painted
2. Neoclassical
a. like Renaissance and ancient world
b. Revolutionaries and Napoleon employ this style
c. paintings were intended to be a form of political criticism