It is our memories that give us context and change our
purposes…..
~Mohinder Suresh
Key Topics
• The intellectual and social background of the Enlightenment
• The philosophes of the Enlightenment & their agenda of intellectual and political reform
• Efforts of “enlightened” monarchs in Central & Eastern Europe to increase the economic & military strength of their domains
• The partition of Poland by Prussia, Russia, & Austria
Economic change & political reform….
• Possible AND desirable
• New idea? Not for us– but 1700???
–RADICAL
Movement of people & ideas
ENLIGHTENMENT
Think of possibilities…not just actualities.
Philosophes: A bunch of guys sitting around in some woman’s living room, chatting &
discussing current events—asking themselves:
“What’s wrong with our society?”“How can we fix it?”
Can I have another cigar and brandy?
Apply rules of reason to nearly all the major institutions & social
practices….
• Voltaire
• Diderot
• Rousseau
• Gibbon
• Lessing
• Montesquieu
• D’Alembert
• Hume
• Smith
• Kant
Not an organized group
Disagreed on many issues
Family-like dynamics—do all family members agree?
CHIEF BOND:
Common desire to reform thought, society, & government for the sake of HUMAN LIBERTY
In touch with everyday life/common people
Influences….
1. Isaac Newton—Newtonian Worldview
2. John Locke
3. Great Britain—post-1688
4. France & Louis XIV
5. Print Culture—reading is a GOOD thing!!
Isaac Newton
Law of universal gravitation
Principia Mathematica
Study nature directly
Avoid metaphysical/supernaturalism
If nature was rational, society could also be organized rationally…
John Locke
An Essay in Human UnderstandingTabula rasa
Experience only shapes characterHuman nature is changeableHuman nature can be molded by changing
environmentchange environment!
Great Britain—post-1688• Enlightened reforms benefit all• Religious toleration (Voltaire)• Relative free speech/press• Limited monarchy• Parliament—political sovereignty• Courts protected citizens• Small army• Domestic economy—less regulated
Great Britain—post-1688Liberal policies:
Prosperity/stability/loyalty
Britain=significantly freer than ANY European nation
France & Louis XIV
• Absolute monarchy
• Large standing army
• Heavy taxation
• Religious persecution (Protestants/Jansenists)
• Restrictions on free speech/press (censorship)
Print Culture…• Journals• Books• Newspapers• Pamphlets• Printed word chief vehicle for
communication– Ideas/opinion/thought
–NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE PEN OR THOSE WHO BUY INK BY THE BARREL
…Print culture…Who are the readers?
Monarchs
Nobles
Upper middle classes – bourgeoisie
Professional groups
public opinion (Rousseau)
• “Opinion, queen of the world, is in no [way]
subject to the power of kings; they themselves
are her first slaves.”
~Rousseau
The Social Contract
• “Therefore it is all in vain; neither reason, nor virtue, nor
laws will prevail over the public opinion, so long as there is no contrivance to change it. Once more I say it, force will not do
so.”
~Rousseau The Social Contract
…Print Culture…• Governmental reaction:
– Censorship– Book trade regulated– Confiscation– Book burning– Imprisonment
• FEAR of print culture’s political POWER
• The Encyclopedia —Diderot et.al.
The Enlightenment & Religion
The Enlightenment & Religion
• “Crush the Infamous Thing”— Voltaire
• What is this THING?
“Churches hindered the pursuit of a rational life and the scientific study of humanity and nature”
Deism
• God is a watchmaker
• God who created nature must be rational
God-worship must be rational
• God exists – through empirical study of nature – life after death
Deism• Tolerant
• Empirical
• Reasonable
• Capable of encouraging virtuous living
• Where have we heard this before?
• Toleration must be #1
• “…life on Earth and human relationships should not be subordinated to religion.”
• KOT
• However—at the same time
• John Wesley & Methodism– Not break away from Anglican Church– Urge spiritual enthusiasm– Important revival of Christianity
• More on this later (Romanticism)
Methodism proved that the need for spiritual experience had not been expunged by the 18th-Century search for REASON….
• ~Spielvogel
“If there were just one religion in England, despotism would threaten, if there were two
religions, they would cut each other’s throats, but there are thirty
religions, and they live together peacefully and happily.”
~Voltaire
Philosophic Letters on the English, 1733
The Enlightenment & Society
The Enlightenment & Society
• Criminal Law—Beccaria• On Crimes and Punishments• What is the purpose of laws?• Positive law (monarchs & legislatures)
must conform with rational laws of nature• Attacked torture & capital punishment• Speedy trial & certain punishment• Punishment as deterrent
Beccaria
• Purpose of laws?• “…not to impose the will of God…[but to]
secure the greatest good or happiness for the greatest of human beings.” (KOT italics added )
• Utilitarianism (we’ll talk about this later)
Physiocrats
• Philosophe economists
• Primary purpose of government is to protect property and to permit its owners to use it freely
• All economic production depended on what? (agriculture)
Adam Smith…Wealth of Nations --1776
1. FREE TRADE– fundamental economic principal
• Condemned mercantilist use of protective tariffs to protect home industries
• “a tailor does not make his own shoes; a cobbler does not make his own coat…”
If a country can supply another country with a product
cheaper than the latter can make it, it is better to purchase it
than to produce it.
~Spielvogel
…Adam Smith…
2. Labor theory of valueWhat is something truly worth?
LABOR is the TRUE wealth of a nation
Not specie
Not dirt (agriculture)
…Adam Smith…
3. LAISSEZ-FAIREGovernment has 3 purposes ONLYa. Protect society from invasion
b. Defend individuals from injustice & oppression (police)
c. Public works (roads/canals/bridges)
…Adam Smith…
• Government should not interfere in economic matters
• Government-- “passive policemen” stays out of lives of individuals
• Later basis for 19th century economic liberalism
…Adam Smith
• 4-stage theory
• Study economics to determine one’s place in society
• COMMERCIALISM is highest–Rationale for economic/imperial
domination of “lower” stages
Philosophes & Political Thought
Baron de Montesquieu
• The Persian Letters – satire
–2 guys visiting Europe
–Criticism & exposition of the cruelty & irrationality of much contemporaneous European life.
Montesquieu
• Spirit of the Laws – British model is wisest of all–Importance of checks & balances
created by means of separation of powers• Sound familiar?
Montesquieu
• Political Science • (empirical method)
• No single set of law/methods for all 3 basic types of government
Montesquieu
• REPUBLICS–Small states
–Based on citizen involvement
Montesquieu
• Monarchy–Middle-sized states
–Grounded in the ruling class’ adherence to law
Montesquieu
• Despotism–Large empires
–Dependent on FEAR to inspire obedience
Montesquieu• Misread / misinterpreted
• Defend French aristocracy’s political privileges
• American philosophes
• Franklin // Jefferson // Adams // etc
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• “much of world’s evil is caused by uneven distribution of wealth”
• Discourse of the Origin of Inequality, 1755
“In monarchies, never can private wealth raise a man above the prince; but in a republic it may easily set him above the law. Then the government has no
longer any weight, and the rich man is the real sovereign.
~Rousseau
The Social Contract
Rousseau
• “process of civilization and enlightenment had corrupted
human nature” • Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, 1750
“I do not like verbal explanations. Young people pay little heed to them, nor do they remember them. Things! Things! I cannot repeat it too often. We lay too much stress
upon words; we teachers babble and our scholars follow our example. Our real
teachers are experience and emotion, and man will never learn what befits a man
except under its own conditions.
~Rousseau
Emile
Rousseau
• “family squabble”
• Life would improve if people could enjoy more of the fruits of the Earth or could produce more goods.
• Raised the more fundamental question of what constitutes the “good life”
“The threads of our experiences weave the tapestry of our
lives….”
Jean-Luc Picard