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Enlightenment
ENLIGHTENMENT THEMES
Scientific Revolution leading to Enlightenment
Different views on government/social contract
Views on religion
Education
Women
Economics
Enlightenment and America
Enlightened despotism
HOW SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION LED TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Science was accepted by educated elites and monarchs
Scientific belief that human understanding should be used to understand world
Criticism of accepted traditions and authorities (including religion)
Reliance on empirical evidence to back scientific arguments.
Isaac Newton
Described universe as ordered, mechanical.
Showed reason and nature were compatible.
ENLIGHTENMENT DEFINED
Name
Based on the belief that reason would get rid of ignorance and enlighten humans.
Challenged authority
Emphasized reason and individualism rather than tradition and authorities.
Challenged church
Skepticism and doubt about religious dogmas.
Championed natural laws
Nature, with its laws, order and simplicity, would guide human thought and society.
PEOPLE
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS IN A NUTSHELL (Alphabetical)
Mary Astell (1666-1731)
Wrote: A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694)
Ideas: Women should be educated to ideas of new science - reason and debate, rather than tradition, questioned inequality of men's and women's roles
Quote: "If All Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?"
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) (French Huguenot)
Wrote: News from the Republic of Letters (1684), Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697)
Ideas: Believed nothing can ever be known beyond all doubt (skepticism).Wrote list of religious beliefs that didn't stand up to reason. Believed morals and religion were separate.
Cesare Beccaria (738-1794) (Italy)
Wrote: Essay on Crimes and Punishment (1764)
Ideas: Condemned torture and death penalty, barbarous punishments didn't deter crime.
Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749) (France)
Wrote: Translated Newton's Principia Mathematica, Foundations of Physics, 1740Ideas: Voltaire's lover,
John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) (Czech Republic)
Wrote: The Gate of Tongues Unlocked, 1632
Ideas: Innovations in methods of teaching, especially languages (Latin)
Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) (France)
Wrote: The Progress of the Human Mind (while hiding during Reign of Terror)
Ideas: Condorcet method of tallying votes, Believed humans had progressed through nine stages of history, now with spread of science and reason, humans entering the tenth stage of perfection.
Quote: "There is no limit to the perfecting of the powers of man; that human perfectibility is in reality indefinite, that the progress of this perfectibility has no other limit than the duration of the globe upon which nature has placed us."
Deism
"Clock makers theory," God created earth then left it alone.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) (France)
Edited: Encyclopedia, 28 volumes, compendium of knowledge (1751-1772)
Bernard de Fontenelle (1657-1757)
Secretary of the French Royal Academy of science from 1691 to 1741
Wrote: Plurality of Worlds -- a conversation between an aristocrat and her lover about the stars.
David Hume (1711-1776) (England)
Wrote: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Ideas: Nothing (including God) could be known for sure, reality is only perception, religion = hope and fear.
Thomas Jefferson (America)
Wrote: Declaration of Independence (based on Locke)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Wrote: Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
Defined Enlightenment as "man's leaving his self-caused immaturity"
Quote: "Dare to Know"
John Locke (1632-1704) (England)
Wrote: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Second Treatise of Government 1690
Ideas: Tabula Rasa, authority of govt. from consent of government, government's job is to protect life, liberty and property
Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786)
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) (France)
Wrote: Persian Letters, The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
Ideas: Satire of French life, Admired England, Separation of powers, different governments suited different conditions (size, population, geography etc.)
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) (America)
Wrote: Common Sense (1776), Rights of Man (1791)
Ideas: Believed colonist should separate from Britain,
Physiocrats
"Laissez faire, laissez passer," land/agriculture is a source of country's wealth
Francois Quesnay (1694-1774)
Ideas: Physiocrat, land was the only source of wealth, against mercantilism, one tax derived from land.
Abbe Guillaume Raynal (1713-1796)
Ideas: Critic of slavery, said it was irrational and inhumane, called for slave rebellion"
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) (Geneva, Switz.)
Wrote: Origin of Inequality (1755), Emile (1762), Social Contract (1762)
Ideas: Property corrupted society, children should be educated naturally (not women), individual rights not as important as the "general will"
Quotes: "Man was born free and everywhere he is in chains"
Salons
Space where philosophes, artists, writers met, usually run by women
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Wrote: The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Ideas: Against mercantilism, "invisible hand," laissez-faire.
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) (Dutch Republic, Jewish)
Wrote: Theological Political Treatise, 1670
Ideas: Denied immortality of the soul, ostracized by Jewish community
Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778)
Wrote: 92 volumes of works, Candide (1759), Letters on the English (1733), Treatise on Tolerance (1763)
Ideas: Attacked superstition, religious persecution (defended Jean Calas) and uncritical optimism, believe in enlightened despotism, rule using authority to reform, deist, admired England.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
Wrote: Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Ideas: stressed need to educate women and against view that women weaker than men.
ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS EXPANDED
John Locke (1632-1704)
Applied scientific thinking to human psychology
Wrote Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
Tabula Rasa --
Our brains at birth are blank slates (pl. tabulae rasae)
We were not born with innate ideas
All knowledge comes from sensory perception (that is, through touch, hearing, seeing etc. -- empiricism) as well as experiences and reason
Therefore, schools should play big role in molding people from childhood
Philosophes
French term for intellectuals of the Enlightenment (not exactly "philosophers")
Came from noble and middle-class origins
Wrote plays, histories, novels, encyclopedic entries and pamphlets.
Promoted a "republic of letters"
Common intellectual culture
that crossed national boundaries
And allowed intellectuals to freely exchange books and ideas.
Met at private gathering (salons)
Notable Philosophes:
Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Hume, Benjamin Franklin
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Wealthy judge in a French court
Wrote Persian Letters (1721)
Satirized customs, morals and practices of Europeans from view of two Persian travelers.
Voltaire (1694-1778)

Personal information
French author born Francois Arouet
Imprisoned repeatedly in Bastille prison (France)
Because he criticized the crown and fought with nobles.
Protected by lover, Emilie du Chatelet (see below), and her husband
When she died, he went to court of Prussian King Frederick II, then returned to France
Prolific writer
Wrote 90 volumes of drama, history, essays, letters and scientific treatises.
Idealized England
Admired individual and religious freedom in England and the political system.
Home of Newton and Locke
Wrote Letters concerning the English Nation (1733) criticizing French politics and religious intolerance.
Wrote Candide (1759)
Ridiculed nobility and clergy
Criticized naive optimists who believed this is the best of all possible worlds and all things turn out for the best" (character: Pangloss)
See below:
Voltaire on Government
Voltaire on the Church
Diderot (1713-1774) and the Encyclopedia
Edited Encyclopedia with Jean d'Alembert.
First volume, 1751, completed 1772
Collaborative effort by many philosophes
Who contributed articles
Stated aims of the Encyclopedia (written in preface)
"To contribute to the certitude and progress of human knowledge"
Reason alone could be used to discover, understand or clarify almost anything
Topics
Exploring spectrum of knowledge from music, to machinery to philosophy
Catholic church and government saw it as a direct threat to status quo.
Attempts made to censor it or stop production.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Discourse on the Origins of Inequality of Mankind
Said humans were once happily living in a primitive condition (a "state of nature") no laws, all people were equal
Then a man enclosed a piece of ground and called it his own
Once there was private property, people adopted laws and leaders --> everyone was in chains
The Social Contract (1762) (see below)
Agreement by society to be governed by the "general will."
Everyone gave up their self-interest for the interest of the community.
Even people who choose representatives to make decisions for them (for example, a parliament) are enslaved.
Precursor to Socialism
Emile (1762)
Most important work on education.
Written like a novel.
Said education should encourage natural instincts through life experiences.
emphasized emotion over reason (precursor to Romanticism)
However, Rousseau sent all his own children to orphanage
Character Emile's wife, Sophie, was only educated to be a skilled, obedient wife and mother
THEMES
WOMEN
Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749)

Voltaire's lover (although she had a husband)
Spoke four languages and translated Greek and Latin texts.
In 1733 joined a men's intellectual group
Had to wear men's clothes so that management would admit her.
Butt she was excluded from Royal Academy of Science because of her gender (used private tutors instead)
Experimented in physics
Published three-volume work on German mathematician Leibnitz
Translated Newton's Principles of Mathematics.
Died in childbirth in 1749
Mary Astell (1666-1731)
Wrote: A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694)
Ideas: Women should be educated to ideas of new science - reason and debate, rather than tradition, questioned inequality of men's and women's roles
Quote: "If All Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?"
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
Wrote: Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Ideas: stressed need to educate women and against view that women weaker than men.
Rousseau
Believed women should not be educated
Salons
Usually run by wealthy, aristocratic women
GOVERNMENT

Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651)
Writing during the British Civil War, had a negative view of human nature
Without a common power, he said, men were in constant conflict with each other
The "life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"
Therefore a strong central power was needed to protect men against other greedy men.
Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1690)
Writing after the 1688 Glorious Revolution
Men were once in a state of nature and enjoyed "natural rights" (life, liberty and property)
More stable than in Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan
But to safeguard these rights
Individuals agreed to surrender certain amount of their sovereignty to government
But the powers of the government (whether a monarchy or republic)
Was strictly limited
No government could violate individuals rights
If it did, the people who set it up could and should overthrow it (as the English did in the Glorious Revolution)
Eventually it became more convenient for people to form a government
The role of that government was to protect natural rights to life, liberty and property.
If government doesn't fulfill this, it should be overthrown.
Montesqueiu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
Attempted to apply scientific method to politics to find "natural laws" governing social relationships of human beings.
Political institutions should conform to the climate, customs, beliefs and economy of a particular country
Limited monarchy -- appropriate for countries of moderate size (like France)
Republic -- appropriate for smaller states (Venice, ancient Athens)
Each form of government has its virtues and vices
Separation of powers and checks and balances
Could best secure limited sovereignty
Otherwise tyranny could result
See US government: executive, judicial and legislative branches
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract (1762)
Built on John Locke’s work
Offered a more radical political theory than Montesquieu’s
In his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755)
Rousseau argued that people in the “primitive” state of “noble savagery”
Were free, equal and relatively happy.
Only when some of them began marking off plots of ground
Claiming them as their own
And thereby founding civil society
Did the troubles begin
Private property
Created inequality
And the need for laws and governments to protect people from crime and wars
In The Social Contract (1762)
Rousseau began by challenging his contemporaries
“Man is born free: and everywhere he is in chains”
He then offered a solution
To this conflict between individual freedom and social restrictions
In an ideal state, he argued people entered into a compact with one another
Agreeing to surrender their individual liberty – which was driven by self-interest, to the whole society
Although government restricted individual freedom, it was a necessary evil.
Rejected individualism
stressed role of individual as a member of society.
social contract was a contract in which the members of society agreed to be ruled by their genral will.
General will would be exercised by a small group.
Obedience to the genera will was an act of freedom.
Didn't favor democracy
RELIGION
Events questioning religion:
Geological discoveries suggested that life on Earth began earlier than biblical accounts claimed.
Investigators began casting doubt on reports of miracles and prophecies.
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706)
French Huguenot
Forced to flee to Dutch Republic because of Louis XIV's religious persecutions
Leading proponent of skepticism
Wrote News from the Republic of Letters (1684)
Attacked intolerance of the French monarchy and the Catholic Church
Published Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697)
Had list of religious beliefs that did not stand up to human reason and common sense.
Said morals and religion were separate
David Hume (1711-1776)
Scottish philosopher and historian
Wrote Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1748) (see below)
Insisted that nothing-not even the existence of God or our own existence - could be known for sure.
Reality = only human perceptions
established religions were based on nothing but hope and fear.
Reason demanded people live with skeptical uncertainty rather than dogmatic faith.
Voltaire
Voltaire educated by Jesuits - but denounced their religious doctrine
Voltaire was a deist
Wrote Philosophical Dictionary attacking churches and religion
Wrote Treatise on Tolerance (1763)
Criticized murder of Protestant merchant Jean Calas
On false charges of murdering his son or threatening to convert to Catholicism.
Said look on all men as brothers.
"Ecrasez l'infame" -- Crush the infamous thing (the Church of Rome)
Deism
Belief that an impersonal, infinite Divine being created the universe.
But did not interfere with the world of human affairs
ECONOMICS
Physiocrats
French economists
Created first scientific system of economics
Believed wealth of nations came from the value of land
Believed agricultural products should be highly priced.
Important physiocrats; Francois Quesnay (see below), Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (economic minister to Louis XVI 1774-1776), Marquis de Condorcet
Francois Quesnay (1694-1774)
French medical doctor and economist from Physiocrat school
Believed that the economy should be analyzed and studied - like the human body
Not molded to suit the will of the king.
Wrote Economic Table, 1758
Provided ideas of the physiocrats
Shows how the economy functions.
Like other enlightenment thinkers, he saw economy following natural laws.
Opposed government intervention in economy (against mercantilism) because it would corrupt the natural evolution of the economy
and was the only source of wealth,
one tax derived from land.
And Le Despotisme de la Chine, 1767
Praising constitutional Oriental Despotism
Adam Smith (1723-1790)

British economist
Wrote: The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Ideas:
Believed in laissez-faire, that is, the government should stay out of economic an allow the economy to operate naturally, as if it is directed by an "invisible hand."
Prices, wages etc. will adjust according to supply-and-demand.
Against mercantilism and guilds
Because they obstruct free enterprise
If one country can supply another country with cheaper product it's better to buy them than to make them.
Labor
Unlike physiocrats he believed tht labor (of farmers, artisans, merchant) was the true wealth of a nation.
The ONLY role of government:
To protect society from invasion (army, navy)
Defend individuals from injustice and oppression
And keep up public works (roads, canals etc.) that individuals could not afford
Laid the foundation for 19th century economic liberalism (classical liberalism)
Comparison Physiocrats and Adam Smith
Similarities
Both believed that gold and silver were not the source of a natio's true wealthy (mercantilism)
Both believed the stte should not interfered in economic matters
Both believed int he existence of natural economic forces of supply and demand (laissez-faire)
Differences
Physiocrats believed that soil was the ource of a nation's wealth
Smith believed that labor was the source of a nation's wealth
Rousseau
Private property is the cause of all inequality
ENLIGHTENED DESPOTISM
Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot etc.
Didn’t think monarchy should be dismantled – but more enlightened
Wanted change not through creation of republics but monarchs who initiated reform
Voltaire's Definition of Enlightened Despot
Should fight stupidity
Support arts, sciences, education
Keep clergy subordinate
Allow freedoms
Thought, religion, speech, press
Uphold right to private property
Embrace enlightened concept of social contract
But not limit their power through a constitution
Least Enlightened
Louis XV and XVI
Failed to reform
Enlightened despots
Trend after 1740
Catherine the Great (1762-1796)
Maria Theresa of Austria (1740-1780)
Joseph II of Austria (1741-1790)
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740-1786)
All
Read works of Enlightenment
Some religious toleration
Promoted and broadened access to education
Claimed their power was for the good of their people
Sponsored reforms to modernize
Codification of laws
Innovations in agriculture
Wanted quick results
Tended to make changes arbitrarily (without consistency)
None became constitutional monarchs
Catherine the Great of Russia (1762-1796)

Background
Came from Germany (she was a foreigner)
Married to Peter III whom she despised (had him deposed and killed)
With Peter's death, she became czarina
But depended on nobility for support (which limited the extent of her reforms)
Law
One of first acts was to call a meeting of delegates from every class except serfs
To consider a codification of Russian law
To prepare she read Montesquieu and Beccaria
Delegates met 18 months, some codification accomplished, but not all
Most important result: she learned about Russia
Serfdom
She had ambitions to reduce or reform serfdom
But plans were stopped because of Pugachev’s Rebellion, 1773-1774
1000s of rebellious serfs killed people and proclaimed end to serfdom, taxation and military conscription, Pugachev caught, tortured and executed
Landlords were given more authority than ever over the rural masses
Personal Enlightenment
Corresponded with Voltaire, Montesquieu and Diderot
When Diderot needed money to get out of debt, Catherine bought his library then lent it to him.
Educational reforms
School for daughters of nobility
And authorized first printing presses
Supported arts
Modernized along Western European standards
Not enlightened
Catherine did not grant rights to religious minorities in Russia
Rejected idea of a social contract
Biography
Catherine was "expansionist' - took territory from Poland and Ottoman Turks
Groomed grandson Alexander to succeed her.
Maria Theresa of Austria (1740-1780)

Background
Became queen in 1740
Had to fight for her throne, War of Austrian Succession
But she worked to centralize her power from Vienna.
Magyars (Hungary) left alone
Bohemians lost constitutional charter
Local diets could now only "consent" to taxes imposed by central govt.
Revealed weakness of hodgepodge kingdom
Able advisers
Local authority give to professional salaried employees of state
Economy
Established trade union and limited the power of guild monopolies
The economy prospered, particularly in Bohemia
Serfdom
1772 limited robot (labor that lords demanded from serfs) to three days a week/12 hours a day
Passed laws to protect them from abuse
Questionable to what degree these new regulations were enforced
Religion
Expelled Jesuits (despite her personal religious faith)
Instituted some degree of religious toleration
Punishment: Restricted use of torture
Increased number of provinces from 20 to 50
Joseph II of Austria (1741-1790) (most enlightened)

Background
Shared power with his mother, Maria Theresa, until her death in 1780
He grew impatient with her slow cautious ways
From 1780-1790 he ruled on his own.
Passed over 10,000 laws
Acted quickly and arbitrarily
Patron of arts
Known as the “Musical King”
Commissioned Beethoven to write a funeral cantata for him.
Education
To improve education, government provided teachers and texts for about ¼ of Austria’s children (high % at that time).
Religion
Granted Jews the right to worship
but had to pay special tax for the privilege
Protestants
Given right to hold positions at court in Vienna
Catholics
Did away with what he viewed as wasteful
Established many churches
But reduced number of religious holidays
Closed 1/3 of convents and monasteries
Keeping the ones who educated youth or performed charity
Medicine
With money from confiscated church property, he supported hospitals
Which began Vienna’s reputation as a center of medicine
Serfs
Passed Serfdom Patent in 1781 which essentially ended slavery
Landlords could no longer punish serfs
Serfs could independently choose spouses
Serfs could choose careers
Serfs could move between estates.
Newly freed peasants found that freedom came with price - increased taxes
Law
Installed equal taxes and equal justice
Punishments for crime were made less severe
And capital punishment was abolished
Social contract
“Everything for the people, nothing by the people”
Failures
Joseph discovered that further reform in the countryside was impossible
Because of strong resistance of the nobility.
Joseph died in 1790 (age 49) disappointed and disillusioned
Appreciated by neither nobility nor peasants
Not able to delegate and had trained no successor
Most of Joseph’s reforms were repealed immediately
But some lasted.
Leopold
Joseph’s successor
Ignored pleas of his sister Marie Antoinette in France in early days of revolution
Austrian nobility did not get back all it power in the diets
Which Joseph had taken away
And peasants kept right to move marry and choose an occupation
Died 2 years later
His son Francis II not as wise as his father
Austria at war with France
Fredrick the Great of Prussia (1740-1786)

Background
King of Prussia same time as Maria Theresa (1740)
During War of Austrian Succession
He took Silesia from Austria
Personal Enlightenment
Personal study and intellect
Read, loved arts, played flute, wrote music
Corresponded with Voltaire before becoming king
Had Voltaire reside at his court at Potsdam for 2 years
Promoted new farming techniques
Social Contract
Called himself “first servant of the state”
Religion
Was a deist who believed all religions were equally superstitious
Said he would build a Mosque in the capital if Muslims wanted to move there
Established religious toleration for all except Jews
Considered Jews "useless to the state"
Built a large Catholic church in Berlin
Though Prussia was predominantly Lutheran
Education: Improved and promoted education
Law
Simplified laws
Abolished torture
Created appellate courts
Agriculture
Scientific improvements to agriculture
Improved agriculture by giving peasants tools, stock and seeds after the Seven Years War
Drained swamps
Introduced new crops
Such as clover (a “nitrogen-fixing” plant) and potatoes
Attempted to foster modern technological improvements
Such as the iron plow, crop rotation
Tried, unsuccessfully, to make Prussia grow its own tobacco
Encouraged manufacturing
Especially in textiles and metals (to benefit the army)
Tried to force the country to be self-sufficient
Heavily taxed imports, such as coffee
Serfdom
Abolished serfdom on his own estates
But didn’t tamper with the social system at large
He wanted to keep the landed aristocrats, the Junkers, as officers
And the peasants as soldiers
Thus education for peasants was limited to basic reading and writing
Not enlightened
Preferred that his Junker officers not marry
Because he disliked paying widow’s pensions
Bio
Like Joseph of Austria, he trained no successors
20 years after his death
Napoleon’s army easily conquered the country