Enlightenment Thinkers and the Age of Reason

Unit Two: The World Reinvented 1480-1715 Introduction: Enlightenment Thinkers and the Age of Reason Most people of the eighteenth century worried only about themselves (idiots). During the Renaissance, there were some intellectuals (19 th century word for people who make public matters of private concern). Intellectuals or thinkers of the Enlightenment in France were called philosophes (philosophers). These intellectuals or philosophers would challenge the existing order by applying the test of reason (aka rationalism or faith in human reason) to old ideas or prejudices. This new view of the world would bring about the Age of Enlightenment (which would usher in the modern world). The 16 th century witnessed the scientific community of astronomers, physicists and chemists dispel many of the commonly held beliefs of the Middle Ages. If people in the scientific community like Newton and Galileo could discover natural laws to explain the workings of the universe, why not use the scientific method to uncover laws about humankind? During the Enlightenment, philosophers felt sure that they could use reason to discover the natural laws that governed human behaviour. So thinkers reasoned in the late 1600s and 1700s. I believe that morals should be treated like other sciences, wrote Adam Smith. One should arrive at a moral principle as one proceeds with an experiment in physics. Critics of political and social orders embraced the concept of humans having the ability to uncover laws that govern nature.(if universal laws existed in the natural world, then similar truths must apply to the human condition.) The paramount challenge became: discover laws that regulate the relationship between the individual and the community. During the last half of the 17 th and the first half of the 18 th centuries, European writers debated the relative merits of absolutist rule. These arguments outlining human knowledge appeared in pamphlets, news sheets, periodicals, books and encyclopedias. These writings were expressed in French, Italian, German and English. Books would soon be translated into other languages and soon other areas of Europe would be exposed to ideas of the Enlightenment. This new science became known as political science as it adopted the methods of its physical counterparts. Soon deductive reasoning and careful observation became the norm in the study of human political society. Enlightenment thinkers would advocate things like: a return to nature (where humans would have natural reason which civilization would ruin); natural religion (a rejection of traditional religion in favour of a belief that it was irrational to imagine a world without God (deism); the need for human rights through public education, freedom of thought, speech and pres, the abolition of slaver and a more humane treatment of criminals. Page 2

Several people made huge and important contributions to the Age of Enlightment (thesis) Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher, witness the upheaval of a civil war in England during the 1640s. He was convinced that if people were left alone without government they would constantly fight among themselves. In 1651, he published Leviathan. Hobbes described life in a state of nature in which people had no government. Such a life, he claimed, would be nasty, brutish and short. He wrote during the time that men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war, as is of every man, against every man. According to Hobbes, to escape chaos of their natural state, people entered into a contract in which they agreed to give up their freedom to a ruler who guaranteed peace and order. The best government, Hobbes said, was one in which the ruler had absolute power. Hobbes believed that once people entered into such a contract, they could not rebel, even if they thought the ruler was a tyrant. Hobbes ideas, therefore, supported the rule of absolute monarchs. Hobbes and his followers used the example of Louis XIV and France s social stability and artistic accomplishments as support for his views. The stories brought forth by European explorers about the tales of torture, massacre and cannibalism in other lands also supported Hobbes theory. Today, Canada has embraced a Hobbesian view in which the primary function of government is to ensure stability and order in society even at the expense of individual liberties. Canada s first constitution The British North America Act included the phrase peace, order and good government. John Locke (1632-1704) In 1690, John Locke s political philosophy was published in the Two Treaties of Government. It was written two years after the British parliamentary revolution of 1688 and was in fact justifying the overthrow of James II (1633-1701) and defended the Bill of Rights, which set up the limited monarchy of William III and established Parliament as a significant political force in English government. Locke, an English philosopher, agreed with Hobbes that the purpose of government was to create order in society. He also agreed with Hobbes when he saw government as a contract between the ruler and the ruled. Locke, however, had ideas about government that significantly differed from those of Hobbes. Locke had a more optimistic view of human nature than Hobbes did. He thought people were basically reasonable and would cooperate with one another. Locke argued that rulers could stay in power only as long as they had the consent of those they governed. If a ruler were a tyrant, he or she had broken the contract. The people then had the right to rebel.

Locke also presented other ideas that were important in the development of democracy. He believed people had natural rights, including the right to life, liberty, and property (right to own property). These natural rights were inalienable and not to be surrendered. The United States Constitution guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Government was responsible for protecting these rights, he said, but its power should be limited. Since people enter a social contract and agree to rule of law, power remains with the people and the government acts on their behalf. This means that the people have the right to remove a monarch or elected official their government if the government does not act on its citizens behalf. Locke wrote: Whenever legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience. Locke s ideas were popular even after his death including France and in North America. Social and Economic Ideas In the 1700s, many writers and thinkers, especially in France, expanded on Locke s idea of natural rights. They became known as philosophes, a French word meaning philosophers. The philosophes were confident that the use of science and reason would lead to continued human progress. Many philosophes gathered in Paris, where they helped to make the Enlightenment ideas popular. Often, they were middle-class, well-educated men who valued clear thinking as well as wit and humour. The philosophes were concerned about many social issues. They urged religious tolerance and condemned wars of religion. They claimed that people had the right to believe as they wished. The philosophes demanded freedom of speech and the press, and they criticized the strict censorship that most governments exercised. They believed censorship was harmful because it kept people from learning about new ideas. They encourage education as the way to end ignorance, prejudice and superstition. The philosophes called for an end to slavery because it took away a person s most basic rights. They spoke out against the torture and cruel punishments for crimes. Some campaigned for more humane treatment of the mentally ill. One group of philosophes called physiocrats, searched for natural laws to explain economics. Mercantilism influenced the economic policies of most European governments at the time. Physicrats opposed mercantilism. They argued that land was the true source of national wealth, not hoards of gold and silver. They urged rulers to encourage farming. Physiocrats believed in restrictions on trade should be removed so farmers could sell their products wherever there was a market. They favored a free market, that is a market in which all

goods can be bought and sold without controls. They argued that in a free market, trade would increase. With more trade, they said, more wealth would become available for everyone. (Example Josiah Wedgwood) INFLUENTIAL ENLIGTENMENT THINKERS Charles Louis de Secondat, the Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) He was born to a French noble family (an aristocrat) and read the works of Newton and Locke. He was a judge in the Court of Appeal in Bordeaux, France. He was also a writer and a amateur scientist. He wrote a book called The Spirit of Laws (1748). It set out to prove that law derives from differing circumstances and social systems; that laws are the necessary relationships deriving from the nature of things. The nature of things was largely a consequence of politics. He also discusses various forms of government. Montesquieu was especially impressed with the English system of government of the mid 1700s. He believed that the English government protected the liberty of the people by the separation of power among three branches of government: the legislature, executive, and judiciary. Montesquieu thought that in England Parliament, as the legislature, made the laws; the King, as the executive, enforced the laws; and the courts, as the judiciary, interpreted the laws if disputes arose. The English system did not in fact work that way. Montesquieu also thought that the power of each branch of government should be carefully defined to provide a system of checks and balances. That way no branch of government could dominate another. Montesquieu s ideas on checks and balances and the separation of powers would later influence the authors of the Constitution of the USA. Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778) He was probably the best known philosopher who used the pen name Voltaire. He came from a French middle-class family. He traveled widely and was popular for is plays, pamphlets and novels. Voltaire spent much of his life arguing for common sense, religious toleration and freedom of thought. He is credited with saying, I do not agree with a word you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Voltaire praised English liberties and a strong monarch and thought the best ruler was an enlightened monarch. He meant a monarch who studied the science of government and protected the basic rights of the people. A monarch did not necessarily have to be elected, he could be a hereditary monarch as long as the monarch was enlightened rule by reason and justice. An enlightened ruler guaranteed individual rights and ruled the nation for the common good. His works included the ideas of Bacon, Locke (Letters on the English - 1733)and Newton (Elements of the Philosophy of Newton -1738). Voltaire attacked the Catholic Church as a bastion of prejudice, superstitution, and injustice. He liked to use sarcasm and ridicule to make is point. In the 1750s and 1760s he fought for victims of injustice. (Legacy) His ideas would be studied by Catherine the Great (Russia 1729-1796) and Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-1786). The Bourbon family of France, however, paid him little attention. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) He was a Swiss philosopher who came from a poor and unhappy (Calvinist) family. His father abandoned him at the age of 10. Then, Rousseau became an apprentice for an engraver who also treated him badly. By the age of 16, he left behind the Protestant city of Geneva. When he went to Paris, he always felt out of place among the sophisticated intellectuals who gathered there. A complainer and constant critic of others, Rousseau quarrelled with many philosophers. He rejected Voltaire s enlightened despotism in favour of democracy. He was a loner and he detested the salons (the conversation to glib). Yet his political and social ideas were an important part of the Enlightenment thought. He was most concerned about moral reforms of society. Rousseau believed that human nature was basically good. But, he didn t follow the Enlightenment notion that the world was improving. He believed that society corrupted people. He argued that all people were equal and that all titles of rank and nobility should be abolished. Man is born free, and everywhere is in chains. (Social Contract) Like Locke, Rousseau believed that government derived its authority from the consent of the governed through a contract. But, Locke s contract was a political contract between the ruler and the ruled; Rousseau s contract was a social and political contract among the people to preserve the common good. In his book, the Social Contract (1762), Rousseau described an ideal society. In this society, people would form a community and make a contract with one another, not with a ruler. People would give up some of their freedom in favour of the general will or the decisions of the

majority. The community would vote on all decisions, and everyone would accept the community decision. Decisions should be made democratically. Rousseau s beliefs in equality and in the will of the majority made him a spokesman for the common people. Revolutionaries in many countries would later adopt his ideas. The rallying cry of the French Revolution was Liberty, Equality and Fraternity was taken from his book Social Contract and later many of his ideas were written in the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) Rousseau s other popular works of that time were his novels Nouvelle Heloise (1760) and Emile (1762) where he criticizes the artificiality of aristocratic life and advocated the concept of the noble savage a person unencumbered and uncontaminated by civilization. Rousseau admired what he called the noble savage who lived in a natural state free from the influences of civilization. Rousseau, however, realized that people could not return to the natural state. Denis Diderot Among the successful spokespersons of the Enlightenment was D.Diderot, a French philosopher. He moved to Paris as a young man where he met the best thinkers of the day. He convinced a French bookseller to publish the Encyclopedia of Classified Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Trades (Occuptations). Between 1751 and 1772, Diderot put together the 35 volume Encyclopedia. It took over 20 years to complete the project. The purpose of his Encyclopedia was to bring about to gather together the knowledge scattered over the face of the earth, to set forth its general plan to the men with whom we live, and to transmit it to the men who will come after us a revolution in the minds of men to free them from prejudice... People like Voltaire and Rousseau contributed articles on philosophy, arts, religion and government. Other people wrote about Africa and Asia, where Europeans had begun to explore. Science and technology, however, was the number one topic in his Encyclopedia. Diderot included diagrams that showed the latest advances in printing, medicine, In France, the Catholic Church and government censors banned the Encyclopedia. They considered it antireligious because some articles criticized religious persecution. The book was still read throughout Europe even though is was censored. It was banned by royal decree in France in 1759, but still sold thousands of copies in France and was translated into other languages throughout Europe. And in 1759, it was included in the Roman Catholic Church s Index of Prohibited Books. Diderot and Jean Le Rond d Alembert (1717-1783) edited the works of the Encyclopedia. The Enlightenment spread in other ways. As literacy rates improved in the1700s, more newspapers and journals were published. Learned societies published reports and held public lectures to offer these new ideas. In addition, middle-class men met in coffee houses to discuss

the latest discoveries in science and politics. Popular political pamphlets and songs help spread the ideas. Women s Contribution to the Enlightenment Women played an important role in spreading the Enlightenment ideas. In Paris, and elsewhere in France, wealthy women held salons, or informal gatherings, at which writers, musicians, painters and philosophes presented works and exchanged ideas. The salon originated in the 1600s, when a group of noble women in Paris began inviting a few friends to poetry readings. Only people who were considered witty, intelligent and well-read were invited to the salons. Madame de Geoffrin (zhahf RAN) During the 1700s, middle-class women such as began holding salons. Voltaire and leading philosophes gathered at her salon at least once a week. Through her salon, women helped shape the tastes and manners of the Enlightenment. Some women also acted as patrons for the artists and writers. For example, Louise de Warens supported Rousseau and his family so he could spend his full time writing. In addition, women produced their own poetry and novels, which they circulated among their friends in the salons. A few women managed to get an education in the sciences. For example, Emile du Chatelet became a noted physicist and mathematician and translated Newton s work from Latin into French. European Monarchs Many European rulers were impressed by the ideas of the Enlightenment. Some adopted the ideas which could improve the social and economic areas in their nations. They considered themselves a enlightened monarchs. However, they used the new ideas to centralized their power by reducing the privileges of nobles. In Austria, Empress Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II, tried to put Enlightenment principles into practice. Maria passed laws to limit serfdom by controlling the amount of unpaid work required. Joseph took her policies a step further and abolished serfdom. He also allowed freedom of the press, banned the use of torture, and ended religious persecution. He gave equal rights to Jews and limited the power of the Catholic Church. His successor reversed his reforms after his death in 1790. Some monarchs made few changes even though they studied the ideas. Catherine the Great of Russia invited Diderot to visit Russia, and she corresponded with Voltaire. She made some effort to limit torture and introduce religious toleration, but she did nothing to end serfdom. Frederick the Great of Prussia was very impressed with the French philosophes that he invited Voltaire to his court. Frederick introduced reforms by allowing religious freedom and by encouraging elementary education for children. However, he did not change the social structure, which was based on inequality and serfdom.

The Arts During the Enlightenment Artists tried to find laws that would give order to their work. Painters thought their subjects should look natural but at the same time beautiful. They were strongly influenced by classical Greek art, which had represented figures in their most ideal and graceful forms. Classical styles also influenced European architecture. In the 1600s, buildings had become ornate and elaborate. But in the 1700s, architects returned to the simple elegance of ancient Greece. Many talented individuals made lasting contributions to music. Musicians favoured an ornate style in their music. Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel (German Composers) wrote many types of music. Bach is well known for his religious music and Handel s operas were popular. In the mid-1700s, music began to reflect the simplicity and elegance expressed by artists and architecture of the time. In the late 1700s, this style of music peaked with the help of Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Hayden made great symphonies, while Mozart is remembered for his childhood genius. He composed music before he was five years old. At the age of 6, Mozart played for Empress Maria Theresa. Later, his father took him and his talented sister to perform in the salons of Paris. Although he was only 35 when he died, Mozart had already written more than 600 musical works, including symphonies, operas and church music. FOREMOST ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS (CHY) Read pages 73-75, and pages141-150 in Legacy: The West and the World and complete the following organizer. Enlightenment Thinkers Francis Bacon Significant Theories and Ideas Rene Descartes

Thomas Hobbes John Locke Baron de Montesquieu Voltaire Cesare Beccaria J. J. Rousseau Adam Smith

Immanuel Kant Edmund Burke Johann Gottfried von Herder Marquis de Condorcet The Marquise du Chatelet