World Civilization Assignment 3

The European Enlightenment The Age of Reason

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Dating The Enlightenment

• The most given dates for the Enlightenment vary somewhat between 1650-1814, or 1700-1789.

• The difficulty with dating comes about because it is near impossible to draw a clean demarcation line between the Scientific Revolution (which is associated by some with the Late Renaissance) and the Enlightenment.

• The Enlightenment is according to many an extension of the Scientific Revolution.

• The Scientific Revolution was focused on the physical world, while the Enlightenment attempted to apply the new scientific methods to the social and political realms.

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The New Science

• 1605 Francis Bacon publishes “The Advancement of Science” and follows this up in 1620 “Novum Organum.”

• According to Bacon “the duty of the scientist was to observe and test nature for himself following the inductive method.”

• The inductive method basically turns the deductive method on its head. It is often referred to as the “bottom up” approach. “ In inductive reasoning, we begin with specific observations and measures, begin to detect patterns and regularities, formulate some tentative hypotheses that we can explore, and finally end up developing some general conclusions or theories.”

The description of the inductive method used here comes from: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/dedind.php.

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From Science to Politics

• By the late 17th century the new scientific method had royal and aristocratic patronage.

• Charles II of England establishes British Royal Society for the Sciences 1662.

• French Royal Academy of Sciences established in 1666.

• Yet despite royal patronage, the application of this new scientific method to social and political questions during the enlightenment would often (but not always) challenge the status quo, including monarchial forms of government.

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Great Thinkers of the Enlightenment

• What follows is a poor small sampling of the many great thinkers of the enlightenment

• In addition to slides that follow please read pp526-527 in text book (primary source selections)

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Thomas Hobbes (b.1588-d.1679)

• Thomas Hobbes was an English political philosopher and is regarded by some as one of the founders of western political thought.

• 1651 publishes Leviathan

• Best known for his concept of the social contract as a foundation for governance. A contract that exists between ruled and ruler, in which the ruled agree to certain constraints on their freedoms in order to live in an ordered society. This in essence is an acknowledgement of the idea of rule by consent.

• However, Hobbes given his own observations of humans, his belief in their inherent cruel impulses (greed, selfishness …) believed that only a strong government in the form of an absolute monarch could successfully govern them.

• The social contract once entered into was all but inviolate. Hence, revolutions are not justified except in all but extreme cases, and those are all but nonexistent.

• To Hobbes life without a strong government, or life in the “state of nature” is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

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Hobbes

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John Locke (b.1632 – d.1704)

• An English political philosopher and rough contemporary of Hobbes. Regarded by some as one of the founders of western liberal political thought (classical liberalism.)

• In his book, Two Treatises of Government, Locke explained that all men have Natural Rights, which are Life, Liberty, and Property.

• People have the right to rebel against a government that does not protect those rights. A harsh critic of absolutist government.

• In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding published 1690 he promoted the concept of innate equality arguing that all of us are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and our thoughts and intelligence are products of our experiences. His ideas were not widely acclaimed.

• His own observations of human nature led him to believe that humans could be reasonable and moral.

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Locke

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Baron de Montesquieu (b.1689-d.1755)

• French political philosopher and enlightenment thinker.

• 1748 published The Spirit of the Laws, which argues for what today we would call the separation of the powers.

• He argued that the best form of government would divide its powers into a Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branch. Montesquieu explained that this would result in a system where each branch would work to Check and Balance the others. (I hope this sounds familiar to all of you!)

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Montesquieu

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Voltaire (b.1694-d.1778) • French Francois Marie Arouet although went by the name of Voltaire.

• French essayist, satirist, and philosopher.

• A huge critic of the Catholic Church and of the monarchy, but also of religion in general. Despite this he argued for religious tolerance and freedom of worship.

• Purportedly a great promoter of freedom of speech. In an apocryphal saying attributed to him he is said to have commented: "I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

• Most influential book published in 1759 , Candide, in which he alludes to the benefits of self rule over such alternatives such as enlightened monarchs who he had come to believe were unreliable. As the concluding line goes "It is up to us to cultivate our garden."

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Jean Jacques Rousseau (b.1712-d.1778)

• Genevan writer and political philosopher (moved to France 1742)

• His most celebrated political work The Social Contract was published in 1762.

• In this work he argued that government should be run according to the will of the majority, which he called the “General Will.” He claimed the General Will would always act in the best interest of the people as it is above and beyond the individual.

• Rousseau also wrote and commented on social inequality (The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality) in which he argued human beings are generally decent but are corrupted by circumstances.

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Rousseau

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Immanuel Kant (b.1724-d.1804)

• Prussian (German) Philosopher

• To him the enlightenment was encapsulated in the following Latin phrase: Sapere aude! This is translated as Dare to Know!

• Changing peoples world views and changing the world by radically transforming political and social institutions.

• Kant urged humans to fall in order to learn to walk. He urged them to leave behind their “minority” and seek to attain their “majority” and hence independent thought and direction; rather than continuing to be lead “by those guardians who have kindly taken it upon themselves to supervise them; after they have made their domesticated animals dumb…” (What is Enlightenment?) This is undoubtedly a call for political action and participation.

• Kant is accounted as the father of “liberal secularism.”

• According to Kant “the greatest problem for the human species, the solution of which nature compels him to seek, is that of attaining a civil society which can administer justice universally.”

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Kant

Johann Gottlieb Becker (1720-1782) - http://www.philosovieth.de/kant- bilder/bilddaten.html

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Among Most Emblematic Products

• The French Encyclopedia: Produced by Denis Diderot and d’Alembert (1752-1772.) Published in 28 volumes. It had contributions from over 200 European leading intellectuals. The encylopedia attempted to collect, preserve, disseminate the totality of human knowledge. A massive undertaking.

• “Free trade capitalism” as argued for in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (shortened title) should be listed here.

• We can also consider the US constitution a product of the enlightenment.

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Title Page of the French Encyclopedie

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Organizational Structure

The curious among you can see here how the branches into which they broke down and organized human knowledge

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Wealth of Nations (Full Title Below)

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