1. Lecture 1: Enlightenment philosophy, Race
Lecture 2: Salons, Music, Literature, Enlightened
Despotism
Chapter 17: Toward a
New World View
“Siecle de Lumiere”
“The Century of Light”
2. Why did the Enlightenment
begin(reached its height) in
France?
1. French was the international
language of the educated classes in the
18thc.
2. In France, intellectual radicals could
battle opposition without level of
restraints found in rest of Europe.
3. French philosophes were indeed
asking fundamental questions.
3. Deism: “Religion of the
Thinker’s
Enlightenment thinker’s did not
denounce religion.
These thinker’s opted for Deismis a
religious and philosophical belief that a
supreme being created the universe,
and that this (and religious truth in
general) can be determined using
reason and observation of the natural
world alone, without a need for either
faith or organized religion.
4. Connection across time:
Today: World Union of Diests—God
gave us reason-not religion
The World Union of Deists and THINK!
were founded in Charlottesville, Virginia,
U.S.A., on April 10, 1993 by Bob
Johnson.
7. Denis Diderot& Jean le Rond
d’Alembert
Editors of a 17 volume encyclopedia with
100,000s of articles that exalted science,
questioned religion, & criticized intolerance,
legal injustice, and anachronistic social
institutions.
8. Thomas Hobbes
English Civil War
People were selfish &
wicked by nature
social contract
People must give up their
rights to a strong rule to
gain law & order
Leviathan
Ruler needs total power
to keep citizens under
control
Absolute Monarchy
9. John Locke
Natural Rights
Life, liberty & property; Property
most impt.
U.S. Dec.Indep.espouses these
rights!(Jefferson)
Govt.’s power comes by
consent of people
Popular consent & Right to rebel
if gov’t doesn’t protect rights!
Foundation of modern
democracy
Concept of tabula rasa!!
Children are born blank slates…
The unformed, featureless mind.
The importance of parents’ influence then
in paramount
10. Locke, con’t
3 concepts of gov’t:
1. Consent of the
goverened
2. a social contract
between a fair gov’t
& responsible
citizens
3. right to revolution!
Locke believed
Property was the
most impt. of his
natural rights!
12. Voltaire Most brilliant & influential:
“Ecrasez l’infame!”
Targeted clergy, aristocracy &
govt.
Arrested twice & exiled to
England
Mocked French laws, customs
& Christianity
Fought for tolerance, reason,
freedom of religious belief &
freedom of speech
Humanity’s worst enemies:
Intolerance, prejudice &
superstition
“I may not agree with a word you
say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it!”
13. Montesquieu
Political Liberty
“Spirit of Laws”
Separation of
powers
Division of power
among different
branches
Check & balances
Blueprint for U.S.
Constitution
“Power should be a
check to power”
14. Jean Jacques Rousseau
Individual Freedom
Civilization corrupted
people's natural goodness
Strongest among people
forced obedience of unjust
laws
Freedom & equality were
destroyed
Direct Democracy
The Social Contract
“Man is born free, but
everywhere in chains.”
Belief in popular sovereignty
18. Baruch Spinoza 1632-1677
Jewish Philosopher
Amsterdam
Mind and body united in
one substance
God and nature were
two names of the same
things
Good and evil were
merely relative values
19. Immanuel Kant(1724-1804)
One of the few philosophes to see
the French Rev.
Prussian philosopher and author
More optimistic than Rousseau.
Critique of Pure Reason
He said, Sapere aude! (dare to
know)! ’Have the courage to use
your own understanding’ is therefore
the motto of enlightenment that Kant
gave in “What is Enlightenment?”
20. Human mind is nothing but a
bundle of impressions
Reason can’t decipher
anything about the origins of
the universe or the existence of
God
Was an empiricist-knowledge
comes to a person exclusively
through experience.
Underminded the
Enlightenment philosophy of
reason!
David Hume(1711-1776)
23. Impact Cont.
Physiocrats developed
Group of thinkers called
“economists” by their
critics
Laissez-faire->gov’t
“hands off.” French for “let
do.”
Adam Smith
English
Published Wealth of
Nations - 1776
24. II. The Enlightenment
E. Race and the Enlightenment
1. Carl von Linne
2. David Hume and Immanuel Kant
3. The Concept of “Race”
25. . Race and the Enlightenment (the Enlightenment
represented a turning point in European ideas about race)
1. Carl von Linne –
Swedish botanist and author of The System of Nature (1735)
who claimed that nature was organized into a God-given
hierarchy with distinct species and races
2. David Hume and Immanuel Kant -
Claimed that there were four human races that had derived
from a original race of “white brunette” people, the white
inhabitants of northern Germany.
3. The Concept of “Race” –
Used to designate biologically distinct groups of humans and
contained assumptions of superiority and inferiority (which
could justify enslavement or conquest). Not all
Enlightenment thinkers, however, agreed with such
concepts of race.
26. Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened
Absolutism
1. Jewish Life
2. Haskalah
3. Tolerance
27. Jewish Life and the Limits
of Enlightened Absolutism
1. Jewish Life –
Characterized by legal discrimination, confinement to tiny ghettos,
and prominence in international trade.
2. Haskalah –
Enlightenment movement led by Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786)
that argued for freedom and civil rights for European Jews.
3. Tolerance –
Attempts to naturalize Jews gained some ground (in Austria), but
moved slowly because of public hostility (as in Britain) or the
opposition of monarchs (like Frederick the Great or Catherine the
Great). The French Revolution was the first time when all
restrictions were abolished in Western and Central Europe.
28. To know…from your reading
Reading revolution
The transition in Europe from a society where literacy consisted of
patriarchal and communal reading of religious texts to a society
where literacy was commonplace and reading material was
broad and diverse.
Public sphere
An idealized intellectual space that emerged in Europe during the
Enlightenment, where the public came together to discuss
important issues relating to society, economics, and politics
Coffeehouse Culture: Living in the Past, page 538!
Notas do Editor
II. The Enlightenment
E. Race and the Enlightenment (the Enlightenment represented a turning point in European ideas about race)
1. Carl von Linne – Swedish botanist and author of The System of Nature (1735) who claimed that nature was organized into a God-given hierarchy with distinct species and races
2. David Hume and Immanuel Kant - Claimed that there were four human races that had derived from a original race of “white brunette” people, the white inhabitants of northern Germany.
3. The Concept of “Race” – Used to designate biologically distinct groups of humans and contained assumptions of superiority and inferiority (which could justify enslavement or conquest). Not all Enlightenment thinkers, however, agreed with such concepts of race.
F. Late Enlightenment (attack on the faith in reason, progress, and moderation)
1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) – Son of a Swiss watchmaker who argued that rationalism and civilization had destroyed the individual and that the basic goodness of the unspoiled child and the individual had to be preserved against cruel civilization. Author of The Social Contract (1762), which put forward concepts of the general will (the true interest of all the people, but not necessarily the will of the majority) and sovereignty. He was a harbinger of Romanticism and reaction against the Enlightenment.
2. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) – Prussian philosopher and author of “What is Enlightenment?” who attempted to reconcile absolute monarchical authority with a critical public sphere.
III. Enlightened Absolutism
C. The Austrian Habsburgs
1. Marie Theresa (r. 1740–1780) – Austrian monarch who introduced reforms that included limiting the papacy’s political influence in her realm, reforming and strengthening the bureaucracy, revamping the system of taxation, and improving the lot of the agricultural population.
2. Joseph II (r. 1780–1790) – Abolished serfdom (1781), decreed that peasants could pay landlords in cash rather than through compulsory labor on their land.
3.Leopold II (r. 1790–1792) – Canceled Joseph’s edicts to reestablish order, reinstating forced labor on the lords’ lands. These actions showed the limits of Enlightenment thinking about equality and social justice.
B. Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened Absolutism
1. Jewish Life – Characterized by legal discrimination, confinement to tiny ghettos, and prominence in international trade.
2. Haskalah – Enlightenment movement led by Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) that argued for freedom and civil rights for European Jews.
3. Tolerance - Attempts to naturalize Jews gained some ground (in Austria), but moved slowly because of public hostility (as in Britain) or the opposition of monarchs (like Frederick the Great or Catherine the Great). The French Revolution was the first time when all restrictions were abolished in Western and Central Europe.