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