The Limits of Reason

Satire

“Literature that ridicules vices and follies” (Harper Handbook to Literature 413)

Voltaire, Candide (1759)

Satirical response to ideas expressed by Leibniz (German mathematician/philosopher): this

is “the best of all possible worlds” Pope (English poet): “Whatever is, is right”

Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (1729) Irony (contradiction between what is stated

and what is intended): “Modest” Parody: the essay parodies the rational,

reformist vision of Enlightenment thinkers

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

Visual Satires Gin Lane Beer Street “Marriage a la Mode” series

Philosophical Challenges to Reason Rousseau (1712-1778)

Kant (1724-1804)

Rousseau, Origin of Inequality among Men (1755) Society is the source of conflict among

people In the “state of nature”: no property, no strong

interpersonal ties: equality Society gives rise to esteem, and from

esteem comes “vanity and scorn,” “shame and envy”: inequality

Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762) “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in

chains.” The state is “the general will” of the

citizens: unlike Hobbes and Locke, for whom the social contract gives power to a ruler

The general will is always right Anyone disagree? That person should “be

forced to be free”

Rousseau, Emile (1762)

Education begins at birth and lasts for 25 years

Reason and intellect develop from ages 12-15

Nature and “hands-on” experience essential for the development of reason—send boys outdoors, don’t restrain them

Girls should get domestic education

Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

Rejected Locke’s idea of the tabula rasa Kant said, “though our knowledge begins with

experience, it does not follow that [all knowledge] arises out of experience”

Forms of intuition and categories of thought exist from birth and shape/organize our understanding of sense experience That is, there are limitations to human intellect

Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788)

“Categorical imperative”: before doing something, we should be able to accept our decision as a standard for all humankind to follow

It is not enough for our actions to have good results, but we must will to do good. Kant emphasizes truth/morality as something we

struggle to find rather than (in mainstream Enlightenment view) as self-evident

Rococo, 1715-50

From rocaille, rock or shell ornamentation Luxurious and ornate like Baroque style, but

more playful and intimate (not spatially expansive and complex like the Baroque style)

Characterized by curves rather than geometrical regularity

Watteau, Departure from the Island of Cythera (1717)

Boucher, Venus Consoling Love (1751)

Fragonard,

The Swing

(1768)

Greuze, Village Betrothal (1761)

Chardin,The KitchenMaid(1738)

Houdon,George Washington,1786-96

Houdon,Jefferson,

1789

George Caleb Bingham, The County Election, 1852

Gibbs,SaintMartin-in-the-Fields,1721-26

David, The Oath of Horatii (1784)

David,

The Death of Marat

(1793)

David, Death of Socrates, 1787

Kauffman, Zeuxis Selecting Models. . ., c.1765