The Age of European Enlightenment

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The Age of European Enlightenment
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The Age of European Enlightenment

• The Scientific Revolution
• The Enlightenment
• The Enlightenment and Religion
• The Enlightenment and Society
• Enlightened Absolutism

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Enlightenment Salon
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Introduction

• Scientific Revolution
• Transformed every part of the world
• Impact of science on every area of life remains a
  dominant theme
• Eagerness to embrace scientific change is one of
  the primary intellectual inheritances from that
  age

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Introduction (contd)

• Movement fostered by the Enlightenment
• Confidence in reason, over tradition and religion
• Innovation and improvement

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Global PerspectiveThe European Enlightenment

• How did Enlightenment values as well as
  Enlightenment admiration of science become one of
  the chief defining qualities of societies
  regarded as advanced, progressive, and modern?
• How has the political thought of the
  Enlightenment influenced the development of
  modern political philosophies and modern
  governments?

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Global PerspectiveThe European Enlightenment
(cont'd)

• How could modes of thought developed to criticize
  various aspects of eighteenth-century European
  society be transferred to other traditions of
  world civilizations?

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The Scientific Revolution
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Scientific Revolution

• A new view of the universe in 1500s, 1600s
• Not everything actually new
• Reexamined and rethought older knowledge and made
  new discoveries
• Slow-moving, complex movement
• Brilliant people suggested erroneous as well as
  useful ideas

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Scientific Revolution (contd)

• Limited to a few hundred people
• Authority and application of scientific knowledge
• Comes to define modern Western civilization
• Achievements in many areas
• Astronomy most captures attention

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Ptolemaic system

• Standard explanation of the place of the Earth in
  the heavens
• Combination of mathematical astronomy of Ptolemy
  (Almagest, 150 C.E.) with the physical cosmology
  of Aristotle

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Ptolemaic System (contd)

• Geocentricism
• Earth as center of universe
• System of concentric spheres
• Outer region was realm of God and angels
• Numerous problems
• Planets appeared to move backward
• Ptolemy presented epicycles as the solution

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The Ptolemaic System
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Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

• Polish astronomer
• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
• Challenged Ptolemaic universe
• Ptolemaic ideas (i.e., epicycles) applied to
  heliocentric universe
• Earth moved about sun in a circle

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Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) (contd)

• System no more accurate
• A way of confronting some difficulties in
  Ptolemaic astronomy
• Allowed people to think in new directions

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Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

• Danish astronomer
• Spent most of life opposing Copernicus
• Suggested that moon and sun revolved around the
  Earth
• Other planets revolved around sun
• Astronomical observations with the naked eye
• Constructed most accurate tables of observations

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Tycho Brahe
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Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

• German astronomer
• Influenced by Renaissance Neo-Platonists
• Kepler believed that to keep sun at center the
  concept of circular orbits had to be abandoned
• Proposed that orbits had to be elliptical
• Used Copernicuss sun-centered universe and
  Brahes empirical data

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Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) (contd)

• On the Motion of Mars (1609)
• New problem Why were planetary orbits
  elliptical?

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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

• Turned a telescope to the sky
• Mountains on the moon
• Spots moving across the sun
• Moons orbiting Jupiter
• Heavens far more complex than anyone knew
• Concept of a universe totally subject to
  mathematical laws

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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) (contd)

• Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of the World
• Supported the Copernican system
• Condemned by Catholic church

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

• Father of empiricism and experimentation
• Novum Organum (1620), New Atlantis (1627)?
• Attacked scholastic belief that knowledge was
  already discovered and only required explanation
• Urged contemporaries to strike out on their own
  in search of new understandings of science

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (contd)

• Desirability of innovation and change
• Human knowledge should produce useful results
• Science had a practical purpose and the goal was
  human improvement
• No major scientific contributions, simply
  directed people to new method and new purpose

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Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

• Addressed question of planetary motion
• Basis for physics for 200 years
• The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
  (Principia Mathematica)
• Gravity physical objects moved through mutual
  attraction
• Explained how planets moved in an orderly manner
• Proved relationship mathematically

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Isaac Newton (1642-1727) (contd)

• Upheld importance of empirical data, observation
• Observe before attempting to explain
• Mathematic application to scientific investigation

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Newtons Telescope
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Women and the Scientific Revolution

• General absence of women
• Universities and monasteries institutions of
  celibate male clerical culture
• Women got few opportunities
• Generally through marriage or social standing
• Noblewomen and women from artisan class

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Women and the Scientific Revolution (contd)

• Margaret Cavendish (1632-1673)
• Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy (1666)
  and Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668)
• Only woman to attend Royal Society meeting
• Criticized the Society for focusing on novel
  scientific instruments rather than solving
  practical problems

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Women and Learning
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Women of the Artisan Milieu

• Artisan women had greater freedom
• Astronomy was often studied under the tutelage of
  husbands or fathers in the workshop
• Maria Cunitz book on astronomy
• Two husband and wife astronomy teams
• Elisabetha and Johannes Hevelius
• Maria Winkelmann and Gottfried Kirch

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Women of the Artisan Milieu (contd)

• Women did acquire knowledge of science
• Margaret Cavendish, A Description of a New World,
  Called the Blazing World (1666)
• Designed to introduce women to science
• The pursuit of natural knowledge was still
  considered a male vocation

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John Locke (1632-1704)

• Hoped to achieve for philosophy a lawful picture
  of the human mind similar to that which Newton
  had presented of nature
• Most profound impact on European and American
  thought during eighteenth century

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John Locke (1632-1704) (contd)

• Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
• Rejected idea of original sin
• Knowledge derived from sense experience
• Humans can take charge of own destiny
• Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
• Each person responsible for salvation
• Governments should not legislate on religion

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Locke (contd)

• Two Treatises of Government (1689)
• Law is the voice of reason
• Humans are equal and independent
• People shouldnt harm one another because all
  people are images and property of God

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Locke (contd)

• Rulers are not absolute in their power
• People enter political contracts with rulers
• Rulers are empowered to judge disputes and
  preserve natural rights
• Monarchs who broke trust could be overthrown
• Argument used in Declaration of Independence

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Overview
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The Enlightenment
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Enlightenment

• Movement of the eighteenth century stating that
  change and reform were desirable through the
  application of reason and science

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Enlightenment (contd)

• Led by philosophes
• Popularized seventeenth-century rationalism and
  scientific ideas
• Exposed contemporary social abuses
• Argued that reform was necessary, possible
• Problems that they confronted included
• Vested interests

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Enlightenment (contd)

• Political oppression
• Religious condemnation
• By mid-century they had brought enlightened ideas
  to the European public in a variety of ways

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Voltaire (1694-1778)

• François Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
• Most influential of the philosophes
• Believed that human society should be improved
• Letters on the English (1733)
• Praised English virtues criticized French
  society

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Voltaire (1694-1778) (contd)

• Elements of the Philosophy of Newton (1738)
• Popularized the thought of Newton
• Candide (1759)
• Attacked war, religious persecution, and
  unwarranted optimism about the human condition
• Reform, if achieved, might not be permanent
• Hopeful but not certain
• Pessimistic undercurrent

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The Encyclopedia (1751-1772)

• One of great monuments of Enlightenment
• Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
• Collective effort of more than 100 authors
• Articles from all major French philosophes
• Collective plea for freedom of expression
• The most advanced critical ideas in religion,
  government, and philosophy
• Looked to antiquity for intellectual models

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Denis Diderot
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The Encyclopedia (1751-1772) (contd)

• Rather than to Christian centuries
• Designed to secularize learning
• Good life application of reason to relationships

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The Encyclopedia Praises Mechanical Arts and
Artisans
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The Encyclopedia Praises Mechanical Arts and
Artisans
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Illustration from the Encyclopedia
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Map 211. Subscriptions to Diderots Encyclopedia
throughout Europe
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The Enlightenment and Religion
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Deism

• Philosophes
• Religion should be reasonable
• Should lead to moral behavior
• Nature was rational
• John Toland, Christianity Not Mysterious (1696)
• Religion a rational, natural phenomenon
• God as a divine watchmaker

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Deism (contd)

• Two major points
• Belief in a rational God
• Belief in life after death
• Deism empirical, tolerant, reasonable

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Toleration

• Primary social condition was the establishment of
  religious toleration
• Voltaire, Treatise on Toleration (1763)
• Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781)
• Nathan the Wise (1779)
• Plea for toleration

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Toleration (contd)

• Belief that human life should not be subordinated
  to religion
• Secular values, consideration more important

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Chronology Major Publication Dates of the
Enlightenment
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Islam and the Enlightenment

• Islam seen as rival to Christianity
• False religion and a divine Muhammad
• Islam sometimes criticized on cultural and
  political grounds
• Voltaire
• Islam was simply another example of religious
  fanaticism
• Deist John Toland
• Islam as a form of Christianity

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Islam and the Enlightenment (contd)

• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)
• Lived in Constantinople with her husband
• Book published posthumously praised Ottoman
  society
• Rare voice in support of Muslim life and values
• Muslims felt little could be learned from Europe

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Map of Turkey and View of Constantinople
(Istanbul)?
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The Enlightenment and Society
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Printing Shops
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Montesquieu (1689-1755)

• The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
• No single set of laws could apply to all people
  at all times and in all places
• Good political life many variables
• Monarchy limited by intermediary institutions
• Including the aristocracy, towns

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Montesquieu (1689-1755) (contd)

• Division of power
• Executive, legislative, judicial
• Influence on later liberal democracies

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Adam Smith (1723-1790)

• Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
  of Nations (1776)
• Economic liberty foundation of natural economy
• Mercantile system should be abolished
• Best way to encourage economic growth
• Allow people to pursue their own selfish economic
  interests
• Resources of nature are limitless

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Adam Smith (1723-1790) (contd)

• Nations did not have to be poor
• Founder of laissez-faire economic thought
• However the state should provide schools, armies,
  roads, etc.
• Four-stage theory justified economic and imperial
  domination

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Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Transcended thought and values of age
• Antipathy toward world and society
• Men could not achieve moral, virtuous, or sincere
  lives living according to commercial values
• Civilization had contaminated human nature

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Rousseau (1712-1778) (contd)

• Questioned concepts of material and intellectual
  progress and morality
• Said real purpose of society should be to nurture
  better people

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Rousseau
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Writings of Rousseau

• Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755)
• Evils blamed on uneven distribution of property

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Writings of Rousseau (contd)

• The Social Contract (1762)
• All men are born free, but everywhere they are
  in chains.
• Rousseau defended these chains, suggesting that
  society is more important than its individual
  members
• Independent human beings can achieve little

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Writings of Rousseau (contd)

• The Social Contract (1762)
• Law to be obeyed is that created by general will
  of majority who acted with adequate information
  and under virtuous customs and morals
• People should be good even if it means being poor

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Enlightened Critics of European Empires

• Critics of imperialism were a minority
• Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, and Johann Herder
• Most frequent topics were the treatment of Native
  Americans and the enslavement of Africans

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Enlightened Critics of European Empires (contd)

• Arguments
• No single definition of human nature should be
  made the standard throughout the world
• Cultures should be respected and understood
• Humans developed distinct cultures possessing
  values that cannot and should not be compared
• Inner social and linguistic complexities make any
  comparison impossible

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Women and the Enlightenment

• Salons
• Role of marquise de Pompadour important in
  opposing censorship of the Encyclopedia
• However, philosophes not strong feminists
• Montesquieu - traditional view of marriage
• Diderot - few articles by women
• Rousseau - women subordinate to men
• separate spheres

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Women and the Enlightenment (contd)

• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
• A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)

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Enlightened Absolutism
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Enlightened Absolutism

• Many eighteenth-century rulers embraced reforms
  set forth by philosophes
• Monarchical government dedicated to rational
  strengthening of central absolutism
• Relationship between rulers and philosophes
• Some of it purely public relations

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Enlightened Absolutism (contd)

• Still, these rulers wanted for their subjects
• Better health
• More accessible education
• Economic prosperity
• More rational government

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AustriaMaria Theresa (1740-1780)

• Habsburg ruler
• Maintained control during War of Austrian
  Succession
• More efficient tax system
• Funds even from clergy and nobles
• Central councils to deal with problems
• Concerned with welfare of peasants
• Extended authority of royal bureaucracy over that
  of nobilities to help the peasants

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Austria Joseph II (1780-1790)

• Habsburg Revolutionary Emperor
• Increased power of central government
• Freedom to Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek Orthodox
• Jews gain rights of private worship
• Josephinism Catholic church under control

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Austria Joseph II (1780-1790) (contd)

• Abolished legal status of serfdom
• More freedom for peasants
• Taxes across social lines
• Too far and too fast

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Russia Catherine the Great (1762-1796)

• German princess married to Peter III
• Peter III murdered with Catherines approval
• Catherine familiar with Enlightenment
• Russia must reform to be a great power

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Catherine the Great
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Charter of Nobility
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Russia Catherine the Great (1762-1796) (contd)

• Legislative Commission called in 1767
• Catherine wrote series of Instructions
• More than 500 delegates selected to advise on
  revising the law and government of Russia
• Gathered information but dismissed before they
  made any revisions
• Still firmly tied to absolutism
• Continued expansion
• Drive for warm water ports

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Map 212. Expansion of Russia
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Partition of Poland

• Prussia, Russia, and Austria carve up Poland
• First Partition, 1772
• Second Partition, 1793
• Third Partition, 1795
• Poland disappears until after World War I

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Partition of Poland (contd)

• Representative of the power of the evolving
  states of Prussia, Russia, and Austria in Eastern
  Europe
• Weakness of the antiquated Poland

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Review Questions

1. What was the Scientific Revolution? What were the
   major contributions of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler,
   Galileo, Bacon, and Newton? Do you think they
   regarded themselves as revolutionaries?

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Review Questions

1. How and to what extent did women participate in
   the Scientific Revolution?

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Review Questions

1. Define the Enlightenment. Is it best seen as a
   single movement or as a series of related
   movements? What was the relationship of the
   Enlightenment to the New Science? How did the
   Enlightenment further the idea of progress and
   the superiority of European civilization?

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Review Questions

1. Why did the philosophes believe they must comment
   so extensively on religion? Why did they
   criticize Christianity? Why did some of them
   champion deism?

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Review Questions

1. What were the differing views of the philosophes
   toward Islam?

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Review Questions

1. Was there a single Enlightenment view of
   politics? Why could writers so dedicated to
   reform have so many different political paths to
   achieve reform?

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Review Questions

1. How has the political thought of the
   Enlightenment influenced the development of
   modern political philosophies and modern
   governments?

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Review Questions

1. Summarize the Enlightenment critique of European
   empires. Do you see any flaws in this line of
   reasoning? Why do you think it was not more
   influential?

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Review Questions

• What were the prevailing attitudes of the
• philosophes toward women and womens roles? Do
  these attitudes present any contradiction to
  other Enlightenment positions? Explain.

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Review Questions

1. Define enlightened absolutism. What were the
   similarities in the policies of Frederick the
   Great, Joseph II, and Catherine the Great? To
   what extent do their policies actually seem to
   stem from the ideas of the Enlightenment
   philosophes?