European Enlightenment: Difference between revisions

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=== John Locke ===
=== John Locke ===
[[File:John Locke.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Locke by Godfrey Kneller in 1697|alt=Portrait of Locke by Godfrey Kneller in 1697]]
* 1632-1704
* key Enlightenment thinker
* known as "Father of liberalism"
* key ideas:
** "natural law" and "natural rights"
*** that people are born with certain rights and that "natural" laws pre-exist governments (which creates "positive law")
** the "social contract"
*** the government and the governed must have a "contract" that protects and defines the rights and responsibility of both
*** people have the natural right to protect their own "life, health, liberty, or possessions"
**** therefore, protecting those rights is a primary purpose of government (its contract)
** "consent of the governed"
*** governments are legitimate only if they have the "consent" or permission from the "governed" (the people)
** the "clean slate" or "''tabula rosa''"
*** that all humans are born equal and learn from their environment and experiences
*** he promoted proper education of children when young
**** otherwise, prejudices, fears, and superstitions will be "locked in" to their memories
** separation of church and state
** property
*** Locke argued that property is a natural right and is necesssary for happiness
** supply and demand or "price threory"
*** Locke developed the economic / monetary theory of the relationship between supply and demand
* works:
** "A Letter Concerning Toleration" 1689
** "Two Treatises of Government" 1689-90
** "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" 1693
** "1695. The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures" 1695
* quotations:
** "What worries you masters you."


=== Isaac Newton ===
=== Isaac Newton ===
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=== Voltaire ===
=== Voltaire ===
* Candide: satire on Englightenment thought "best of all possible worlds" << to do
* 1694-1778
* French philosopher and writer
* ideas:
** freedom of speech
** freedom of religion and freedom and toleration
** separation of church and state
*** was very anti-clerical and anti-dogma (strict religious rules)
*** was a "deist" but not an atheist
** disliked democracy
*** leads to mob rule
** pluralism
*** Voltaire studied foreign religions and history and considered them on equal basis as with those of the West
*** he admired Confucious:
<pre> Confucius has no interest in falsehood; he did not pretend to be prophet; he claimed no inspiration; he taught no new religion; he used no delusions; flattered not the emperor under whom he lived... </pre>
* works:
** ''Candide''
** satire on Enlightenment thought "best of all possible worlds"  
* quotations:
** "Common sense is not so common."

Revision as of 19:09, 4 August 2021

  • 1680-1790
  • a product of the Protestant Reformation
  • intellectual "Age of Reason"
  • world view change from religious to secular
  • skepticism & religious skepticism
  • pursuit of happiness: focus on the human condition
  • diffusion of knowledge: books, pamphlets, publications, libraries, universities

Key dates[edit | edit source]

  • 1648: end of the 30 Years War (religious dispute was a core cause of the war)
  • 1680: publication of Isaac Newton's Principio Mathematica
  • 1688: Glorious Revolution in England
  • 1682: Haley's comet & Bayle's "Reflections on Comets"

Enlightenment definitions[edit | edit source]

  • disenchantment of the world
    • from Max Weber
    • attacking superstition
  • political reform
    • applying reason to public policy
    • infrastructure projects
    • penal & criminal law enforcement and reform
      • vagrants and beggars

Enlightenment core ideas[edit | edit source]

  • truth can be found through investigation
  • self-government
    • Glorious Revolution: William of Orange takes power
      • transfer of power based on the public good and not dynastic divine rule

Enlightenment projects[edit | edit source]

Diderot's "Encylopedie"[edit | edit source]

  • a tremendous project to catalog human knowledge
  • = an exercise in "freedom of thought"
  • had 28 volumes, 71,818 articles and 3,129 illustrations
  • started by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert
  • goals:
    • Diderot wrote that the purpose of the project was ""to change the way people think"
    • to disseminate (spread) knowledge across economic classes
    • to give more common people access to practical knowledge, especially mechanics
  • it was the first encyclopedia to have independent contributors
  • some of the ideas presented in the encyclopedia were considered radical
    • the French government banned it in 1759
    • the work supported religious freedom
    • many entries challenged religious doctrine
      • under the idea that knowledge is provable, the work treated religion as also subject to proof
      • the work attacked mysticism and superstition

taxonomy of human knowledge[edit | edit source]

Fig. 3: "Figurative system of human knowledge", the structure that the Encyclopédie organised knowledge into. It had three main branches: memory, reason, and imagination.
  • Enlightenment's outlook was that all human knowledge and the world and universe around it can be understood rationally
    • therefore, such knowledge can be organized logical
  • the Encyclopedia organized knowledge into three main categories:
    • memory (factual knowledge)
    • reason (logic, deduction)
    • imagination (arts, literature)

Enlightenment thinkers[edit | edit source]

entry structure[edit | edit source]

=== section title: first, last, alphabetical by last name

  • dates
  • core ideas
  • works

Cesare Beccaria[edit | edit source]

  • 1738-1794
  • Italian thinker, concerned with prison reform
    • wrote On Crimes and Punishments
    • condemned torture and the death penalty
  • considered the "father of criminal justice" or law

Pierre Bayle[edit | edit source]

  • core ideas
    • religious skepticism and toleration
  • 1682 Reflections on Comets
    • Hailey's comet as natural phenomenon and not a mysterious event
    • challenged superstition
  • religious toleration

Denis Diderot[edit | edit source]

  • author, editor of l'Encyclopedie
  • self-exiled to Switzerland to carry on the project in secret
  • Diderot was a follower of Voltaire and deisms (that God exists but not as a distinct entity)
    • he later adopted materialism and atheism
    • he believed that religious truths should be subject to the same standards of proof as any other knowledge
  • he also wrote plays and was a prominent art critic
  • overall, Diderot's thoughts are expressed in these questions, as proposed by one of his biographers, Andrew S. Curran:
    • Why be moral in a world without god?
    • How should we appreciate art?
    • What are we and where do we come from?
    • What are sex and love?
    • How can a philosopher intervene in political affairs?
  • Diderot quotation:
    • "posterity is for the philosopher what the 'other world' is for the man of religion."

Robert Hooke[edit | edit source]

David Hume[edit | edit source]

  • the problem of induction
    • how do you know that the sun will rise tomorrow?
    • Greek verwion of hte question >>> todo
  • reason will always be the slave of passion
  • in 2020 Hume cancelled by modern "cancel culture"
    • Hume wrote a racist tract, "comments on matters of race" that posited that blacks were inferior beings
    • in 2020, Edinburgh University removed his name from a building on campus

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing[edit | edit source]

  • 1729-1781
  • German writer and critic
    • influenced German literature
    • promoted religious tolerance and freedom
  • works:
    • Nathan the Wise, a play on religious tolerance

click EXPAND for details on Nathan the Wise and the "parable of the rings"

      • a play about Nathan, a Jewish merchant who meets Saladin the Great, the Ottoman sultan and thus a core Islamic leader
      • Saladin asks Nathan which of the Abrahamic religions is the "true religion"
        • Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam (in order of historical appearance)
      • Nathan avoids the question trap by answering with the "parable of the ring"
        • = a story about a magical ring that empowers the bearer God's approval ("pleasing to God")
          • i.e., the bearer's religion is the "true religion"
        • it is passed on by generation, until a father can't decide which of three sons to give it to
          • so he creates two exact copies and gives each son a ring
        • afterwards, the sons argue over who owns the actual ring
        • they take their dispute to a wise man who tells them
          • that perhaps all three rings are replicas, they cannot know
          • therefore, if each acts in such a way as God will be pleased, it would show that each ring has the magical power
          • i.e., God doesn't judge by one's religion but by one's actions

John Locke[edit | edit source]

Portrait of Locke by Godfrey Kneller in 1697
Portrait of Locke by Godfrey Kneller in 1697
  • 1632-1704
  • key Enlightenment thinker
  • known as "Father of liberalism"
  • key ideas:
    • "natural law" and "natural rights"
      • that people are born with certain rights and that "natural" laws pre-exist governments (which creates "positive law")
    • the "social contract"
      • the government and the governed must have a "contract" that protects and defines the rights and responsibility of both
      • people have the natural right to protect their own "life, health, liberty, or possessions"
        • therefore, protecting those rights is a primary purpose of government (its contract)
    • "consent of the governed"
      • governments are legitimate only if they have the "consent" or permission from the "governed" (the people)
    • the "clean slate" or "tabula rosa"
      • that all humans are born equal and learn from their environment and experiences
      • he promoted proper education of children when young
        • otherwise, prejudices, fears, and superstitions will be "locked in" to their memories
    • separation of church and state
    • property
      • Locke argued that property is a natural right and is necesssary for happiness
    • supply and demand or "price threory"
      • Locke developed the economic / monetary theory of the relationship between supply and demand
  • works:
    • "A Letter Concerning Toleration" 1689
    • "Two Treatises of Government" 1689-90
    • "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" 1693
    • "1695. The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures" 1695
  • quotations:
    • "What worries you masters you."


Isaac Newton[edit | edit source]

  • Principio Mathematica
  • launched idea of a divinely-ordered universe understandable by mathematics


Voltaire[edit | edit source]

  • 1694-1778
  • French philosopher and writer
  • ideas:
    • freedom of speech
    • freedom of religion and freedom and toleration
    • separation of church and state
      • was very anti-clerical and anti-dogma (strict religious rules)
      • was a "deist" but not an atheist
    • disliked democracy
      • leads to mob rule
    • pluralism
      • Voltaire studied foreign religions and history and considered them on equal basis as with those of the West
      • he admired Confucious:
 Confucius has no interest in falsehood; he did not pretend to be prophet; he claimed no inspiration; he taught no new religion; he used no delusions; flattered not the emperor under whom he lived... 
  • works:
    • Candide
    • satire on Enlightenment thought "best of all possible worlds"
  • quotations:
    • "Common sense is not so common."