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European Enlightenment: Difference between revisions

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1680-1790
* 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 ===
* 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 ==
* 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 ==
* self-government
** Glorious Revolution: William of Orange takes power
*** transfer of power based on the public good and not dynastic divine rule




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== Enlightenment thinkers ==
== Enlightenment thinkers ==
=== entry structure ===
<nowiki> === </nowiki>section title: first, last, alphabetical by last name
* core ideas
* dates
* works
=== Pierre Bayle ===
* 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
=== Cesare Beccaria ===
* ''On Crimes and Punishments''
** condemned torture and the death penality


=== Diderot ===
=== Diderot ===
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* self-exiled to Switzerland to carry on the project in secret
* self-exiled to Switzerland to carry on the project in secret


=== Hume ===
=== Robert Hooke ===
 
 
=== David Hume ===
* the problem of induction
* the problem of induction
** how do you know that the sun will rise tomorrow?  
** how do you know that the sun will rise tomorrow?  
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** Hume wrote a racist tract, "comments on matters of race" that posited that blacks were inferior beings
** 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
** in 2020, Edinburgh University removed his name from a building on campus
====  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ===
* core ideas
**
* works:
** ''Nathan the Wise'', a play on religious tolerance
click EXPAND for details on ''Nathan the Wise'' and the "parable of the rings"
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
*** 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
<div>
=== Isaac Newton ===
* ''Principio Mathematica''
* launched idea of a divinely-ordered universe understandable by mathematics


=== Voltaire ===
=== Voltaire ===
* Candide: satire on Englightenment thought "best of all possible worlds" << to do