Chapter 17 The Eighteenth Century: An Age of Enlightenment

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Chronology, p. 526

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John Locke John Locke (1632–1704), defender of the rights of the people against rulers who think their power absolute. (Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London)

Sir Isaac Newton ( ) Newton’s experiments with light passing through a prism became a model for writers praising the experimental method. (Corbis)

Map 17-1, p. 517

Charles de Secondat, the baron de Montesquieu ( )

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Map 17-2, p. 537

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The Enlightenment  Paths to Enlightenment  “Dare to know” – Immanual Kant  Scientific method to understand life  Popularization of Science  Bernard de Fontenelle ( ), Plurality of Worlds  A New Skepticism  Attacked superstition, religious intolerance, and dogmatism  Skepticism about religion and growing secularization  The Impact of Travel Literature  Travel books became very popular  Captain James Cook  Literature on China

The Legacy of Locke & Newton  Newton  reasoning could discover natural laws that govern politics, economics justice, religion, and the arts  Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding  knowledge derived from the environment  denied Descartes’ belief in innate ideas

The Philosophes and their Ideas  Came from all walks of life  Paris was the “capital”  Desire to change the world  Call for a spirit of rational criticism  3 French Giants: Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot

Montesquieu and Political Thought  Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu ( )  Persian Letters, 1721  Attacks traditional religion, advocacy of religious toleration, denunciation of slavery, use of reason  The Spirit of the Laws, 1748; comparative study of government

Voltaire and the Enlightenment  Francois-Marie Arouet, Voltaire ( )  Criticism of traditional religion  Treatise on Toleration, 1763  Deism

Diderot and the Encyclopedia  Denis Diderot ( )  Encyclopedia, 28 volumes  Attacked religious superstition and advocated toleration  Lowered price helped to spread the ideas of the Enlightenment

Toward a New “Science of Man”  David Hume  Physiocrats and Adam Smith founders of modern economics  François Quesnay ( )  Leader of the Physiocrat – natural economic laws  Rejection of mercantilism  Supply and demand

Adam Smith & Laissez-Faire Economics  Adam Smith ( )  The Wealth of Nations, 1776  Attack on mercantilism  Advocate of free trade  Government has only three basic functions  Protect society from invasion  Defend individuals from injustice and oppression  Keep up public works

The Later Enlightenment  Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( )  Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind; Preservation of private property had enslaved  Social Contract, 1762; Tried to harmonize individual liberty with governmental authority  Concept of General Will  Emile, 1762; important work on education

The “Woman’s Question” in the Enlightenment  Agree that the nature of women make them inferior  There were some exceptions, for example Diderot  Mary Astell ( )  A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, 1697  Better education and equality in marriage  Mary Wollstonecraft  Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792  Subjection of women by men wrong

Social Environment of the Philosophes  Salons  The influence of women  Marie-Thérèse de Geoffrin ( )  Marquise du Deffand ( )  Other gathering places

Innovations in Art, Music, and Literature  Rococo Art  Characteristics  Antoine Watteau ( )  Fragility and transitory nature of pleasure, love, and life  Baroque-Rococo architectural style  Balthasar Neumann ( )  Secular and spiritual interchangeable  Baroque Music  Johann Sebastian Bach ( )  George Frederick Handel ( )  Franz Joseph Haydn ( )  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( )

Development of the Novel  Decisive time in the development of the novel  Samuel Richardson  Virtue Rewarded  Henry Fielding  The History of Tom Jones

The High Culture of the Eighteenth Century  Characteristics  Increased readership and publishing  Development of magazines and newspapers for the general public  Joseph Addison and Richard Steele’s Spectator  Female Spectator  Education and Universities

Crime and Punishment  Punishment in the eighteenth century  Cesare Beccaria ( ), On Crimes and Punishments  Punishment should serve only as deterrent  Punishment moved away from spectacle towards rehabilitation

World of Medicine  University of Leiden  Royal College of Physicians  Barber-surgeons  Apothecaries, midwives, and faith healers  Hospital conditions

Popular Culture  Festivals, carnivals, and fairs  Gathering places  Taverns and Alcohol  The gap between high culture and popular culture  Literacy and Primary Education  Spread of literacy  State-supported primary schools  Hannah More

Religion and the Churches  The Catholic and Protestant Churches were conservative  Church-State relations  Community activities of the churches  Toleration and Religious Minorities  Toleration and the Jews  Experiences of Ashkenazic Jews  Experiences of Sephardic Jews  Some Enlightenment thinkers favored acceptance of the Jews  Joseph II  Limited reforms toward the Jews

Popular Religion in the Eighteenth Century  Catholic Piety  Protestant Revivalism  John Wesley ( )  Methodist societies  Brought the Gospel to the people

Discussion Questions  What do you see as a possible reason the Enlightenment was centered in France?  Why and when did it emerge?  Do you see any connection between Enlightenment and changes in gender relations throughout Western Europe?  How did the Enlightenment affect the idea of Crime and Punishment?

Web Links  Immanual Kant Immanual Kant  Isaac Newton Isaac Newton  John Locke John Locke  Adam Smith Adam Smith  Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau  John Wesley John Wesley