Radical Enlightenment Dr. Andy Mansfield
Views of the Enlightenment ‘French’ Perspective ‘English’ View Enlightenments Radical Enlightenment
Israel’s Two Objectives European Enlightenment a single entity (a) Radical Enlightenment driving force (b) Spinoza has a primary role – ‘backbone of the Radical Enlightenment’
The birth of Philosophy Pre-1650 Post-1650 Confessional society Church ‘monopoly of truth’ Theology dominates intellectual activity Rationalisation & secularisation Everything challenged in new intellectual culture New Philosophy
Mainstream & Radical Enlightenment Mainstream Enlightenment: Moderate reforms within old structures Radical Enlightenment: No compromise as old-order swept away
Crisis of the European Mind Paul Hazard (1935) European turmoil after Thirty Years War Philosophy of Descartes & Spinoza undermines religion The ‘New Philosophy’
Cartesianism René Descartes (1596-1650) Cartesian Doubt & Knowledge Cogito ergo sum - Dualism ‘Mechanistic world-view’
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
Ethics/ Ethica (1677) God is (infinite) Substance ‘Whatever is, is in God, and nothing else can exist or be conceived without God’ (I, prop. 15) Morality Reason is virtue: self-preservation of one’s being is the essence of man (IV, prop. 24)
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) Secularisation ‘[R]eligion and piety must be adapted to the peace and welfare of the state.’ Freedom ‘It is necessary to allow freedom of judgement, & so to govern men that they can express different opinions.’
Tractatus Politicus (unfinished 1677) Democracy ‘Men should be governed… as following their own bent and their own free choice… restrained only by their love of freedom.’ Toleration ‘The more a man loves God… the more free he is, and the more completely he obeys himself.’
Three Types of Toleration Confessional Confrontation Locke: not for non-Protestants or Atheists. Bayle: not based on faith but ‘philosophic reason & equity’ Spinoza: expanded into public (secular) sphere
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) Bayle’s Comet (1682) Attack on superstition & idolatry The ‘virtuous atheist’
Henri de Boulainvilliers (1658-1722) Member of Burgundy Circle Attack on Louis XIV Mohammed & Islam – true essence of God’s message (rational & pure)
Bernard Mandeville (1670 - 1733) & Denis Diderot (1713 - 84)
Spinozism Spinozism hugely influential Spinoza’s ideas understood Spinoza’s Atheism Spinozism Opposed – Malebranche: intellectual union with God Nicolas Malebranche (1638 – 1715)
Gottfried von Leibniz (1646-1716) Correspondent of Spinoza Maintain Church Rival Philosophy
‘Anglomania’ Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Locke & Newton Importance of Newtonianism Newton’s God: left space for an eternal governor & providence ‘Anglomania’: politics, economics & science post-1688 ‘Anti-Anglicisme’: post-1740
Epilogue In Revolutionary age (from 1780s) ‘monarchy, aristocracy, & Church’ were swept away Philosophy ‘demolished the ancien régime’ its ideas, belief and loyalties destroyed long before the Bastille Spinoza’s influence evident throughout and in leading philosophes Rousseau & Diderot