The Age of Enlightenment World History Chapter 5

Scientific Revolution Sparks the Enlightenment By the early 1700s, European thinkers felt that nothing was beyond the reach of the human mind. Through the use of reason, insisted these thinkers, people, and governments could solve every social, political, and economic problem. In essence, these writers, scholars, and philosophers felt they could change the world.

Scientific Revolution Sparks the Enlightenment The Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s had transformed the way people in Europe looked at the world. Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason. Natural laws= rules discoverable by reason, govern scientific forces such as gravity and magnetism.

Hobbes and Locke Have Conflicting Views Thomas Hobbes John Locke

Philosophy in the Age of Reason Thomas Hobbes John Locke Wrote “Leviathan” Believed people were naturally cruel, greedy, selfish. If not strictly controlled (by an absolute monarch) they would fight, rob, oppress one another. Wrote “English Bill of Rights” Believed people were basically reasonable and moral. They had certain rights: “natural rights”

Baron de Montesquieu: (French) studied governments & cultures throughout history. Created the idea of a “three branch government” with “checks and balances” Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet): “to say what I think” most famous of the philosophes Denis Diderot: created the first Encyclopedia ( 25 yrs to produce 28 volumes) Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Believed people in their natural state were basically good

Mary Wollstonecraft (British): social critic Mary Wollstonecraft (British): social critic. Felt women’s first duty was to be a good mother. In favor of equal rights. Adam Smith (Scottish economist): Wrote Wealth of Nations. Argued that the free market should be allowed to regulate business activity.

Key Terms: Natural law: laws that govern human nature Social contract: an agreement by which they gave up the state of nature for an organized society Natural right: Rights that belonged to all humans from birth Philosophe: “lovers of wisdom,” group of enlightenment thinkers. Physiocrats: (Thinkers) focused on economic reforms. They looked for natural laws to define a rational economic system. Laissez-faire: allowing business to operate with little or no government interference.

The “Enlightened” Individual The Philosophe Not really original thinkers as a whole, but were great publicists of the new thinking  CHANGE & PROGRESS! They were students of society who analyzed its evils and advanced reforms.

The American “Philosophes” John Adams (1745-1826) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Ben Franklin (1706-1790) …...…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…………...

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Common Sense, 1776 The Rights of Man, 1791

A Parisian Salon

Madame Geoffrin’s Salon

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings. We will speak against senseless laws until they are reformed; and, while we wait, we will abide by them.

Diderot’s Encyclopédie

Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie

Pages from Diderot’s Encyclopedie

Subscriptions to Diderot’s Encyclopedie

Reading During the Enlightenment Literacy: 80% for men; 60% women. Books were expensive (one day’s wages). Many readers for each book (20:1) novels, plays & other literature. journals, memoirs, “private lives.” philosophy, history, theology. newspapers, political pamphlets.

An Increase in Reading

An Increase in Reading

“Must Read” Books of the Time

“Enlightened Despots” Absolute rulers who used their power to bring about political and social change.

Frederick the Great of Prussia (r. 1740-1786) 1712 -– 1786. Succeeded his father, Frederick William I (the “Soldier King”). He saw himself as the “First Servant of the State.”

Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796) German Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst. 1729 -– 1796.

Joseph II of Austria (r. 1765-1790) 1741 -– 1790. His mother was Maria Theresa.

The Legacy of the Enlightenment? The democratic revolutions begun in America in 1776 and continued in Amsterdam, Brussels, and especially in Paris in the late 1780s, put every Western government on the defensive. Reform, democracy, and republicanism had been placed irrevocably on the Western agenda.

The Legacy of the Enlightenment? New forms of civil society arose –-- clubs, salons, fraternals, private academies, lending libraries, and professional/scientific organizations. 19c conservatives blamed it for the modern “egalitarian disease” (once reformers began to criticize established institutions, they didn’t know where and when to stop!)

The Legacy of the Enlightenment? It established a materialistic tradition based on an ethical system derived solely from a naturalistic account of the human condition (the “Religion of Nature”). Theoretically endowed with full civil and legal rights, the individual had come into existence as a political and social force to be reckoned with.