Ch. 8 enlightenment and enlightened despots

Chapter 8Chapter 8 The Enlightenment The Enlightenment 1540-17891540-1789

Surpassing the ClassicsProgress and Human Achievements

EnlightenmentEnlightenment1600s and 1700s

The Age of ReasonThe Age of Reason (rationalism)

Literate and Educated Elite Progress and natural rights Questions of human nature

What is a Social

Contract?

Thomas Hobbes vs. John Locke

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

England

Leviathan 1651

John Locke(1632-1704)

England1690 Two

Treatises of Civil Government

Hobbes Social Contracts Locke

• People are evil and selfish

• Kings keep order in society

• Give up rights in exchange for order

• Rebellion against monarchy is wrong

• “Natural Law”• People are good and

reasonable• Government protects

natural rights• People can rebel

against a bad government

Absolutist

Anti-Absolutist

““The The condition of condition of man... is a man... is a

condition of condition of war of war of

everyone everyone against against

everyone”everyone”

d

““The state of nature The state of nature has a law of nature has a law of nature to govern it, … that to govern it, … that being all equal and being all equal and

independent, no independent, no one ought to harm one ought to harm another in his life, another in his life, health, liberty, or health, liberty, or possessions.” possessions.”

Indicates support for landowners

d

““Men being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby anyone divest himself of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties and a greater security against any that are not of it.” ”

Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1689

Letter on Toleration

(except Catholics and atheists)------------------------------------

Concerning Human

Understanding Tabula Rasa and the

need for more education

“No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience”

Reading Revolutionindividual readings of multiple works

Marquis de Condorcet(1743-1794)

“I hope to see the bringing together of all the best-educated people of the earth into a worldwide

Congress of Scientists.”

1715Louis XIV is deadFrench PhilosophesPhilosophes became more vocalFrench = international language of the educated

Censorship existed but often challenged

XX XX

SalonsSalonsPrivate Drawing Rooms to Discuss IdeasPrivate Drawing Rooms to Discuss Ideas

Madame Geoffrin’s Paris Salon

VoltaireRousseau Diderot

Geoffrin

Montesquieu

Charles Baron de

Montesquieu(1689-1755)

France Spirit of Laws

1748

Separation of Powers

Constitutionalism

Abolition of Slavery

Checks and

Balances

“Useless laws

weaken the necessary

laws”

“In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of

state shape its institutions;

later the institutions shape the

chiefs of state.”

François-Marie Arouet

Voltaire (1694-1778)

France

Religious Tolerance

Free Speech

“Opinions have caused more ills

than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.”

“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.”

“Superstition sets the whole world

in flames; philosophy

quenches them.”

“It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an

innocent one”

“I have never made but one

prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies

ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”

“Every man is guilty of the good he did not do.”

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all

murderers are punished unless they kill in large

numbers and to the sound of trumpets”

“The secret of being a

bore is to tell everything.”

Not a Political RadicalBelieved in

need of “Good” MonarchsNo class equality

“I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.”

“To pray to God is to flatter

oneself that with words one

can alter nature. ”

DeismReligious view where

God does not intervene in human life

Promoted by Voltaire, John Locke, Frederick the Great, and others

American DeistsThomas JeffersonBenjamin Franklin

James MadisonAlexander HamiltonGeorge Washington

Thomas PaineAbraham LincolnNeil Armstrong

Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth 1819

“There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

-Thomas Jefferson in a 1813 letter to John Adams

Denis Diderot(1713-1784)

FranceEncyclopedia

The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Crafts

17 Volumes, 1st in 1751

“Change the general way of thinking”

Anti AbsolutismReligious

PowerSuperstition

“If you want me to believe in God,

you must make me touch him”

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the

entrails of the last priest"

Baron d’Holbach’s atheist beliefsGood Sense, 1772

“Man has been forced to vegetate in his primitive stupidity: he has been taught nothing but stories

about invisible powers upon whom his happiness was supposed to depend. Occupied solely by his

fears … he has been at the mercy of his priests, who have reserved to

themselves the right of thinking for him…”

David HumeDavid Hume(1711-1776)

ScottishHumans can’t Humans can’t

understand the understand the universe beyond universe beyond

experiencesexperiences A Treatise of Human

Nature (1739)

Religion is fear of the unknown

““Generally speaking, Generally speaking, the errors in religion the errors in religion are dangerous; those are dangerous; those

in philosophy only in philosophy only ridiculous.”ridiculous.”

““Nothing is more Nothing is more surprising than surprising than

the easiness the easiness with which the with which the

many are many are governed by the governed by the

few.”few.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778)

Swiss

Pro emotion and individual freedoms

Saw reason and civilization as limiting

“Man is born free,

and everywhere

he is in shackles”

1762 Social Contract

General Will(what is “best”)

should run the nation

General Will established by an enlightened minority

Gender Roles

EmileBoys: Exercise,

Craft Skills, Education

Girls: Domestic skills and kept

away from politics and power

Immanuel Kant

(1724-1804)German

Pro-Freedom of the Press

“Dare to know!”

Kant debated balance between enlightenment and

law and order

“Enlightened Absolutism”

Cesare Beccaria(1738-1794)

Italy 1763 On Crimes and

Punishment

No cruel and unusual or capital

punishment

“Happy is the nation without a history.”

“Is the death penalty really useful and necessary for the

security and good order of society? Are torture and torments just…?

What is the best way to prevent crimes?”

Moses Mendelssohn

(1729-1786) Jewish German

Religious Tolerance

andSeparation of

church and state

What form of government is therefore advisable for the

church? None! Who is to be the arbiter if disputes arise over religious matters?...

Neither state nor church is authorized to judge in

religious matters; for the members of society could

not have granted that right to them by any contract

whatsoever.

Women More Involved In

EnlightenmentHosting Salons

WritingDebate

Painting

Madame Gabrielle-Emilie du Chatelet

(1706-1749)Spread Works of Newton and

Voltaire

Mary Wollstonecraft

(1759-1796)England

Women not inferior but

lack access to education

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in

human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive continual

checks.”

Race and the Enlightenment

Study of Racial DifferencesPlaced Into Hierarchies

Judgments and Divisions

Hume and Kant championed the idea of European white racial superiority and “civilization”

The Physiocrats – Economists who advocated for less government

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Scotland1776 The Wealth of

Nations

Free MarketLaissez-Faire

The “Invisible Hand” of the market

Smith believed this would raise the living standard of working class

Economic Liberalism

People have more freedom and decision

making powerAnti-MercantilismAnti-RegulationsAnti-Monopoly

Government should only… 1. Protect from invasion

2. Defend from injustice

3. Maintain indispensable public works

Enlightenment will expanded from the elite salons into The Public Sphere

What were the key ideas of the Enlightenment?

Enlightened Enlightened DespotismDespotismRulers balance

Enlightenment principles with power and authority

Frederick II“The Great”(1712-1786)

HohenzollernSon of Frederick William I, but did

not share his Father’s total love

of military discipline

The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can

have in this world is to discover new

truths; and the next is to shake off

old prejudices.

A more free press

Abolished Most Torture

Religious Toleration

Efficient and Fair Courts

I have always considered Machiavelli's Prince as one of the most dangerous works ever to be disseminated in the world. It is a book which falls naturally into the hands of princes and of those with a taste for politics. Since it is very easy for an ambitious young man, whose heart and judgment are not

sufficiently developed to distinguish clearly between good

and evil, to be corrupted by maxims which flatter the

impetuosity of his passions, ....

“What may we not expect from the author of so many

masterpieces! … This it is which makes me desire so ardently to

possess all your works. I beg you to send them to me, Sir, and to

communicate them unreservedly. If among your manuscripts there

should be any which, with necessary prudence, you think fit

to hide from the public eye, I promise you to keep it secret and

to content myself with applauding it in private.”

-Letter From Frederick to Voltaire

Promoted arts and music

All religions must be

tolerated... for every man must get to

heaven in his own way.

We have too many Jews in the towns. They are needed on the Polish border

because in these areas Hebrews alone perform trade. As soon as you get away from the frontier, the Jews become a disadvantage, they form

cliques, they deal in contraband and get up to all manner of rascally tricks

which are detrimental to Christian burghers and merchants. I have never

persecuted anyone from this or any other sect; I think, however, it would be prudent to pay attention, so that

their numbers do not increase.

Concern for the serfs, but Concern for the serfs, but did did notnot free them free them

Used war to expand empire

Imperial RussiaAfter Peter 6 weak rulers

Catherine IIGerman princess related to the Romanovs

Tsar Peter III

(1728-1762)

Murdered by his wife

Catherine’s lover and his

brothers

Catherine and her lover Count Orlov

TsarinaCatherine II“The Great” (1729-1796)

Supported westernization,

science, religious

toleration, and the arts

Helped fund Diderot’s

Encyclopedia

Thanks Catherine

Crushed a serf rebellion and expanded noble power

Serfdom Expanded

1768-1772 Invasion

of Poland

Divided with Aust and Prus to balance power

“I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me,

that's his.”

Believed an absolute ruler could help the people

“You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and

paper is patient. Unfortunate

Empress that I am, I write on the

susceptible skins of living beings.”

Austrian Habsburgs (and HRE)

This agglomeration which was called

and which still calls itself the Holy

Roman Empire was neither holy,

nor Roman, nor an empire.

Maria Theresa

(1717-1780)Reduced Papal

InfluenceStrengthen govt.

Bureaucracy

Reduced noble influence over serfs

HER and Austrian Emperor Joseph II

(1740-1790)

Legal equalityNo death penalty

No serfdom (cash for labor)

Religious freedoms

“I have made philosophy the lawmaker of my empire…”

Alienated and angered the

Catholic Church and the Nobles

Confused peasantsMany reforms

cancelled after his death

The British and the

Enlightenment• Not absolutist - Bill of Rights and freeish

press• Parliament – Corrupt use of boroughs• Reformers wanted more elections and

more power to the House of Commons• Increased authority over Irish and Indians

ReligionReligionLarge Establishment

vs.Local Churches

Sciencevs.

“Superstitions”

Absolutist Catholic monarchs Absolutist Catholic monarchs competed with Rome for powercompeted with Rome for powerSpain, Austria, and France reduced Spain, Austria, and France reduced

papal influencepapal influence

Kicked out the JesuitsKicked out the Jesuits

Protestant PietismEmotional religious experiences

Priesthood of all believers

Affected all classes

John Wesley(1703-1791)

British

Methodism

Religion = Personal experienceRejected predestination and said

all could be saved

Rococo Art - 1700s “Late Baroque” Soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits

Madame de Pompadour

by François Boucher