Physiocrats The Enlightenment emphasis on natural laws led a group of thinkers to try to ascertain natural laws underlying human behavior. This became.

Physiocrats• The Enlightenment emphasis on natural laws led a

group of thinkers to try to ascertain natural laws underlying human behavior. This became the foundation for the social sciences.

• Physiocrats laid the foundation for the modern field of economics. Leader was Francois Quesnay.

• Most important natural law of economics: supply and demand ruled economic behavior.– Repudiated Mercantilism; believed that

governments should not meddle with the economy so that supply and demand could work.

– Laissez-faire

Mercantilism: mid-16th century

• A nation’s wealth depends on accumulated treasure

• Gold and silver are the currency of trade.

• Theory says you should have a trade surplus.

– Maximize exports through subsidies.

– Minimize imports through tariffs and quotas.

• Flaw: “zero-sum game”.

4-8

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Adam Smith• Wrote The Wealth of Nations.• Argued for laissez-faire and said that the

government had only three proper functions.– to protect against invasion– to dispense justice– to maintain roads and infrastructure that

were beyond the capabilities of individuals.

• Foundation for economics in the west for 200 years. Major impact on American conservatism.

Adam Smith

• The emphasis on rationality, the ability of individuals to make decisions to advance their own self-interest.

• The idea that government should leave people alone to make their own economic choices.

• In fact, individual selfish choices would serve the common good through the invisible hand of the market.

Locke & Smith on Equality

• Their view was that people in the state of nature are equal in their rights, but not in their talents or their wealth.

• Economic inequality is not necessarily unfair, since it is based on people’s free choices.

• Freedom to make choices is a higher value than equality.

Theory of Absolute AdvantageAdam Smith: Wealth of Nations (1776).

• Capability of one country to produce more of a product with the same amount of input than another country.

• Produce only goods where you are most efficient, trade for those where you are not efficient.

• Assumes there is an absolute advantage balance among nations, e.g., Ghana/cocoa.

4-10

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Adam Smith

• Father of the science of political economy• Developed laissez-faire capitalism• Three laws to capitalism: self-interest, supply and

demand, competition• He was a Scottish moral philosopher and a

pioneering political economist. • He is a major contributor to the modern perception

of free market economics. • Adam was one of the key figures of the intellectual

movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment.

Adam Smith

• The Wealth of Nations– Attack on

mercantilism– Advocate of free

trade– Labor constitutes

wealth– “Passive policeman”

The Wealth of Nations(1776)

• The title tells the theme of the book—why are some nations wealthy and others not

• First have to define wealth• Smith defines wealth as the per capita

provision of “necessaries and conveniences”

• Per capita real output—not species or agricultural surplus

• What will determine per capita real output?

Trade Policy

• Smith in favour of free trade• Exceptions to free trade

- Defense- Import duties where there is a tax on domestic manufacture- Retaliation- Need to introduce free trade gradually

• Political opposition to free trade from proprietors and merchants

Laissez-Faire Capitalism

• It is a French phrase that literally means hands-off.

• It states that the government should not be involved in the economy. It should let the natural laws of capitalism work. This is the way the economy works best.

• Dominant form of capitalism through the end of the Industrial Revolution.

The System of Natural Liberty• If left to themselves individuals will invest in

that line of business that gives the best return, and this will be socially efficient

• The concept of the invisible hand—self interest leading to an unintended social benefit

• Government should not attempt to allocate resources—or superintend the direction of private business

• Role of government to protect persons and property and provide public goods

Role of Government

• National defense- Benefits of a standing army- Navigation acts

• Justice system- Protection of property- Payment of Judges

• Public Works- Roads, Bridges, Canals- Tolls and user charges

• Monopoly trading companies- Limited monopoly grant

Role of Government

• Education- Primary education- Universities and incentives for good teaching- Religious instruction

• Taxation- Equality- Certainty- Convenience- Economy of collection

Law of Self-Interest

• People are motivated by greed.

• Because they want money and power, they will work hard to earn it.

• This is what motivates people to start new businesses and why people work at their jobs.

• It stimulates a strong work ethic, an entrepreneurial spirit, and competition.

Law of Supply and Demand

• When there is a limited supply of a product, and there is a growing demand, the price of the product will increase.

• When there is a large supply of a product, and there is a decreasing or little demand, the price of the product will go down.

• This results in a fair pricing system.

Law of Competition

• Survival of the fittest in the business world

• Companies will compete to produce the best product for the best price.

• The consumer benefits by getting the best deal.

• However, this also means that some of the businesses will close.

• It can lead to monopolies.

The men of the Enlightenment did The men of the Enlightenment did little to improve the status of little to improve the status of

women, so women writers took it women, so women writers took it upon themselves to start the upon themselves to start the

change for equality.change for equality.

Historical Stand on Women and the Enlightenment

•Although they were able to gain minimum knowledge and make a step towards equal rights, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment didn’t provide any particular benefits for women during their time.

Reason 1: Opportunities to be Involved were a

Minimum • Many women during the Enlightenment didn’t have the opportunity to pursue an education in Sciences, and the quality of education they received was degraded from what it used to be.

• Why? ---- They were to believed to be ignorant, and not capable of understanding.

• A man by the name of Malebranche once said, “All things of an abstracted nature are incomprehensible to them [women], they cannot employ their imagination in disentangling compound questions” (http://www.public.iastate.edu.)

• Malebranche is basically saying that women are not as intellectual as men.

• And because of this view on women, they were not allowed to attend classes other than those necessary to being a wife.

How does this Play into Women Not Benefiting?

� We can look at Madame du Chatelet.� She was part of an upper class family in Paris � Wife of Voltaire (famous for his works criticizing Dogma)� Highly intelligent—had skills in Latin, Italian, and many more, but her favorite was

Mathematics.� Since higher education was reserved for men, � Madame du Chatelet hired professors to teach hereverything from writing to geometry

(Madame du Chatelet… …continued)

• Most impressive accomplishment: translation of Principia, Sir Issac Newton’s work

• She was able to comprehend the abstract things in Newton’s book, something many people could never begin to do

• Later, when Chatelet tried to join the Royal Academy of Scientists, a place where science was discussed, she was denied.

• It was definitely not because of her lack of intelligence, because we know she was up there with all the men, it was because of one thing: she was woman.

• Just like this, capable women were restricted from expressing their knowledge, and learning more

Reason 2: Society just couldn’t see women as being as good as men

• Women were seen as nothing more that housewives.• They were supposed to clean, cook, and take care of

their families.• Some even saw them only as “child-bearers”• Since we are talking about the Scientific Revolution,

you might think that this intellectual revolution would change the views of men.

• Instead, they used the new science discoveries to prove women were inferior.

• But, how? One theory uses the anatomy of males and females to prove male dominance

Reason 2: Society just couldn’t see women as being as good as men

(continued)� Overall, men were just out to say that women

were subordinate to them. They were just there to take part in the domestic areas.

� An interesting quote----A man said this regarding the excellent works of

a woman academic: *“The writings are so good, you would hardly

believe they were don’t by a women at all”� This just shows, men did not want to believe

that some woman could be as smart as them.

Women During the Enlightenment

• Educated women were still the exception, not the rule.

• Women in France and England did participate actively in revolutionary groups.

• Rousseau remained conventional on this issue, stating that women should be subservient to men.

Rousseau---Anti-Women’s Rights

• This “typical” view of women being inferior was• greatly expressed in the works of Rousseau.• Rousseau was born in Geneva; his lifetime took • place after Louis XIV---he was involved in the French

Revolution• Wrote several books on education, government, and

women including Emile ou de l’ education, and Du Contrat social

• *The Emile ou de l’eductaion: argued that the social roles of women and men should be different

• *Main Fact about Rousseau: HE WAS ANTI-WOMEN’S RIGHTS!

• Rousseau On the Education and Duties of Women:

• "The education of women should always be relative to that of men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when young, to take care of us when grown up, to advise, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable; these are the duties of women at all times, and what they should be taught in their infancy."

•   SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?

Here’s a Run Down of Rousseau’s ANTI-WOMAN

thoughts:• A woman is a link between the child and father• She is to maintain unity of the family• Men and woman should NOT have same

education• Separate Sphere’s for Men and Women• Women should for men…”make their lives

agreeable and sweet---these are the duties of women at all times.”

• He like many other, believed women were not, and couldn’t be anything more that simple domestic wives

Early feminism (1550-1700)Concerns:No recourse to law for equality for pay or working conditions.

Married women had no legal independence ( including no legal rights over children )

Economic access = marriage

Woman as ‘inferior race’ { Judeo-Christian negative associations/interpretations as woman as temptation, secondary - from the rib of Adam}

Improvements: (upper class women only)• Conditions for education• Womens argument against inferiority leads to questions about culture and nature.• Small networking community established of British women writers

The “cult of true womanhood”

portrayed the ideal woman as “pious,

pure, domestic, and submissive.”

Women Writers

• Began to demand equal rights: Mary Wollstonecraft—A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

• In early 1800s, there were many women novelists: Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Margaret Fuller, Germaine Necker, George Sand.

Women like Mary Wollstonecraft Women like Mary Wollstonecraft pointed to the unequal relationship pointed to the unequal relationship

as being contradictory to the ideas of as being contradictory to the ideas of the Enlightenment.the Enlightenment.

Discussed women’s education, participation in government, and over

all rights.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), founder of modern feminism

NEXT

Women and the Enlightenment

Views on Women’s Education Change• Many Enlightenment thinkers take traditional

views of women’s role• Prominent writer Mary Wollstonecraft urges

greater rights for women: - argues women need quality education to

be virtuous and useful - urges women to go into traditionally male

professions like politics• Some wealthy women use their status to spread Enlightenment ideas

SECTION

2

Place of Woman in the World

• For Wollstonecraft, building on Rousseau, the problem is not in nature but in the artificial relations we create -- or more accurately -- men create and women endure.

With Views like that, Someone is going to get

argue…� Rousseau’s fellow “debater” was Mary Wollstonecraft� Born in London, England� She was a school head master� -that’s where she began to realize the � subordination of women in terms of education� Writer of Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, and

History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution

� In 1792, she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a text of hers that received the most attention

Mary Wollstonecraft

• Enlightenment thinkers still held traditional views about women

• Proper roles wives, mothers; should receive limited education

• Wollstonecraft demanded equal rights for women

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, equal education for women

Woman in the World

• “It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meanness, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion, that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weakness...”

Woman in the World

• In other words, “prevailing opinion” or the ways in which we choose to organize our social relations dictates the treatment of women -- and the way in which women see themselves in the society.

From Mary Wollstonecraft’s book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792):

• “If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop?”

• “The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.”

• “I do not wish (women) to have power over men, but over themselves.”

Historian Henry Noel Brailsford, in Shelley, Godwin, and Their Circle (1913), considered the Rights of Woman

• "perhaps the most original book of its century." • "What was absolutely new in the world's history

was that for the first time a woman dared to sit down to write a book which was not an echo of men's thinking, nor an attempt to do rather well what some man had done a little better, but a first exploration of the problems of society and morals from a standpoint which recognized humanity without ignoring sex."

Birth of Feminism• The intellectual roots of

feminism start in the Enlightenment.

• Mary Wollstonecraft: the mother of modern feminism.

• Vindication of the Rights of Woman:– What were her two main

arguments that enlightenment ideals supported equal rights for women?

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

• Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women

• Argued for the rights of women

• Opposed traditional restrictions on women

• Believed that women should contribute to society and argued for their education

Mary Wollstonecraft

• Was the daughter of a handkerchief weaver, and was born in iLondon in 1759• In 1784 she opened a school in Newington Green, where she made friends

with Richard Price, a minister at the local chapel, where she also because close with Price’s friend, Joseph Priestly

• Price had written the book Review of the Principal Questions of Morals where he argued that individual conscience and reason should be used in making moral choices – also rejected concept of original sin and eternal punishment (was, at times, accused of being an atheist OH NO AN ATHEIST!)

• Mary was greatly influenced by Price, and this was made apparent by her 1786 book, Thoughts on the Education of Girls, where she attacked traditional teaching methods and suggested new topics that should be studied by girls

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

• Is like the “rebuttle” to Rousseau’s Separate Sphere’s for Men and Women

• Focused on importance of equal status of both men, and women

• And that education was the key for a woman’s success

• *Mary Wollstonecraft was an extreme feminist who helped women make a step towards gaining equal right in the 20th century.

Women and the Enlightenment

Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Vindication of the Rights of Women

• Is considered Wollstonecraft’s most important book

• In it, she attacked the education restrictions that kept women in a state of “ignorance and slavish dependence, "and was especially critical of a society that encouraged women to be “docile and attentive to their looks to the exclusion of all else”

• She called marriage “legal prostitution” and added that women “may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent.”

• Her book caused much controversy, with passionate people on both sides of the argument – many a vituperative comment was made. She had even shocked other radicals, who had declared that education for women would have been pointless

• Mary had to flee to France, but there died in childbirth after marriage. Her daughter was Mary Shelby – the author of the famous Frankenstein

A Vindication of the Rights A Vindication of the Rights of Womanof Woman

A Vindication of the Rights A Vindication of the Rights of Womanof Woman

“…“…Civilized women are, therefore, so weakened Civilized women are, therefore, so weakened by false refinement, that, respecting morals, by false refinement, that, respecting morals,

their condition is much below what it would be their condition is much below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature… To were they left in a state nearer to nature… To remain, it may be said, innocent; they mean in remain, it may be said, innocent; they mean in a state of childhood… Fragile in every sense of a state of childhood… Fragile in every sense of the word, they are obliged to look up to man for the word, they are obliged to look up to man for every comfort… if fear in girls, instead of being every comfort… if fear in girls, instead of being cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys, we should same manner as cowardice in boys, we should

quickly see women with more dignified quickly see women with more dignified aspects… aspects… I do not wish them to have power I do not wish them to have power

over men; but over themselvesover men; but over themselves…”…”

A Vindication of the Rights of Women

• Excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Women: “It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of natural affection which would make them good wives and mothers. Whilst they are absolutely dependent upon their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and selfish. The preposterous distinction of rank, which render civilization a curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class of people.”

Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright, and Margaret Fuller believed that giving women an equal education to that of men would do more to improve women’s position in society than voting rights.

Mary Astell: 1666 – 1731AD• A Serious Proposal to the

Ladies– Better education and equality in

marriage

– Mary Astell is one of the earliest women philosophers of the early modern period not born into the class of nobility or wealth that allowed women to expand their intellectual horizons.

– She is hailed today as one of the first feminists chiefly because of her outspoken beliefs concerning the education of women and her thoughts concerning marriage

Mary Astell• Happy marriages are few, she

asserts, because the way the institution operates in her England, money (income) is the primary qualification for most of them, with no thought for emotional compatibility, and poverty resulting from a "love match" renders the other sort miserable. 

• Men who marry for love are irregular, by definition, especially if they admire their spouses for wit, a term she criticizes as having fallen into being "bitter and ill-natured raillery" (2282) rather than "true wit," "such a sprightliness of imagination, such a reach and turn of thought, so properly expressed, as strikes and pleases a judicious taste" (2282). 

• She dismisses intense passion as unstable and no good grounds for a long-term relationship

• Women's lack of choice in marriage especially irritates Astell.  Men who flatter them with praise while seeking their favor make them foolish (cf. Astrophil). 

• Women who can't find a husband are thought incompetent and no man can imagine himself not worthy of being any woman's suitor.  

• Learned women are mocked by the world at large, whereas men not uncommonly waste their time in pursuit of their lusts. 

• Women who sacrifice themselves to submission to a man are heroic in their self-control and in their service to God and mankind, but if they thought about it more carefully, they probably would not do it.  Hence, the number of women who marry in haste.

Women and the Enlightenment

• Changing views

• Role of education

• Equality

Mary Wollstonecraft Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges

• Was born in 1748 in Montauban near Toulouse in France as Marie Gouze.• Little attention was given to her education; therefore, she could hardly read or

write, and only spoke French poorly and later dictated all of her work to a secretary.

• Moved to pre-revolutionary Paris and changed her name to blend in more with the people of the city.

• Lived under the support of her lover and underwent criticism for this to achieve her dream of becoming a writer.

• Attempted to live in Paris as a theater author but she did not succeed.• Once wrote, “Why this unswerving prejudice against my sex? …Will it ever

be allowed for women to escape from the terror of poverty other than by base means.”

• In 1789, began to write politically after the beginning of revolutionary events.

(cont…)

Olympe de Gouges• Printed her social-political ideas onto posters with her own

money and hung them around Paris.• Wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and Women

Citizens not soon after.• Wrote The Three Urns or the Welfare of the Fatherland and was

arrested for the opinions expressed in the paper, for which she was eventually arrested, for she had been a major supporter of the Girondists, she had suggested a referendum on three possible forms of government

• She had also publicly defended the king in December 1782, mostly for humanitarian reasons – she wanted to achieve a reformation of society through words, through her writing and her continual appeals for nonviolence

• She thus remained a true representative of the Enlightenment despite her differences with Rousseau

• She was beheaded on November 3, 1793 after an unfair trial – not only for her being a member of the Girondists but because she supported women’s rights, for two weeks after her death, her body was held up in front of the crowd to show what would happen to those who supported women

Aims of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Aims of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Education for womenEducation for womenEqual opportunities for womenEqual opportunities for women

In employment In employment A claim to land A claim to land

Equality for women in the eyes of the Equality for women in the eyes of the lawlaw

Women must receive equal Women must receive equal punishmentspunishments

Aims, ContinuedAims, ContinuedA social contract between men and women in A social contract between men and women in marriagemarriage

All wealth is sharedAll wealth is shared In the case of separation all property dividedIn the case of separation all property divided Women and men equal in a marriage Women and men equal in a marriage

Women’s suffrageWomen’s suffrageA national assembly of womenA national assembly of womenEqual rights for womenEqual rights for women

Natural rightsNatural rights Freedom of speechFreedom of speech

From De Gouges’ Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female

Citizen

From De Gouges’ Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female

Citizen

Woman, wake up… discover your rights.Woman, wake up… discover your rights.Oh, women, women! When will you cease to be Oh, women, women! When will you cease to be blind?blind?Regardless of what barriers confront you, it is in your Regardless of what barriers confront you, it is in your power to free yourselves; you have only to want to…power to free yourselves; you have only to want to…I offer a foolproof way to elevate the soul of women; I offer a foolproof way to elevate the soul of women; it is to join them to all the activities of man…it is to join them to all the activities of man…Man… Tell me, what gives you sovereign empire to Man… Tell me, what gives you sovereign empire to oppress my sex?oppress my sex?

Olympe de Gouges• Excerpt from Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female

Citizen:

• “…ignorance, omission, and scorn for the rights of women are only causes of public misfortune and of the corruption of governments, [the women] have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of woman in order that this declaration, constantly exposed before all the members of this society, will ceaselessly remind them of their rights and duties; in order that the authoritative acts of women and authoritative acts of men may be at any moment compared with and respectful of the purpose of all political institutions; and in order that the citizens’ demands, henceforth based on simple and incontestable principles, will always support the constitution, good morals, and the happiness of all.”

A Quick Sum Up of why Women did not

Benefit:• #1 Lack of Opportunities• #2 Views of Society• #3 Especially the views of men:

Remember Rosseau, the ANTI-FEMINIST guy.

• Along with educational setbacks, women still did not have many political rights during this time such as property owning, or voting like the men.