The Age of Enlightenment The Triumph of Reason
Dec 30, 2015
The Age of Enlightenment
The Triumph of Reason
The Age of Reason Two major themes in the Western Experience
are defined by intellectual and religious life The Scientific Revolution and the Age of
Reason that it brought caused a sharp break in both themes
Not since pagan times had religion been so directly challenged
Philosohes became the spokesmen of the educated elite in 18th century society
The Enlightenment 17th century science, religious skepticism, and
appreciation of classical culture led to 18th century intellectuals with a new spirit
They popularized science by applying the scientific method to other disciplines
Natural History became popular Combo of geology, zoology, botany G.L. Buffon- Natural History of the Earth
Ignored Creationism but his theories were at odds with it
Moving Past Christianity Biblical Authority was shot Liberal theologians tried to remove
superstition from religion Devil became moral evil instead of a red
guy with horns and a pitchfork This helped some intellectuals maintain
their faith but for the most part it weakened the authority of the church
Christian ethics called into question Could people of other faiths live moral
lives?
Deism Voltaire- religion’s worst enemy
“Every sensible man, every honorable man must hold [Christianity] in horror”
He hoped that educated men would abandon Christianity for Deism
God was like a clockmaker Man lives on its own in a divinely
ordered world Some philosophes went beyond deism
into philosophical atheism
The Philosophes French thinkers that ralied around science and
secularism Shared a critical spirit where all assumptions must
stand the tests of reason, experience, and utility Invoked the spirit of classical paganism Referrred to the middle ages as “the dark ages”
Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire declared that the church had stopped the Roman world from achieving a life of reason instead of myth
Philosophes, like the humanists before them, put man at the center of their thought
Some Thinkers to Think About Montesquieu- expanded Cartesian thought to natural law and
claimed that like the physical, political phenomena were also subject to natural law
Marquis de Condorcet- universally valid truths in ethics, economics, and government like science and math
Adam Smith- The Wealth of Nations- sought natural law as the universally binding force behind political affairs and promoted capitalism
David Hume- expanded Locke’s theories and his main concern was causality. If A always follows B can we conclude that B causes A? NO
Immanuel Kant- proposed a complete philosophical approach- we can have reliable knowledge but true knowledge cannot transcend experience Categorical imperative: “act only according to the maxim which you
at the time will to be a universal law.” Denis Diderot- wrote a 35 volume encyclopedia which was the
largest compendium of contemporary social, philosophic, artistic, scientific and technological knowledge ever produced in the west
The end of “baroqueness”
Rococo- tail end of the baroque period which found pleasure in a refined, elegant style “From the ponderous baroque to the
delicate and playful rococo” The movement was based on leisure
with a feeling of classicism The birth of the orchestra
Rococo Painting- Watteau’s Departure from the Island of Cythera- The pursuit of pleasure
Rococo Architecture-Fischer’s Benedictine Abbey at Ottobeuren, Bavaria- walls disappear behind “frosting”
Rococo Sculpture- Clodion’s Intoxication of Wine- Dionysus
Rococo Music- a challenge to Bach and Handel- dropped the dense textures for light graceful melodies in short distinct phrases
Compare Handel’s Messiah Bach’s
Art of the Fugue Haydn’s Surprise
Handel’s Messiah
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Art of the Fugue
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Surprise
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