The Enlightenment Reason Natural Law Hope

The Enlightenment Reason • Natural Law • Hope • Progress

Enlightenment Discuss: • What comes to your mind when you think of enlightenment?

Enlightenment • Movement of intellectuals who were greatly impressed with the achievements of the Scientific Revolution • How can we understand all life? REASON • Thinkers hoped to make PROGRESS toward a better society than the one they had inherited

Before We Travel Back to the 18 th century. . . Let’s experience personal enlightenment ourselves!!

The Enlightenment: The Role of Ideas Nature: Peace or War? ; Nature vs Nurture The Role of Individuals A Few Good Men … & a Woman!!

Thomas Hobbes 1. Wrote the Leviathan - Dealt w/ problem of disorder 2. Before society organized: state of WAR - solitary, poor, nasty, brutish & short - Humans guided NOT by reason & morals, but self-preservation 3. To save selves: made a social contract - Agreed to form a st. , Leviathan; owe peace & defense - Ruled by an absolute ruler w/ unlimited power - Subjects cannot rebel; crushed if they do

John Locke 1. Wrote Two Treatises of Govt 2. Argued AGAINST absolute rule of one person 3. Before society organized: - st. of freedom & equality - humans had inalienable natural rights: life, liberty, & property

John Locke (cont. ) Mutual Obligation 5. Agreed: est. govt. to protect rights (protect property) 6. Contract of mutual obligation - Govt protected rights of people - People would act reasonably towards govt 7. If govt broke contract: people might form new Laid foundation for US form Constitution

Where Do They Differ? Write: Title your paper, “Locke v Hobbes” 1. Create a flow chart w/ me for Locke & Hobbes using primary sources 2. On which points do Locke & Hobbes disagree? Where do they agree? 3. Which philosopher do you agree with in terms of how a government forms and what the ideal type of government should be?

Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1. Tabula Rasa - Every person is born w/ a blank mind 2. Knowledge comes from environment, not heredity 3. Learn from reason, not faith 4. If you environment, you can people

Tabula Rasa … Do you Agree? Debate: Nature vs Nurture • One Side: believes your genetics shapes who you are • Other side: believes your environment/experiences shape who you are Related Issues: Homosexuality, intelligence, schizophrenia, eating disorders, cancer, obesity, child development/parenting, handedness, depression (serotonin) Vs.

Daily Response Mankind has a “perpetual and restless desire for power after power… a man hopes for more… because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more. ” • Do you agree? • Examples to support and/or oppose this contention?

Goals of the Enlightenment 1. By using reason, a perfect society could be created (EX: Using a step- by-step theory) 2. Reason & rationality leads to progress & human happiness (…. . Why? ) 3. Cast off chains of superstition, bigotry & religious fanaticism (why “chains”? ) 4. Rejection of revelation & traditional

French Enlightenment Thinkers • Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot • Key Ideas - Religious toleration & secularization (Voltaire) Democrats: For Religious Toleration - Observation & criticism are essential (Diderot)

Intellectuals: Philosophes 1. Literary people, professors, journalists, economists, pol. scientists, social reformers 2. Nobility & middle class (bourgeoisie) 3. Role of phil. = world (not just discuss it) 4. The Republic of Letters: an informal Q: How did they spread their ideas? ? …………. .

Enlightenment Institutions • • Salons Academies Masonic Lodges Newspapers Coffee Houses “Public Opinion” Forbidden Literature 18 th century English coffee house

3 French Giants 1. Montesquieu • Idea: Separation of Powers 2. Voltaire • Idea: Deism/Religious Freedom 3. Diderot • Idea: Encyclopedia

Montesquieu 1. 2. • • • Wrote, “The Spirit of the Laws” 3 types of govt: Despotism (for lg states) Republics (for sm states) Monarchy (for med. States) **Favored const’l monarchy 3. Importance of checks & balances • Need a separation of powers • Need checks & balances

Montesquieu Analysis On your own paper, identify to the following: 1. Author, Title of work 2. Document Information • 3 things the author said that you think are important • Why you think the document was written • Evidence in the document that helps you know why it was written (2 quotes, highlight/underline document) • What audience you think the document was intended for • Two things the document tells you about life in Europe at the time the document was

Voltaire: The Major Figure Criticized 1. Wrote, “Treatise on Toleration” 2. **Stressed rel. toleration 3. “All men are brothers under God. ” 4. Deism: denies interference of the Creator w/ the laws of the universe 5. Universe is a clock: God is clockmaker who created it, ppl act according to natural laws

Voltaire, “A Plea For Tolerance & Reason” WRITE & PARAPHRASE (underline unfamiliar words, too) “Of all religions, the Christian ought doubtless to inspire the most tolerance, although hitherto the Christians have been the most intolerant …” “Is each citizen to be permitted to believe and to think that which his reason rightly or wrongly dictates? He should indeed,

Ok, … So What’s Deism? ? 1. God created world, but, religion must be moral, rationalistic, & natural; denies interference of the Creator w/ the laws of the universe. 2. Moral argument for the existence of God, … without God morality is not possible, therefore, God must exist. - “If God did not exist, we must invent God!” 3. Voltaire: It’s not possible to theoretically demonstrate the immortality of the soul, and yet without the immortality of the soul,

Diderot 1. Condemned Christianity (fanatical & unreasonable) 2. Created the Encyclopedia • Purpose: To the general way of thinking • Intended as a compilation of all knowledge • Many articles in it attacked religious superstition & supported religious toleration • Sold to many; spread ideas Note: Attention to Detail

Adam Smith: Discuss • What does “survival of the fittest” mean to you? ? • Examples? ?

Adam Smith 1. Father of modern economics 2. Laissez-faire: “to let alone” - Govt should leave the economy alone 3. Wrote, “The Wealth of Nations, ” 1776 4. The state shouldn’t interfere with economic matters Q: Is this more ‘republican’ or

Laissez-Faire THINK & WRITE: • Identify & list the ways in which your government does not follow a policy of laissez-faire but chooses instead to intervene in the economy. • Do you think your lives are better or worse because of government intervention? • How many young people could afford an education if their families had to pay for their schooling directly from their own funds?

Adam Smith (cont. ) Government’s 3 Basic Roles: 1. Protect society from invasion - The army 2. Defend citizens from injustice - The police 3. Keep up certain public works, such as roads & canals, that private individual couldn’t afford **Thus, the state should stay

Smith’s Modern Impact • What guides the economy then? - The freeplay of natural economic forces - The “invisible hand” (competition) • Capitalism!! - The government should stay out! - Lower taxes! - Survival of the fittest!! Profit Incentive

Impacts (cont. ) • Idea: private enterprise would stimulate fair distribution of the wealth in a country DISCUSS: Do you think this is true? Why or why not? Have you seen this in the United States? Vs.

Govt’s Role: You Decide!! Debate: The Role of Government 2 Sides: Do you support or oppose Adam Smith’s vision of government? • If supporting, you should identify reasons why the government shouldn’t go beyond the bounds cited • If opposing, you should identify other areas in which government might play a legitimate role.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Criticized property: “Man is born free & is everywhere in chains. ” Q: What does he mean? **Ex’s of “chains” that bind people? ? • Questioned emphasis on reason alone

Rousseau: Social Contract (1762) 1. About the General Will Q: What’s that? 2. Proposed a pol. solution to the tension betw. The individual & society - Based on the consent of the governed - General Will: the guide to social progress & good government 3. Wrote: Social Contract

The Social Compact 1. What is the “social compact”? • “Each man, in giving himself to all, gives himself to nobody. ” • “Each of us puts his person & all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will … each member as an indivisible part of the whole. ” 2. It’s a collective body In the US, we citizens are indivisible parts of the whole

Rousseau: Education 1. Wrote Emile 2. On the “education of the natural man” 3. Education: should foster, not restrict, children’s natural instincts 4. Hypocrite!! • Sent own children to orphanages, where many died @ a young age 5. Women: “naturally” Valued Education Female Inferiority

Rousseau: You Decide • Rousseau argues that govts & laws are made to protect private property but in fact enslave the people who created them. 1. Do you feel your govt protects your property (both body & material things)? 2. Do you feel enslaved by your govt? 3. What reasonable alternatives do you see to having a strong central govt? 4. How might have Rousseau’s ideas have contributed to the creation of socialist ideas in the

Mary Wollstonecraft 1. Founder of modern European feminism 2. For the rights of women 3. Wrote: Vindication of the Rights of Women 4. Two Problems w/ Enlightenment thinkers

Two Problems with Enlightenment Thinkers 1. Many opposed the arbitrary power of monarchs over their subjects (subjects obeying the monarch) • Then why must women obey men? 2. Enlightenment was based on an ideal of reason in ALL human beings • If women have reason, then they, too, are entitles to the same rights that men have.

Effects of the Enlightenment Implications are revolutionary … WHY? • Proposed belief that men ought to be ruled by LAWS, not rulers • The philosophes argued that social progress & political freedom were restrained by the state & the church & didn’t reflect man’s natural goodness • Belief in progress & man’s ability to solve problems

French Revolution • Most important result of the Enlightenment • No single cause for it • Takes place in phases