Unit 5 The Age of Enlightenment 1. AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT We can call the eighteenth century the age of the enlightenment because it was both a culmination and a new beginning. Fresh currents of thought were wearing down institutionalized traditions. New ideas and new approaches to old institutions were setting the stage for great revolutions to come.

I. Social Milieu The main figures of the enlightenment are fairly well known: Descartes, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. There were others whom we could call antagonists to the dominant note, people like Rousseau, Zinzendorf, Wesley, Vico, and Hume. The pervasive appeal, as expressed by Voltaire, was to the

1. autonomy of reason 2. perfectibility and progress 3. confidence in the ability to discover causality 4. principles governing nature, man and society 5. assault on authority 6. cosmopolitan solidarity of enlightened intellectuals 7. disgust with nationalism.

II. Intellectual Setting III. Method IV. Enlightenment and Religion The central theme of the Enlightenment is the effort to humanize religion. All philosophers rejected original sin. V. History VI. Social Science and Political Thought

Main Themes: 1. The Enlightenment had its origins in the scientific and intellectual revolutions of the 17c. 2. Enlightenment thinkers felt that change and reason were both possible and desirable for the sake of human liberty. 3. Enlightenment philosophers provided a major source of ideas that could be used to undermine existing social and political structures.

I. The Major Themes of the Era: A. rationalism --> logical reasoning based on facts. B. cosmology --> new world view based on Newtonian physics --> analysis of natural phenomena as systems. C. secularism --> application of scientific theories to religion and society. D. scientific method --> experimentation; observation; hypothesis. E. utilitarianism (Bentham) --> laws created for the common good and not for special interests. The greatest good for the greatest number.

F. optimism & self-confidence --> anything is possible (a reversal of medieval thinking). G. tolerance --> a greater acceptance of different societies and cultures. H. freedom --> a mind as well as a society free to think, free from prejudice. I. mass education. J. legal / penal reforms --> Beccaria, Bentham. K. constitutionalism. L. cosmopolitanism.

IV. Results of Enlightenment Thought: A. contributing factor in the American and French Revolutions. B. Enlightenment thinking reflected in the U. S. Declaration of Independence. C. Enlightened Despots. D. European thought became centered on the belief in reason, science, individual rights, and the progress of civilization. E. New evangelical religious movements --> Pietists, Methodists.

Main figures Daniel Defoe ( ) Robinson Crusoe Jonathan Swift ( ) Gulliver’s Travels Henry Fielding ( The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Thomas Gray Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Oliver Goldsmith The Vicar of Wakefield Richard Brinsley Sheridan The School for Scandal William Blake Song of Innocence Song of Experience Robert Burns

Questions and Discussion What is the Enlightenment? Brief comment on the characteristics & main themes of the enlightenment movement. Brief comment on “Gothic Novels”. Brief comment on the theme & language style of ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD.