PSIR205 The Age Enlightenment

The Enlightenment and Religion Deism Toleration Radical Enlightenment Criticism of Christianity Jewish thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) Islam in Enlightenment Thought

The Enlightenment and Society The Encyclopedia: Freedom and Economic Improvement Denis Diderot and Jean L e Rond d’Alembert Beccaria and Reform of Criminal Law Social science The Physiocrats and Economic Reform Critical of mercantalism (protectionism of domestic market) and the system of guilds They supported minimal government; establishmern of larger farms Adam Smith and Economic Growth and Social Progress Laissez-faire economic thought (the Wealth of Nations) Four stage theory (hunting and gathering, pastoral or herding, agricultural, or commercial societies)

Political Thought of the Philosophes Montesquieu and Spirit of the Laws Persian Letters; Spirit of the Laws Political conservatism Separation of powers Rousseau: A Radical Critique of Modern Society Discourses on the Origins of Inequality (1755) The Social Contract (1762) Critique of modernity and property Freedom: obedience to law, which was made by the people. General will is a key concept To be good versus prosperous Civic religion Radical democracy

Enlightened Critiques of European Empires The case of native Americans and the enslavement of Africans Denis Diderot; Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Herder Human dignity; difference in cultures

Women in the Thought of Enlightenment The support of noble women to philosophes Philosophes did not try to improve the political and social situation of women Rousseau (in Emile) explained the function of women as rearing children. He convinced many upper-class women to breast-feed their children Rousseau stressed on the emotional dimension of women, giving their life a meaning Mary Wollstonecraft

Rococo and Neoclassical

Enlightened Absolutism Frederick the Great of Prussia Promotion of Merit Religious toleration Administrative and Economic Reform Joseph II of Austria Centralization of Authority Ecclesiastical Policies Economic and Agrarian Reform Catherine the Great of Russia Limited Administrative Reform Economic Growth Territorial Expansion The Partition of Poland The End of Eighteenth Century in Central and Eastern Europe