1. Created by Lisa Sydeski Thomas Jefferson High School
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Created by Lisa Sydeski
Thomas Jefferson High School

2. OBJECTIVES WHY DID THIS MONUMENTOUS CHANGE OCCUR?
HOW DID THIS NEW WORLD-VIEW AFFECT THE WAY PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT SOCIETY?
WHAT IMPACT DID THIS NEW WAY OF THINKING HAVE ON POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND MONARCHIAL ABSOLUTISM?

3. WHAT WAS THE ENLIGHTENMENT?
“Loosely united by certain key ideas, the European Enlightenment was a broad intellectual and cultural movement that gained strength gradually and did not reach its maturity until about 1750.” – McKay
Immanuel Kant ( )
German Philosopher
What is the Enlightenment? (1784)
“Dare to know”
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.”

4. WHAT WAS THE ENLIGHTENMENT?
Enlightenment thinkers/scientists = revolutions in the sciences, the arts, politics, and religion
Scientific Revolution ( ) reassessment of long lasting prevailing ideas
Universal, mathematical laws – Newton – Principle of Gravity
Application to religion, government,
Leads to the Enlightenment

5. ENLIGHTENMENT PRINCIPLES
REASON
NATURAL LAWS
PROGRESS

6. THEMES
Increase in literacy Reform Deism Age of Reason Printing Press Mercantilism to Capitalism
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
RELGIOUS
INTELLECTUAL
TECHNOLOGICAL
ECONOMIC

7. “Republic of Letters” transcended national boundaries

8. ENLIGHTENED INDIVIDUALS
Philosophes – students of society who were concerned with progress and reform
Intellectual theorists
Applied reason to ALL aspects of society: religion, politics, science, history, economy
Rousseau wrote a novel, opera, autobiography, constitution for Poland, treatise on education, analysis of theater on morals
Free thought and social reform

9. Immanuel Kant 1724-1804 Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786)
Concept of Transcendentalism
Existence of knowledge beyond empiricism
For example: faith, life after death

10. REFORM IN GOVERNMENT

12. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English Leviathan (1651)
Life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish”
Absolute Monarchy best form of government
Social Contract – NOT DIVINE RIGHT
No Right to Revolt
English Civil War ( )

13. John Locke (1632-1704) English Two Treaties of Government (1690)
Republic best form of government
Social contract NOT divine right
Right to Revolt
“Life, Liberty, Property” – Natural Rights
AMERICAN philosophes?

14. Montesquieu The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French
The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
Three Branches of Government
Balance of Powers
Republic is best form of government

15. Jean- Jacques Rousseau
( ) Swiss
The Social Contract (1762)
The social contract is derived from human nature not the bible, rulers
People enter into a social contract with one another
“General Will” – surrender individual rights for the collective will of the community
Gov’t necessary evil to carry out the general will

16. Jean- Jacques Rousseau
“All men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains.”
Man is born naturally good needs protection from corruption of civilization “Nobel Savage”
Government must preserve “liberties”
French Revolution

17. REFORM IN RELIGION

18. Voltaire Francis Marie Arouet (1712-1778)
Essay on the Customs and Spirit of Nations (1756)
Candide (1759)
Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
Attacked religious persecution, exploited ignorance
Right to a fair trial
“I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

19. Voltaire Case of Jean Calas Toulouse, France
Campaign to abolish torture

20. David Hume An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1740)
( ) Scottish
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1740)
The Natural History of Religion (1755)
Basis for religion was emotion and fear NOT reason

21. DEISM
“One who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason."
Religion/Philosophy based on natural law and reason
DEISM IS NOT ATHEISM
Religion without superstition, fanaticism
Natural and rational not supernatural and mystical
God made the universe and has no further interventions

22. WATCHMAKER
“The intricacies of the physical universe were compared to the intricacies of a watch, and it was argued that just as a watch could not exist w/out a watchmaker, so the universe as discovered by Newton could not exist w/out a God who created it and set it moving by its mathematical law.” - Palmer

23. WATCHMAKER
“It was almighty intelligence that was thought divine.” – Palmer
“God Gave Us Reason, not Religion” – The World Union of Deists

24. ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE ECONOMY

25. Adam Smith Free Trade Capitalism Liberalism Mercantilism
Wealth of Nations (1776)
Supported:
Free Trade
Capitalism
Liberalism
Against:
Mercantilism
Land in place of labor
Key Concepts:
“Invisible Hand”, “laissez-faire”, “supply & demand”

26. PRINT CULTURE: Makes Enlightenment ideas popular

27. Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French Encyclopedia (1751 – 1772) 28 volumes
Encompass every branch of human knowledge
1st volume published in 1751

30. WOMEN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Paris salons
Women hostesses
Madame Marie-Therese Geofrinn ( )
Wealthy middle-class widow
Most salons held by middle-class or aristocratic women

31. EMILIE du CHATELET Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749) - French
Wrote about mathematics and physics
Translation of Newton’s Principia
Voltaire learned much of his science from her

32. ENLIGHTENED DESPOTISM
Inspired by the Enlightenment – absolute monarchs pursued legal, social, and educational reforms
Catherine II, Frederick II, and Joseph II
Paradox???
REFORM – threatened the existence of the monarchy and the changing concept of government

33. CATHERINE II Russia, Romanov (r. 1762-1796) Expansion of territory
Partition of Poland 1772, 1793,1795
Codifies laws
Emphasis on education and building projects
Pugachev’s rebellion

35. FREDERICK II Prussia, Hohenzollern (r. 1740-1786)
“First Servant of the State”
Unified law code
Abolished torture
Religious toleration
Reorganized taxation
Composed music
Invited philosophes to his court - Voltaire

38. JOSEPH II Austria, Habsburg (r. 1765 – 1790) Mother Maria Theresa
Religious toleration
Equal taxation
Unified law code
Abolished serfdom
Educational reform
Land to the serfs
Leopold II (r )

40. CONSEQUENCES Reform, democracy, republicanism
Monarchs “servant to the state”
Centralized power, codify laws, build up military
Encouraged education institutions
Civil society – clubs, salons, private academies, lending libraries, professional/scientific organizations
Secularization, religious toleration

41. FREEMASONS Organized around the stonemasons’ guild Fraternal Lodge
Encouraged equality among members included men of middle-class and aristocracy
Elected officers, wrote constitutions, “free” to practice their skills in coordination with Enlightenment ideals