1. What was Enlightenment?
Friars: Mendicants and nuns: People who dedicate themselves to God—service/poverty/celibacy—but do not remove themselves from society
Priest has duties of Mass; confession; absolution
Ash Wednesday: First Day of Lent—40 days before Easter. Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert when tempted by the Satan.
Blessing ashes made from palms blessed on palm Wednesday “You are Dust and to dust you will return” said to A&E after Sin. Day of burning Heretics. Bruno burned on Ash Wednesday
Inquisition:
Priest at age 24; Doctor of theology at 27
Inquisition was invesitigating him by 27—he defended the Arian controversy and Erasmus’ biblical commentaries found in his latrine

2. What was the Enlightenment?
A period of Western European history characterized by a philosophical movement
What time period?
What kind of philosophical movement?
Commitment to critical thought
Commitment to human equality and natural rights
Commitment to systematic thinking
Like C: Kant identifies Enlightenment with knowing, though for him it isn’t holding certain beliefs, it is having the courage and resolve to think for oneself
Like C: Enlightenment is inevitable, but only if people are free. They need only be free to express their judgment. Kings are not enemies. For C Enlightenment in inevitable people knowledge of rights can be lost, and is sure to spread.
Like C: Enlightenment is a contemporary process that affects all of humanity. It is the sacred right of humanity

3. The Enlightenment Was Not One Thing
18th C. texts don’t mention “The Enlightenment”
Kant, Condorcet, and Herder mention ‘enlightenment’, ‘enlightened’ thinking, etc.
Enlightenment is a way of thinking that is becoming widespread in their lifetimes
Like C: Kant identifies Enlightenment with knowing, though for him it isn’t holding certain beliefs, it is having the courage and resolve to think for oneself
Like C: Enlightenment is inevitable, but only if people are free. They need only be free to express their judgment. Kings are not enemies. For C Enlightenment in inevitable people knowledge of rights can be lost, and is sure to spread.
Like C: Enlightenment is a contemporary process that affects all of humanity. It is the sacred right of humanity

4. Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-1794)
Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1795)
1794

5. The Ninth Era
‘enlightenment’: being well educated, or possessing knowledge
Bacon
Galileo
Descartes
Locke
The Science of Morality begins
Rights of human beings become known
Enlightenment is irreversible, and it’s spread inevitable
Popular vs. Official Revolutions
Friars: Mendicants and nuns: People who dedicate themselves to God—service/poverty/celibacy—but do not remove themselves from society
Priest has duties of Mass; confession; absolution
Ash Wednesday: First Day of Lent—40 days before Easter. Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert when tempted by the Satan.
Blessing ashes made from palms blessed on palm Wednesday “You are Dust and to dust you will return” said to A&E after Sin. Day of burning Heretics. Bruno burned on Ash Wednesday
Inquisition:
Priest at age 24; Doctor of theology at 27
Inquisition was invesitigating him by 27—he defended the Arian controversy and Erasmus’ biblical commentaries found in his latrine

6. An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Immanuel Kant ( )
An Answer to the Question:
What is Enlightenment? (1784)
1784

7. What is Enlightenment? ‘enlightenment’: thinking for oneself
The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)
We don’t need education or training in order to know how to be good
Being good = having a good will
The Principle of Universalizability
Act only on maxims that can be made universal laws, and are still achievable
Ex) I will lie on a loan application in order to get a loan
Enlightenment is a scared right of humanity

8. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)
This Too is a Philosophy of History (1774)
Friars: Mendicants and nuns: People who dedicate themselves to God—service/poverty/celibacy—but do not remove themselves from society
Priest has duties of Mass; confession; absolution
Ash Wednesday: First Day of Lent—40 days before Easter. Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert when tempted by the Satan.
Blessing ashes made from palms blessed on palm Wednesday “You are Dust and to dust you will return” said to A&E after Sin. Day of burning Heretics. Bruno burned on Ash Wednesday
Inquisition:
Priest at age 24; Doctor of theology at 27
Inquisition was invesitigating him by 27—he defended the Arian controversy and Erasmus’ biblical commentaries found in his latrine

9. This Too is a Philosophy of History (1774)
‘enlightenment’: a mechanical way of thinking that takes contemporary European culture as the measure of humanity
With enlightened thinking we lose:
1) Original, Spontaneous Thinking
2) Virtue Ethics
3) Historicism
4) Contingency, Fate, Deity
Friars: Mendicants and nuns: People who dedicate themselves to God—service/poverty/celibacy—but do not remove themselves from society
Priest has duties of Mass; confession; absolution
Ash Wednesday: First Day of Lent—40 days before Easter. Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert when tempted by the Satan.
Blessing ashes made from palms blessed on palm Wednesday “You are Dust and to dust you will return” said to A&E after Sin. Day of burning Heretics. Bruno burned on Ash Wednesday
Inquisition:
Priest at age 24; Doctor of theology at 27
Inquisition was invesitigating him by 27—he defended the Arian controversy and Erasmus’ biblical commentaries found in his latrine