1. The Enlightenment Sapere Aude! Dare to know! - Immanuel Kant (1784)

2. One day, Bossuet The next, Voltaire Bishop Bossuet, Politics drawn from Holy Scripture (late 17 th c.) – The grounds of authority: God, Bible, King – These ordered society, gender and social relations, attitudes to nature, wealth, non-Christian cultures, science Hierarchical, paternal, sacred power Monarchy as the best form of government

3. Bossuet ‘How I hate these philosophers who, making their own intelligence the measure of God’s purposes, would regard Him merely as the creator of a certain general order which He, then, left to develop as best it might. As if God’s aims were vague and confused generalities.’

4. Bossuet ‘I see… preparations for a great onslaught on the Church in the name of Cartesian philosophy. From the womb of that philosophy, from its principles, to my mind imperfectly understood, I foresee the birth of more than one heresy.’

5. Voltaire (1694-1778) – Rule of law – Commercial prosperity – Religious Toleration – Arts and Sciences – Civil liberties

6. The Old Regime: An enchanted, hierarchical world Witches, the devil Intercession of saints Preparing for death and the afterlife The great chain of being Hierarchy and privilege

7. What was the Enlightenment? A new way of thinking, a profound epistemological shift Climate of opinion, the ‘public sphere’ Campaign to transform state and society

8. Galileo’s telescope De-centered the earth De-stabilised humans’ self-conception Challenged religious authorities’ monopoly on knowledge

9. Descartes Skepticism, radical doubt Individual reason – hierarchies set aside Rationalism – truth found through reason

10. Spinoza - Bayle Freedom of conscience Religious toleration (they were from religious minorities) Secular foundations for political authority Rational foundations for society rather than tradition or superstition God and nature are one. The quest to understand Nature’s laws is to become close to God.

11. Locke, Newton, Montesquieu Repudiation of metaphysical ‘systems’ Knowledge through the senses – empiricism Locke’s blank-slate Newton’s laws of nature – induction, not deduction Montesquieu’s laws of society found in history

12. Newtonian thinking was – open-ended… could change with the introduction of more facts – focused on relations and patterns, not inherent essences Implications: authorities could not claim to master eternal truths.

13. The problem of ‘Evil’ With the ‘devil’ removed from the cosmic scheme, how does one account for ‘evil’ in the world? – Best of all possible worlds (Leibniz, 17 th c.) – Historical, universal progress (18 th ) – Stoicism and utility: ‘we must cultivate our gardens’ (Voltaire, Candide, 1759)

14. Lisbon Earthquake, 1755 How could ‘nature’ prove to be so evil, including ‘human nature’? – 40-50K killed – 80-90% of the buildings destroyed What are we to learn from it? – Voltaire: cultivate one’s garden – Rousseau: cities are bad, providence good

15. The Encyclopédie French, edited by Diderot and d’Alembert, 17 vols. Published over 20 years in mid 18 th c. – Most famous philosophers of the age Aim: to spread practical knowledge in society With amusing ‘digs’ at authorities from time to time (e.g.: ‘knowledge of God’ and ‘black magic’ are treated together on the tree of knowledge)

16. Rousseau: the dissenting voice First Discourse on the Sciences and Arts Second Discourse on the Origins of Inequality – Civilisation is corrupting – The ‘arts and sciences’, consumption and urban living alienate the individual from his/herself

17. Rise of Critical Public Sphere Jürgen Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Bourgeois Public Sphere (1962) – New ideology of family from necessity and coercion to morality and sentiment – This notion of the family was projected on ‘society’ through public institutions

18. Public Sphere Print: a reading revolution – Literacy rates rise dramatically in 18 th c. – Shift from devotional literature to novels – Shift of intensive, reverential reading to extensive critical reading – Seditious literature – libels, pornography draw on Enlightenment epistemology to ridicule church and state

19. Public Sphere Salons – Increasing independence from the Court Theatres – Official and market-driven ones – Who determines playbills? Public asserts itself Pubs, cafés – owners subscribed to newspapers Freemasonry

20. Tribunal of Public Opinion The authority of ‘public opinion’ Authorities unwittingly contribute to its rise – By policing – Through propaganda – By invoking the concept

21. The ‘public’ vs. the ‘people' Rise of popular agitation in late 18 th century – peasant revolts – urban rebellions Fear of the masses intensifies Solution: transform the people into a public – How? More enlightenment!

22. Enlightenment as ‘modern’ The ‘Ancients vs. Moderns’ debate – The printing press, firearms and compass – Debate within the official French Academy – Enlightenment: a ‘narrative’ about progress Universal history – Kant’s Perpetual Peace – Marx’s theory of history

23. The mission to modernise Imperialism – Civilizing missions of the 19 th century Universal education – Only way out of class disorder: education (and discipline) the masses

24. Modernity: Good or Bad?

25. Charles-Louis Richard Exposition of the doctrine of the modern philosophers (1785 ) The results of modern philosophy – The corruption of faith and morals – The destruction of religion and every idea of duty, of obligation, of law, of conscience, of justice and injustice – “What a picture! What goals! What effects!”

26. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789

27. Guillotine

28. Modernity: Progress or Pathology? WWI and WWII: Is Europe Civilised? Is ‘Civilisation’ healthy? Freud, Civilisation and Its Discontents (1929) Horkheimer and Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society (1959)

29. Is the Enlightenment a myth? Too all embracing as a concept? Is it helpful to thinking of the Enlightenment as at the origins of ‘modernity’? Is modernity a useful concept? What Enlightenment is is still open to debate.