The Enlightenment

Lisbon disaster in 1755 did what?

85% of buildings destroyed, as many as 60,000 dead

Why was Lisbon disaster important?

Considered to be act of divine intervention, heightened discussion

Enlightenment had existed for how long before?

¾ of a century

When did Leibnitz declare the existing world was the best God had created?

1710

Alexander Pope in 1733, in An Essay on Man, wrote that…

‘Whatever is is right’

Who attacked optimistic takes on the Lisbon Disaster, and when?

Voltaire, ‘On the Lisbon Disaster’ of 1756, and satirical work ‘Candide’

Who criticised Voltaire with an unconventional take?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, blamed human action not God

The Enlightenment was…

Less a body of doctrine, but a number of shared premises

Enlightenment - terminology

Words meaning enlightenment in French and German used at the time, but not in English, which appears in the 19th century

French called the Enlightenment…

Siecles des Lumieres

Notable Enlightenment figures who believed in God, despite being an absurd critic?

Voltaire and Rousseau

England and the Enlightenment - cornerstones?

1970s Henry Steel pushed England outside, but late Ray Porter brought it back, and made it originator of the movement

Which events launched enlightenment in England (1)

Newton’s Principia in 1687

Which events launched enlightenment in England (2)

Glorious Revolution of 1688

Which events launched enlightenment in England (3)

John Locke's Two Treatise on Government and his Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689 - mind blank at birth and filled with experience

French Enlightenment was … than the Low Countries and England

More hostile to their authorities

First great work of French Enlightenment

1721, Montesquieu’s letters

Claude Adrien Helvetia had to do what in 1758?

Issued three retractions of his book On the Mind, which was also banned in public

Political thought seen in…

Montesquieu’s ‘Spirit of Law’ and the separation of powers, and Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’

Encyclopedie stats…

Between 1751 and 1772, 72,000 articles appeared across 17 volumes

purpose of the encyclopedie

to impart knowledge to offspring and increase virtue

enlightenment in Russia

driven by government - Catherine the Great

Enlightenment in Sweden

Never unified, but Carl Linneaus classified biological organisms (did for nature what the Encyclopedie did for human knowledge)

Enlightenment in Scotland

More institutional enlightenment in universities

five reasons for the enlightenment: Hot17thC, PaB, P, RoL, F

horrors of the 17th century, printing and books, peripheries, republic of letters, forums

Censorship

France and Austria

Periodical publications: example

The Spectator

‘Safe-havens’

England, Switzerland, Dutch Republic

Forums

Salons of Paris

Accessibility - majorly affected?

Austria, Prussia, Russia - rulers used enlightenment ideals

Impact - minimal?

Even i high literacy locations (Amsterdam and London) people more likely to be reading bible

Study of French book bestelling list in second half of 18th century saw…

4 out of 5 religious in nature

Overlap - Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution

Rousseau worked on botany, Voltaire experimented with optics