Semester I (Midterm) X Abandoned

The Enlightenment

Format 

TWO ESSAY QUESTIONS PICK ONE

Memorize books, arguments, and historiographers

Show that you’ve read other authors, & remark upon conflicting interpretation

Events (2-3) for examples

Make A Timeline!

Commandments of Enlightenment

  • Reason

  • Critical

  • Progress

  • Education

  • Toleration

  • Critique of Injustice

  • Secularization

  • Humanist

Voltaire’s Article: The Enlightenment Creed

  • Genealogy of European hatred; “the evil is within us”

  • Learning from others; praise for Quakers and enlightened despots (Russian & Ottoman), praise for Indian wisdom, Chinese customs, Persian science

  • Islam as a pure and just religion

  • Judeophobia present in Voltaire’s narrative, but ultimately respect in the midst of what he viewed to be worse about humanity

Les Lumières (France)

  • “Classical rationalism” from Descartes

  • “Existential skepticism” Montangne, Pascal

  • Freedom of thought and expression → Voltaire

Aufklärung (Germany)

  • “Absolute Rationalism” Leibniz

  • “Mystical pre-romanticism” Eckhart to Goethe

Illuminismo (Italy)

  • Humanism, between passion & faith (Dante, Pico Della Mirandola)

  • “Baroque Historicism” Vico

  • Beccaria → No more institutionalized torture

Enlightenment (England)

  • Empiricism → Locke

  • Nominalist constructionist

  • Natural Rights → Locke

Places of The Enlightenment

  • The “Academies” → Elitist knowledge, domesticated by the state

  • Masonic Lodges → Initiated humanist knowledge

  • Salons → Elitist, touching on all knowledge

  • Cafes → Free speech

Classical Vs. Modern Interpretations

Gramsci

  • Enlightenment as defense against modern madness (fascism) 

Foucault

  • Reverence of the authentic self in the face of madness 

Jürgen Habermas

The enlightenment allowed for open public debate 

Theodor Adorno

Post-holocaust, mad rationality which dehumanizes, “alienated by the reign of numbers” 

Jonathan Israel*

Argued that there was simultaneously a radical and a moderate enlightenment 

COULD BE USEFUL ON AN ESSAY 

Russophilia 

People’s - mainly Voltaire’s - obsession with Russian enlightened despotism 

Sinophilia 

Chinese decoration and history becomes popular in France, what major philosopher was involved? 

You guessed it - Voltaire 

Remember: Oriental Despotism vs. Enlightened Despotism 

The Chinese and Indian Dilemma → Both nations had experienced economic superiority but remain stagnant, thus that the Brits can swoop in 

Prussia 

  • Prussia is not a state with an army, but an army with a state 

  • Voltaire travels to Berlin to meet with Frederick II, a leader who presents himself very deliberately as an enlightened despot (philosopher king), he is nonetheless very warlike 

  • Sonderweg → the German way 

Corsica & Rousseau 

  • Corsican Republic → The first of the modern republican experiments 

  • Rousseau advocated for the Island, blurring the lines between “savages” in his mind and advanced forms of government 

Noble Savage 

  • Racist view of “simpler” peoples

  •