Historical Developments

The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that questioned established traditions in all areas of life often preceded revolutions and rebellions against existing governments. Enlightenment philosophers applied new ways of understanding and empiricist approaches to both the natural world and human relationships, encouraging observation and inference in all spheres of life; they also reexamined the role that religion played in public life, insisting on the importance of reason as opposed to revelation. Other Enlightenment philosophers developed new political ideas about the individual, natural rights, and the social contract.

Enlightenment Terms

• General Will is a term popularized by the 18th-century French political philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau.

• In his book The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau defines the general will (volonté générale) as the civic impulses of citizens seeking to pursue the common good within their community.

• He contrasts the general will with the particular will of individuals seeking only their personal good.

• Rousseau argues that the general will of the people, not the individual will of a king or the particular wills of nobility or clergy, should produce the laws that govern that community.

The Enlightenment

• 17th and 18th century

• Emphasized reason, logic, and questioned religion.

• NEW IDEAS: natural rights, separation of church & state

• Preceded revolutions against existing governments (American/French/Haitian); reduced religiosity of Thirty Years’ War period

Enlightenment thinkers supported:

• Reason

• Natural rights

• Anti-absolutism

• Anti-slavery, anti-serfdom

• Expanding suffrage

Enlightened Absolutism & Important Peoples

Catherine II “The Great” (1762-1796)

• Greatly increased Russia’s territory.

• Gave the appearance of enlightened rule by funding the arts and accepting western cultural values.

• Yet, kept serfdom and granted aristocrats more power over peasants.

Peter the Great

• a Russian czar in the late 17th century who is best known for his extensive reforms in an attempt to establish Russia as a great nation.

• He created a strong navy, reorganized his army according to Western standards, secularized schools, administered greater control over the reactionary Orthodox Church and introduced new administrative and territorial divisions of the country.

• Wanted warm water trading ports for trade

• Focused on the development of science and recruited several experts to educate his people about technological advancements.

• He concentrated on developing commerce and industry and created a gentrified bourgeoisie population.

• Mirroring Western culture, he modernized the Russian alphabet, introduced the Julian calendar and established the first Russian newspaper.

Louis XVI

• The last king of France (1774–92) in the line of Bourbon monarchs preceding the French Revolution of 1789.

• He was married to Marie Antoinette and was executed for treason by guillotine in 1793.

• Responsible for the French Revolution and not giving his people rights, left them starving and poor

Philip II

• King of the Portuguese, champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation

• During his reign the Spanish empire attained its greatest power, extent, and influence, though he failed to suppress the revolt of the Netherlands and lost the “Invincible Armada” in the attempted invasion of England

Johannes Gutenberg

• a German goldsmith, inventor, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe with the introduction of mechanical movable type printing press

• Inventor of the printing press which helped spread ideas of revolution, science and government

Philosophe (not philosopher)

is the French word for "philosopher," and was a word that the French Enlightenment thinkers usually applied to themselves. The philosophes, like many ancient philosophers, were public intellectuals dedicated to solving the real problems of the world. Believed in the existence of a natural moral order, consistent with the dictates of reason, and knowable through the exercise of our rational faculties. Any rational being had an immediate sense of what was just and unjust.

Niccolo Machiavelli

• An Italian Renaissance diplomat, philosopher and writer, best known for The Prince, written in 1513.

• He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.

• Machiavelli proposed that immoral behavior, such as the use of deceit and the murder of innocents, was normal and effective in politics. He also notably encouraged politicians to engage in evil when it would be necessary for political expediency.

• “It’s better to be feared than loved” “The ends justify the means”

Sir Thomas More

• Venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist.

• Thomas More is known for his 1516 book 'Utopia' and for his untimely death in 1535, after refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.

• He also served Henry VIII as Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to May 1532.

Thomas Hobbes

• Hobbes believed people are naturally selfish, cruel, and greedy.

• Without laws, people would always be in conflict.

• In 1651, he published a book called Leviathan.  In this book, he wrote that people are driven by a restless desire for power.

• In such a “state of nature”, life would be “nasty, brutish, and short.”

• His idea:  Governments were created to protect people from their own selfishness.

• Later Enlightenment thinkers might not have agreed with Hobbes…

• But, he was important because he was one of the first thinkers to apply reason to the problem of politics

• His ideas may sound harsh, but it was based on his own observations of human nature and reasoning.

John Locke

• John Locke widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism, was an English philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers.

• His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, as well as the American revolutionaries.

• His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.

• Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance.

• In a natural state all people were equal and independent, and everyone had a natural right to defend his “Life, health, Liberty, or Possessions".

• Most scholars trace the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," in the American Declaration of Independence, to Locke's theory of rights

Natural Rights

• rights that people have simply for being human.

• Locke thought these were life, liberty, and property

• If the government is not protecting these rights, then they have the right to overthrow it (LEADS TO REVOLTS WORLDWIDE)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Rousseau's most important work is The Social Contract, which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order within a framework of classical republicanism. Published in 1762, it became one of the most influential works of political philosophy in the Western tradition.

• The treatise begins with , "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

• According to Rousseau, by joining together into civil society through the social contract and abandoning their claims of natural right, individuals can both preserve themselves and remain free. This is because submission to the authority of the general will of the people as a whole guarantees individuals against being subordinated to the wills of others and also ensures that they obey themselves because they are, collectively, the authors of the law.

Adam Smith

• Believed a free market (capitalism) would help everyone not just the rich

• More goods would be produced at lower price, making them affordable for everyone

• Wrote “Wealth of Nations”

Laissez-Faire Economics

• “Hands off”  approach

• Belief that government should not interfere in the free operation of the economy.

• Free Market: Unregulated exchange of goods

Baron de Montesquieu

• Montesquieu (1689 –1755)was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Age of Enlightenment.

• He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world.

• Montesquieu's most influential work divided French society into three classes: the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the commons. The administrative powers were the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. These should be separate from and dependent upon each other so that the influence of any one power would not be able to exceed that of the other two, either singly or in combination.

Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)

• Voltaire was an Enlightenment writer.

• His most famous novel was Candide, in which he poked fun at old religious ideas.

• Voltaire was especially concerned with freedom of thought and expression.

• His idea:  He had a strong belief in religious tolerance and free speech.  Tolerance means the acceptance of different beliefs and customs.

• Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

• Lasting Impact:  Voltaire met Benjamin Franklin, and when the U.S. Bill of Rights was written, the ideas of freedom of religion and freedom of speech were added to our 1st amendment to the Constitution.

Martin Luther

• German monk who challenged the Catholic Church and started the Protestant Reformation in 1517

• He posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church

• His writings were responsible for fractionalizing the Catholic Church and sparking the Protestant Reformation.

• His central teachings, that the Bible is the central source of religious authority and that salvation is reached through faith and not deeds, shaped the core of Protestantism

Henry VIII

• King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547.

• Henry is best known for his six marriages, and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage annulled since she could not bear a son

• Ruled England for 36 years, presiding over sweeping changes that brought his nation into the Protestant Reformation

John Calvin

• a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation

• Believed in predestination: the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others

• Founded the belief system of Calvinism

Ignatius of Loyola

• Venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Basque Catholic priest and theologian, who co-founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus and became its first Superior General at Paris in 1541

• Founded the Jesuit order in 1534 and was one of the most influential figures in the Counter-Reformation.

• Known for its missionary, educational, and charitable works, the Jesuit order was a leading force in the modernizing of the Roman Catholic Church

Nicolaus Copernicus

• a Renaissance-era mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic clergyman who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe (Heliocentric Theory)

• This scientific theory goes directly against the teachings of the Catholic Church as this time (Geocentric Theory)

Johannes Kepler

• a German astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer.

• He is a key figure in the 17th-century scientific revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books.

• Discovered that the orbit of Mars was an ellipse.

• Best known for his three laws of planetary motion.

• These laws are: Planets move in orbits shaped like an ellipse.

• A line between a planet and the Sun covers equal areas in equal times.

Galileo Galilei

• an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath, from Pisa.

• Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science"

• Of all of his telescope discoveries, most known for his discovery of the four most massive moons of Jupiter, now known as the Galilean moons

• Popularized Copernicus’ heliocentric theory

Sir Isaac Newton

• An English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution

• Changed the way we understand the Universe. He discovered the laws of gravity and motion and invented calculus.

Social Contract

is a voluntary agreement among people defining the relationship of individuals with one another and with government and by this process forming a distinct organized society. In the 17th and 18th centuries the theory of a social compact among individuals of a society was linked with the doctrine of natural law.

Cesare Beccaria:  The Rights of the Accused

• In the Middle Ages, torture of criminals was common.  The rack was often used, as well as devices like thumbscrews.

• Beccaria, an Italian, wrote a book called On Crimes and Punishments in which he argued against brutal punishments.

• His ideas:  A person accused of a crime should receive a fair and speedy trial.  Torture should never be used. Capital Punishment (death sentences) should be done away with.

• “For a punishment to be just it, should consist of only such gradations of intensity as to suffice to deter men from committing crimes.”  This means that “punishment should fit the crime” and not be more than necessary to stop someone else from doing it again.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter. This daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, became an accomplished writer herself, as Mary Shelley, whose best known work was Frankenstein.

After Wollstonecraft's death, her widower published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences.

Olympe de Gouge’s Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen

• She hoped to expose the failures of the French Revolution in the recognition of gender equality, but failed to create any lasting impact on the direction of the Revolution

• It stated that women, like their male counterparts, have natural, inalienable, and sacred rights.

• It was basically the same as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen created during the French Rev but this included women exclusively.

• She fought to give women the right to divorce. She campaigned for civil partnerships and against slavery. She was a passionate feminist who died for her ideals – and all this in the late 18th century

Seneca Falls Conference (1848) organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

• At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, a woman’s rights convention—the first ever held in the United States—convenes with almost 200 women in attendance.

• The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London.

• The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States. Held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote

The End of Serfdom in Russia

• Most Russians were peasant serfs tied to estates owned by Russian nobility landowners

• Were treated like property, tied to their land and at the mercy of their landlords

• Emperor Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861

• 23 million people were freed from serfdom

• At the time, Russian politicians were made aware of their archaic use of feudalism and abolished serfdom as a means of improving their economy, industry, and military