Path to the Enlightenment

• Eighteenth-century intellectuals used the ideas of the Scientific Revolution to reexamine all aspects of life

John Locke
In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke argued that every person was born having a tabula rasa, or ‘blank slate’ of a mind.

Reason and knowledge, he said, come to us through experience.

“Our observation, employed either about external sensible objects or about the internal operations of our minds perceived and reflected on by ourselves, is that which supplies our understanding with all the materials of thinking.”

Isaac Newton
Newton believed that the world, and everything in it was like a great machine, operating according to Natural Laws
Through systematic investigation, these laws could be uncovered.

This became the dominant intellectual idea of the time.
 
 

REVIEW & DO NOW Answer the following questions in your spiral notebooks:
What was the argument John Locke was making in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding?	According to Locke, how do humans acquire knowledge? What belief of Newton became the dominant intellectual idea of the time?
	See here for answers.

Ideas of the Philosophes

• The philosophes wanted to create a better society.

The philosophes were philosophers, writers, economists, social reformers.

The philosophes believed that just as science, mathematics, and reason led to our understanding of the Laws of Nature in Newtononian Physics, science could also lead to our understanding of Human Nature, and in that way, design a perfect society.

The Role of Philosophy

Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat was the French Nobleman known as
the Baron de Montesquieu—
In his study of governments, The Spirit of the Laws (1948), Montesquieq identified three basic types of governments:
Republics, suitable for small states;
despotism, appropriate for large states;
and monarchies, ideal for moderately-sized states.

Montesquieu describes England's government as having three branches:
the Executive, the Monarch—
the Legislative, Parliament—
and the Judicial, the Courts of Law.
The government of England functioned through a separation of powers.

Montesquieu’s most lasting contribution to political thought was his idea that a government should have a system of checks and balances, a system of political limits and controls, through separation of powers.

His ideas were later used in the United States Constitution.

Voltaire
The philosophe François-Marie Arouet, known simply as Voltaire, was considered to be the greatest figure of the Enlightenment.
In his Treatise on Toleration (1763), he argued against religious intolerance, especially in France, saying “All men are brothers under God.”

Throughout his life, Voltaire championed deism, a religious philosophy based on reason and natural law.

In the Deists’ view, a mechanic (God) had created the universe.
The universe was like a clock.  God, the clock-maker, had created it, set it in motion, and allowed it to run without his interference, according to its own natural laws.

Diderot
Denis Diderot’s most famous contribution to the Enlightenment was his Encyclopedia, or Classified Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, a 28-volume collection of knowledge he edited.
Published between 1751 and 1772, Diderot hoped it would "change the general way of thinking."
The Encyclopedia was a way to spread Enlightenment Ideas.  Diderot even visited with heads of government, such as in his meeting with Catherine the Great of Russia.
 

REVIEW & DO NOW Answer the following questions in your spiral notebooks:
Who were the philosophes? What was their goal? How did they think this could be done? What were the three basic types of governments, as identified by Montesquieu? What were the three branches of government Montesquieu described England as having?	What was Montesquieu's most lasting contribution to political thought? What was Voltaire's argument in his 1763 Treatise on Toleration? What is Deism? What work is Denis Diderot most known for? Describe this work.
	See here for answers.

New Social Sciences

• The Belief in logic and reason promoted the beginnings of social sciences.

They believed that if individuals were free to pursue their own economic self-interests, all society would benefit.  They believed the state should leave the economy alone.

This doctrine became known as laissez-faire economics.

The translation of laissez-faire means “to let (people) do (what they want).”

Adam Smith on Economics

The best statement concerning laissez-faire was written by Adam Smith.

The Physiocrat and Scottish philosopher Adam Smith is regarded as the founder of the modern social science of economics.

In his book Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith argued there were three basic roles of government:
 

Two competing Economic Systems:

Beccaria on Justice
Social scientists also dealt with the idea of justice, especially in the legal system.

In the eighteenth century, most European courts used punishment to deter crime, since most police forces were too weak and ineffective to capture criminals.

Most punishments were cruel.

However, in his 1764 book On Crimes and Punishments, the philosophe Cesare Beccaria, argued that the punishment should not be brutal, and he argued against capital punishment, the death penalty, because he said it was an ineffective deterrent to crime.
 

REVIEW & DO NOW Answer the following questions in your spiral notebooks:
Who were the Physiocrats? What is the literal (translation) meaning of "laissez-faire?" What is the doctrine of laissez-faire? In Wealth of Nations, what did Adam Smith argue were the three basic roles of government?	What was the argument Cesare Beccaria made in On Crimes and Punishments? What is meant by "capital punishment?" What was Beccaria's feeling about it, especially in regards to its deterrent effect?
	See here for answers.

The Spread of Ideas

• From the upper classes to the middle classes and from salons to pulpits, the ideas of the Enlightenment spread.

In Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind, Rousseau argued that, by adopting laws and government in order to preserve their private property, people had made themselves slaves to the government.

In The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau argued that society should be governed by a social contract—through which a society agrees to be governed by the general will of the people.

Rousseau believed in
  the balance of heart and mind,
  the rule of the general will, and
  education to foster natural instincts.

Rousseau did not believe in rule by laws and government.

Women's Rights
By the eighteenth century, female thinkers began to express their ideas concerning the improvement of the lives of women.

Mary Wollstonecraft, English writer
advanced the strongest statement for the rights of women.
A Vindication of the Rights of Women argued women should have equal rights in education, economics, and political life.

The Growth of Reading
Books had previously been directed at small groups of educated elite.

After 1780, books were aimed at the new reading public of the middle classes, which included women and urban artisans.

The Salon
The salon was an elegant drawing room where intellectuals drank coffee and discussed Enlightenment ideas.

Salons helped spread the ideas of the Enlightenment and gave some women new power.

Religion in the Enlightenment

John Wesley
The founder of Methodism

Methodism was a religious movement and an evangelical form of Christianity.  They believed in spreading the word of the Salvation by Jesus Christ through the Grace of God.

Methodists stressed the importance of hard work and spiritual contentment instead of political equality.
 

REVIEW & DO NOW Answer the following questions in your spiral notebooks:
What was the argument Rousseau made in his Discourse On the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind? What was the solution for this, as Rousseau argued in The Social Contract?	By the 1780's, who were the new reading public? What were salons? Did the salon help elevate the role of women? Who was John Wesley? What was a doctrine he taught?
	See here for answers.