PhilosophyHow the Scientific Revolution Changed How People Thought About Things

Francis Bacon 1561-1626

Never conducted an experiment

Attacked medieval scholasticism

Created inductive reasoning or empiricism

Contributed the concept of experimental methodology

Renee Descartes 1596-1651 Discourse on Method

Deductive thought or rationalism

Cogito ergo sum is classic Renaissance thought

Viewed the world as mechanical

Blaise Pascal 1623-1662Pensees

Religious philosophy

Wanted to balance dogmatic thinking of Jesuits with those who were complete religious skeptics

Pascal’s Wager- better to wager on the existence of God then live as an atheist- you get more positive from believing

Became involved with the Jansenists who believed in St. Augustine’s idea of total sinfulness and salvation through faith and predestination

Thomas Hobbes Leviathan 1588-1679

Man was a brutish animal- English Civil War jaded him

Needed government to control the brutish nature of man

Departure from the early Renaissance of Machiavelli

Believed in absolutism but not necessarily the right of divine or hereditary monarchy

John Locke 1632-1704Two Treatises on Government

Social contract- man is a free and rational being who enters willingly into a contract with government

Man has the God given, inalienable right to overthrow unjust government

Tabula Rasa- all knowledge is empirical and comes from experience

The Age of Enlightenment

Philosophes

France

The Republic of Letters

English

Profoundly influenced by the Scientific Revolution

Asserted freedom and economic expansion

Impact of education- tabula rasa

Influence of John Locke

Every person has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Contractual relationship between ruler and the ruled

Tabula Rasa

Voltaire 1694-1778

Greatest philosophe

Went to England and was impressed with freedom of religion and speech

Impressed with honor that the English showed Newton- a respect for education and learned people

Voltaire’s Influence

Despised the Catholic Church

Thought that narrowness and bigotry at the heart of all religions

Deist- God put the world in motion and then disengaged, allowing the laws of science to operate the world

Ecrasez l’infame- anti-church slogan which means crush it

Candide 1759

pessimistic

Life is hard so you must create your own happiness

Cannot trust God

Voltaire and The case of Jean Calas

French protestant falsely accused of murdering his son

Story says that the son wanted to be Catholic

Catholic

Voltaire writes The Treatise on Toleration, reexamining the case

Became a lynchpin for religious toleration in France

Baron de Montisquieu 1689-1755

Spirit of Laws 1748 is considered the most important work of the Enlightenment

Influenced by the English

Thought that government could be studied as Science

Separation of powers

Wanted limits on royal absolutism and not a republic

Deplored slavery as against natural law

Universal system of justice

Denis Diderot 1713-1784 and the Encyclopedia

Written by the community known as the Republic of Letters

Greatest collaborative efforts of the Enlightenment

Reflected the Enlightenment ideal that knowledge could be organized

Importance of the Encyclopedia

Spread Enlightenment ideas far from France

Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin purchased their own sets

Attacked by censors in places like Italy-did not like thinly veiled attacks on church

In France often banned because of attack on monarchial authority

Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778

Most radical philosophe

Led a solitary and troubled life

Other philosophes hated Rousseau

Credited to Rousseau

Believed in a creation of direct democracy instead of constitutional monarchy

Influenced radicals during the French Revolution

Social Contract

The Social Contract 1762

Did not think that man could be trusted to use reason

Emphasis on reforming the overall community

General will which emphasized submitting to the community as opposed to individual want

Set the stage for the Romantic Movement- emotional discovery emphasized which culminates in the novel Emile

Children should grow freely without adult interference

Enlightenment in Germany

Immanuel Kant 1724-1804

Critique of Pure Reason 1781

Argued against pure reason but emphasized layers of knowledge that is subconscious

Enlightenment in Italy

Cesare Beccaria 1738-1794

On Crimes and Punishment

Modern concept of jurisprudence

Criminals should be allowed certain basic rights

Push to end flogging and torture to get information

Scotland

David Hume 1711-1776 went into atheism illustrating that God cannot be proved

Edward Gibbon 1737-1794 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire represents rowing fascination with history, also criticized Christianity

Economics

Adam Smith 1723-1790

Wealth of Nations-spelled out different stages of economic s=development

Argues against mercantilism and advocates laissez faire economics

Invisible hand or the natural control of supply and demand

Disagreed with the physiocrats value of agriculture

Women and the Enlightenment

Salons

Madame de Pompadour

Olympe de Gouges

Mary Wollenscraft and the Vindication of the Rights of Women

Wollstonecraft

Women had the same innate capacity for reason and self-government as men

Virtue should mean the same thing for men and women

Relations between men and women should be based on equality

Compared marriage to absolute monarchy

Still believed that the primary purpose of a women is raising and education children

The Book Trade: Revolution in communication

First news papers- London 1702

Pamphlets, journals published in masse and without borders

Little or not government control in Britain

Other places like Russia, Prussia, and Austria censored

Censorship pushed prices up and made books too expensive for average people

Salons: The social party and influence of women in Paris

Role of women distinguished salons from academies and universities

Brought men and women of letters together with aristocrats

Could be very influential

Gave birth to public opinion and moved politics beyond the court

The Rise of the Middle Class Reader

Mainly women which drives the popularity of novels

Books also aimed at educating girls in manners

Books explored domestic as well as public sphere topics

Middle class imitates the wealthy

The Coffeehouse: Salons for everyday people

Place to gather and discuss

Mixing of classes but not the very poor or rural

Spreads education to more every day people

Spreads the love of knowledge

Reading Revolution

Availability of texts

Variety of texts that appealed to a wider audience

First public schools in Scotland

Middle Class Education- especially girls

Take Away

Wealthy still looked at common people like indigenous people of the new world

They were not democrats

Philosophes were social reformers not social crusaders

Music was also important in salons- all that equaled an educated person- this is the end of the Baroque period

Opera became important form of entertainment- for example Mozart’s Figaro

Helped inspire the American Revolution and the French Revolution