The Enlightenment

The Restoration• Monarchy & Anglican Church restored in 1660 with

Charles II • Increasingly, monarchs

had to share authority with Parliament

• 1689: English Bill of Rights limited monarchy further

• Period of extravagance and refinement for thenobility

Coronation Procession of Charles II to Westminster from the Tower of London (1661) by Dirck Stoop.

Age of Reason• Late 17th-late 18th

century• Increasing reliance on

empiricism and scientific reasoning, not religion, to understand the world

• Period of scientific advancement, intellectual growth, and improved living conditions

• Shared ideas in salons and coffeehouses

“The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone” (1771) by Joseph Wright

Scientific Revolution• Developments in

mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry transformed views of society and nature

• Asking “how,” not “why,” to explain natural phenomena

• Famous scientists: – Isaac Newton– Francis Bacon

Table of astronomy from the 1728 Cyclopaedia

Philosophers• John Locke: government

compromise, tabula rasa• Thomas Hobbes: humans

inherently evil, government helps control them

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: humans born good, corrupted by society

• Rene Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.”

• David Hume: skepticism• Immanuel Kant: reasoning

invalid because of subjective experience

Other Innovators

• Music: Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven

• Women’s rights: Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft

• Peace: John Comenius, Hugo Grotius

• Economics: Adam Smith

Enlightenment Literature • Middle class had more

money and free time to spend on reading

• Shift towards prose and realistic experiences – Rise of journalism

• Neoclassic literature aimed at elite; often used sarcasm and satire

“Franklin in London” by David Martin, 1767

Literature • Famous writers of the

Enlightenment:– Jonathan Swift– Alexander Pope– Voltaire– Daniel Defoe – Charlotte Smith– Robert Burns– Samuel Johnson

(1st dictionary)

Top: “Weimar’s Courtyard of the Muses” by Theobald von OerBottom: “Death of Socrates” by Jacques Louis David, 1787