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The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment. The Age of Reason. What was the Enlightenment?. Intellectual & Cultural Movement in the 18 th c. Proponents argued that society & its laws should be based on human reason rather than custom or tradition

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The Enlightenment

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  1. The Enlightenment The Age of Reason

  2. What was the Enlightenment? • Intellectual & Cultural Movement in the 18th c. • Proponents argued that society & its laws should be based on human reason rather than custom or tradition • Diverse movement – spread across countries, disciplines & political lines

  3. The Inspiration: René Descartes Isaac Newton John Locke

  4. Origins of the Enlightenment? • Writers popularized new science w/ books written for the general public opinion. • Bernard de Fontenelle, Plurality of Worlds • Writers expressed skepticism about religion & attacked priests as reactionary thinkers • Pierre Bayle, Religious and Critical Dictionary (1697) • Europeans read travel accounts about Asia, Africa & the Americas • Written by traders, missionaries & explorers • Exposed great variety of human behaviors & beliefs

  5. Three Key Ideas of the Enlightenment: • RATIONALISM • All Truths must be arrived at through logical, critical thinking. (Reason) • Nothing should be accepted on faith or authority alone • SCIENCE • Scientific methods could be used to understand the human world; natural laws also applied to society (“Social Science”) • PROGRESS • Humans could use scientific research to find ways to improve life & advance humanity

  6. The Philosophes

  7. The Enlightened Individual  The “Philosophe” • Not really original thinkers as a whole, but were great publicists of the new thinking  CHANGE & PROGRESS! • They were students of society who analyzed its evils and advanced reforms

  8. The Great French Philosophes: Marquis de Condorcet Voltaire Baron de Montesquieu Denis Diderot

  9. Great Philosophes Outside of France: Immanuel Kant Jean-Jacques Rousseau Adam Smith David Hume

  10. Female Philosophes: Mary Astell Emilie du Châtelet Mary Wollstonecraft

  11. American “Philosophes”: John Adams(1745-1826) ThomasJefferson(1743-1826) Ben Franklin(1706-1790) …...…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…………...

  12. Where were the philosophes?

  13. The Spread of Enlightenment Ideas

  14. A Parisian Salon

  15. Madame Geoffrin’s Salon

  16. The Salonniéres: Madame Geoffrin(1699-1777) MadameSuzanne Necker(1739-1794) MademoiselleJulie de Lespinasse(1732*-1776)

  17. Salons were not only in Paris: • Wealthy Jewish women created nine of the fourteen salons in Berlin. • In Warsaw, Princess ZofiaCzartoryska gathered around her the reform leaders of Poland-Lithuania. • Middle-class women in London used their salons to raise money to publish women’s writings.

  18. Coffeehouses:

  19. Reading during the Enlightenment:

  20. A Reading Revolution?: • Literacy rates rose dramatically in Europe across all social classes • Reading became a private & silent activity • Books were expensive (one day’s wages). • Many readers for each book (20 : 1) • novels, plays & other literature. • journals, memoirs, “private lives.” • philosophy, history, theology. • newspapers, political pamphlets.

  21. “Must Read” Books of the Time

  22. The Impact of the Enlightenment

  23. Legacy of the Enlightenment Enlightenment ideas helped spur the democratic revolutions, begun in America in 1776 and Paris in the late 1780s, that put all Western governments on the defensive. Reform, democracy, and republicanism had been placed irrevocably on the Western agenda. New forms of civil society arose –-- clubs, salons, fraternals, private academies, lending libraries, and professional/scientific organizations. It established a materialistic tradition based on an ethical system derived solely from a naturalistic account of the human condition (the “Religion of Nature”)

  24. Legacy of the Enlightenment (cont.): Theoretically endowed with full civil and legal rights, the individualhad come into existence as a political and social force to be reckoned with. Europeans began to define themselves as culturally & racially superior to non-European cultures  justified slavery & colonialism 19c conservatives blamed it for the modern “egalitarian disease” (once reformers began to criticize established institutions, they didn’t know where and when to stop!)

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