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Path to Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century philosophical movement of intellectuals who were greatly impressed with the achievments of the Scientific Revolution. One of their favourite words was 'reason', which by that they meant they highly applied the scientific method to to make progress toward a better society than the one they had inherited. Natural law, hope, progress - these were all words that were common in the minds and everyday conversations of those involved in the Enlightenment. -
John Locke
Essay Concerning Human Understanding The intellectuals of the Enlightenment were especially influenced by the ideas of two seventeenth-century Englishmen, John Locke, and Isaac Newton (we'll get to him later) In Locke's 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding', Locke argued that every person was boorn with a tabula rasa, or blank mind. Locke's ideas suggested that people were molded by the experiences. -
The Intellectuals of the Enlightenment
The intellectuals of the enlightenment were know by the French word Philosophe; meaning philosopher. Duh. Not all philosophes were French however, and few were philosophers in the strict sense of the term. They were writers, professors, journalists, economists, and above all; social reformers. -
The Intellectuals of the Enlightenment, continued.
They came chiefly from the middle class. To them, their roles meant changing the world. A spirit of rational criticism was to be applied to everything, including religion, and politics. The philosophies often disagreed. Spanning over a century, the Enlightenment evolved over time. Each succeeding generation became more radical as it built on previous contributions. -
Isaac Newton
The ideas of Isaac Newton also greatly influenced eighteenth-century intellectuals. He believed that the physical world and everything it was, was like a giant machine. According to him it operated according to natural laws which could be uncovered through systematic investigation, -
Enlightenment thinkers
The enlightenment thinkers reasoned that if Newton was able to discover the natural laws that governed the physical worlds, then apply said methods, they'd be able to discover the natural laws that governed human society. If all of these institutions followed, the result would be a truly ideal society. -
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a writer, and he read in many subjects and languages. His most famous work that contributed to the Enlightenment, was the Encyclopedia. Published by 1772, the Encyclopedia became a weapon against the old French society. Many of its articles attacked religious superstition and supported religious toleration. -
Voltaire
The greatest figure of the Enlightenment Francois-Marie Arouet, known simply as Voltaire. Voltaire came from a prosperous middle class family, and his numerous writings brought him both fame and wealth. He was especially well known for his criticism of Christianity and his strong belief in religious toleration. He championed deism, which was a religious philosophy based on reason and natural law. -
Beccaria on Justice
By the eighteenth century, most European states had developed a system of courts to deal with the punishment of crime. They were often cruel. The primary reason for extreme punishments was t -
Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat the baron de Montesquieu was a French noble. His famous work, The Spirit Of The Laws (released in 1748) was a study of governments. He identified 3 basic kinds of governments: republics, despotism, and monarchies. He used England as an example of a monarchy, as well as stating their government had 3 branches - executive, legislative, and the judicial. These functioned through a seperation of a law. -
Smith on Economics, cont.
The state, then, should not interrupt the free play of natural economic forces by imposing regulations on the economy. Instead, the state should leave the economy alone. This doctrine became known as its French name; laissez-fair which here means "to let (people) do (what they want)." -
Smith on Economics
The physiocrats and Scottish philosopher Adam Smith have been viewed as the founders of the modern social science of economics. The physiocrats, a French group, were interested in identifying the natural economics that governed human society. They maintained that if individuals were free to pursue their own economic self-interest, all society would benefit,
