The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is a term we use to refer to the intellectual discussions on social reform that occurred in 18^th century Europe, in particular, France. The central issue was the power of the monarch, and other issues included religious toleration and the development of commerce. The discussions all employed scientific rules as criteria to judge the well being of a state, against which the monarch and his government were evaluated.

1. Why was the belief in human progress so important in the Enlightenment and

How do you define progress?

Scientific reason that enabled human beings to surpass their predecessors, develop independent thinking, and leave ignorance and immaturity behind.

2. The influence of science: condition for the belief in human progress

Newton: human ability to know the world and its laws.

Descartes and Locke: confidence in the human capacity to discern and work with these laws. Descartes: clear and distinct thought reflect the objective reality of the world; Locke: all human thought arose from contact with the physical world and could be trustworthy.

3. Nature and society are one

Belief that the same God that created nature also created human beings with the same laws. Therefore the same laws that one uses to study nature can also be applied to the study of society.

4. Influence of the idealized British system

Constitutional monarchy, rational society, pragmatic attitude toward trade and commerce, and religious toleration.

5. Why most of the philosophers came from France?

• Wide propagation of new ideas in France. A common language certainly facilitated that.

• Arrogant and autocratic kings.

• People will try to defy the king; with scientific reason: showing how the king’s rule defied scientific rules.

6. Voltaire (1694-1778)

From a middle class background, Voltaire was a playwright and philosopher. He propagated ideas against superstition and advocated religious tolerance. The latter was especially inspired by what he saw in England (c.f. England after the Revolution and France under Louis XIV).

7. Ways science was applied to society

In the study of government: the subject of sociology; economics; education; psychology; criminology; anthropology.

8. "Imagined others"

Idealized systems of other parts of the world, such as the "noble savages" of Tahiti, or the meritocratic Chinese, as mirrors of the inadequacy of the French system

9. What was the Enlightenment view of history

World history: the first world history was published in the 18^th century. Only when people believed universal rules governed all human societies could they actually write a history of all human societies.

10. What was the premise of the encyclopedia and what was its content?

Advance human knowledge via reason: there is no knowledge that reason cannot access.

Categorization of knowledge was possible because of the belief in the universality of social rules. Therefore with a limited number of categories, all knowledge of the world could be sorted out.