3.3 Flashcards
Immanuel Kant
- German
- defined enlightenment as people using their intelligence unlike before where they had to have to have the guidance of another
- “dare to know! Have the courage to use your intelligence!”
Reason, natural law, hope, progress
Thought they could use rationalism or reason, like 17th century scientists did and were successful, they could then could make progress toward a better society than the one they have now
Major changes that formed movement of Enlightenment
- Popularization of Science
- New Skepticism
- Impact of Travel literature
- Inspiration from Locke and Newton
The Popularization of science
- Popularization from 18th century scientists came from 17th century ideas spreading to circles of educated europeans instead of scientists themselves
- VIP: Bernard de Fontenelle
Bayle
- thought making people believe a set of religious ideas was wrong, but it should be about individual conscience that determine one’s actions
- believed we should use rationalism to dig deeper into the meaning of the bible and secular documents instead of using the literal meaning of it
The Impact of Travel Literature
- 18th: Cook’s discoveries of Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia and book: Travels had people thinking the natives are “natural men” or close to the origin of the world and simple
- travel literature of 17th and 18th had people realizing that there are highly developed civilizations with different customs in other parts of world, especially China.
- people then comparing themselves relative to others and discovered these practices are grounded in custom instead of reason
Cultural Relativism
- cultural relativism came when europeans were so sure they were doing the right thing
- realized that others have the same idea of God and this devastated people
- began classifying others into racial groups and some believed in polygenesis (separate human species) and monogenesis ( one human species)
- it’s the belief that no culture is superior to another because culture is a matter of custom, not reason, and derives its meaning from the group holding it
Philosophes
- to them, the role of philosophy was to change the world instead of talking about it
- reason was not supposed to be used to create a system to explain all things, but could be used to discover natural laws and they could change society to these laws
- believed natural laws regulate universe and human society
- instead of people accepting misery to find salvation, they believed happiness was an inalienable right
- they were held together by common intellectual bonds, but disagreed and as it evolved it became more radical
- they called for freedom of expression because they were not free to write what they wanted to which is called censorship
- Formed a grand “republic of letters”
- Challenged traditional royal and Church authority, insisting that human instiutions should conform to logic and reason
Cosmopolitan and international aspect of the Enlightenment
- it was internal and cosmopolitan, but it enhanced the dominate role being played by french culture
- but they still affected people around the Western World
Inspiration from Locke
- book: Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- Instead of Descartes’s idea of innate/ native ideas, he said we are born with a blank mind/ tabula rasa
- believed our knowledge is from the environment instead of hereditary and reason instead of faith
- believed we could change ourselves and society by changing the environment
- paved way for the environment to be changed by showing how reason helped people discover natural laws and adjust instruction to these laws
Inspiration from Newton
-people of englishmen believed that by following newton’s rules of reasoning they could discover the natural laws
Montesquieu
- french noblemen
- in his book: Persian Letters, the program of french enlightenment is in this book
- book: The spirit of the Law
- wanted to limit abuses of royal absolution
- Influenced writers of American constitution
Montesquieu’s Spirit of law
- through the study of different governments in the book, he could find the natural laws governing the social relationships of human beings
- Found three types of governments: 1. re publics 2. monarchy 3. desposition
- wanted to prevent despotism or absolute authority
- attacked traditional religion, advocacy of religious toleration, denunciation of slavery, use of reason to liberate human beings from prejudice
Montesquieu’s Separation of Powers
- by praising and analyzing england’s system of each part limiting each other , he came up with the importance of checks and balances created by separation of powers
- he wanted separation of power because he wanted french nobility to play a role in french government
- divided authority would protect the rights of individuals by not having one branch get control over society
Republics
good for small states and citizen involvement