French Revolution - Points Test 2, The Enlightenment Flashcards
1
Q
- What was the Enlightenment?
A
- What was the Enlightenment?
- The Enlightenment was an intellectual and cultural movement which spread across Europe during the 18th century.
- Use of principles of observation and reason to discover ‘truth, from the scientific revolution of the 16th/17th centuries.
- European thinkers questioned traditional assumptions, ideas and institutions, such as absolute monarchy, the church and societal structure.
- They stressed the importance of reason, logic, criticism and freedom of thought.
- They attacked faith, acceptable and superstition, refusing to accept unproven dogma.
- They enjoyed debate for its own sake; believed it was possible to improve the world around them.
- However, not politicians trying to draw up realistic policy proposals, but thinkers.
- On one matter they agreed: many of Europe’s long-standing institutions were unjustifiable and holding back progress.
2
Q
- Who were the Philosophes and why did their views challenge the AR?
A
- Who were the Philosophes and why did their views challenge the AR?
- Although Enlightenment not confined to France, many of its best known thinkers were French.
- Such men are sometimes referred to as social or political philosophers because their interest was primarily in political institutions and the state of society.
- They are also known as ‘philosophes’.
- They sought to establish the basic principles by which a state should be governed, how individuals in society should live, how a society’s wealth should be distributed.
- Their conclusions often differed.
- Their rational, scientific and secular approach to political and religious institutions often was similar in posing a challenge to the Ancien Régime.
- Many of them influenced by John Locke (1632-1704), who argued for the need for ‘consent’ in government and who stressed the importance of property rights.
3
Q
- Who was Montesquieu and why did his views challenge the AR?
A
- Who was Montesquieu and why did his views challenge the AR?
- Charles-Louis de Secondatm baron de la Bréde et de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
- A magistrate and president of the parlement of Bordeaux.
- Defended nobility and privilege.
- However, he questioned the structure of political authority.
- Wrote Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters), 1721, and L’Esprit des Lois (The Spirit of Laws), 1748.
- Argued for separation of powers in a state.
- Believed in separate legislature (to make laws), executive (to carry out and enforce them) and judiciary (to interpret and judge application of laws).
4
Q
- Who was Voltaire and why did his views challenge the AR?
A
- Who was Voltaire and why did his views challenge the AR?
- Francois-Maria Arouet (Pen Name Voltaire) 1694-1778
- Prolific writer, producing poetry, plays, historical works and philosophy.
- Wrote satires, best known Candide (1759).
- Abandoned career in law to write against hypocrisy and injustice.
- Supported toleration, civil rights and the right to a fair trial.
- Imprisoned in bastille for nearly a year under a letter de cachet for insulting the Duc de Rohan.
- Travelled afterwards to England.
- Defended right to free speech, ‘I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’
5
Q
- Who was Rousseau and why did his views challenge the AR?
A
- Who was Rousseau and why did his views challenge the AR?
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
- Came from Geneva.
- Initially led dissolute and itinerant life (in Paris or exile), trying to escape french authorities, who banned his works.
- Wrote Du Contract Social: principes du droit politique (The Social Contract) in 1762.
- Argued ‘Man is both free and everywhere he is in chains’.
- Argued that man was corrupted by society and politics.
- Believed that government was a ‘contract’ between people and rulers, with obligations on both sides.
- Governments should protect liberty and ensure equality.
- Decisions should be based on the ’general will’ of society.
- The ‘people’ had a right to overthrow governments that failed to act correctly.
6
Q
- Who was Diderot and why did his views challenge the AR?
A
- Who was Diderot and why did his views challenge the AR?
- Denis Diderot (1713-84)
- Gave up career in law to become a writer.
- Best known for his Encyclopédie (Encyclopedia).
- Compiled between 1751 and 1772.
- Co-edited by Jean le Rond d’Alembert.
- Diderot attempted to bring together all human knowledge.
- More than 100 french thinkers contributed, but Diderot wrote several hundred articles.
- Diderot hoped to show how man had mastered the natural world through science and technology.
- Diderot also hoped to show man as mastering human behaviour through understanding how individuals and societies worked.
- Diderot rejected religion and saw the church as a bar to progress.
7
Q
- Why did many Philosophes attack the church?
A
- Why did many Philosophes attack the church?
- Although many prominent philosophes ‘Deists’ who accepted the idea of a ‘God’, they criticised organised religion.
- Criticised Church’s idea of ‘Great Chain of Being’, which said social hierarchy divinely ordained.
- Criticised corruption from within church and control over ignorant ‘masses’, who lived in fear of eternal damnation.
8
Q
- How did this link with criticism of the monarchy?
A
- How did this link with criticism of the monarchy?
- Linked to this was criticism of ‘Divine Right’, and of absolute monarchy.
- Much debate about roots of monarchical authority.
- Many philosophes interested in English Model of ‘limited’ monarch sharing power with parliament.
- Montesquieu’s ideas of separation of powers a basis for further debate on how to create ‘checks and balances’ in government, to prevent any one individual from becoming too powerful.
9
Q
- How did the Philosophes seek legal reform?
A
- How did the Philosophes seek legal reform?
- Much thought given to safeguarding ‘rule of law’ and reconciling this with idea of civil liberty.
- Criticisms of unwritten law codes, arbitrary court rulings and unfair sentences penned; Voltaire attacked these sarcastically and bitterly.
- Privileges of clergy, nobility and guilds and corporations all attacked.
- It was suggested that true progress and prosperity could never be achieved in a society that failed to protect individual liberty and promote the ‘general good’.
10
Q
- How did some thinkers advocate for economic reform, the physiocrats?
A
- How did some thinkers advocate for economic reform, the physiocrats?
- The emphasis on traditional ‘liberty’ extended to economic freedom.
- Questioning of traditional economic theory of mercantilism.
- This was strict state regulation of economy (e.g. creating trading companies with monopolies, using taxes like duties on imports to regulate trade).
- Francois Quesnay wrote of need to abolish monopolies, guilds, tariffs (duties on imports) and special privileges in his Tableau Economique in 1758.
- Quesnay insisted taxes had to be changed, and that the only fair tax was a single land tax paid by all.
- These ideas often described as laissez-faire.
- This was a concept of limited government intervention, so economy driven by fair competition and by ‘natural laws’ of supply and demand.
- They were to influence prominent French economists, notably Turgot in the 1770s.
- Supporters of these theories became known as ‘physiocrats’.
- However, these ideas not universally accepted, as seen in a remonstrance from Paris Parlement.
11
Q
- Why were the ideas of the philosophes influential among the Bourgeoisie?
A
- Why were the ideas of the philosophes influential among the Bourgeoisie?
- The ideas of the philosophes had achieved a fairly wide circulation among the educated bourgeoisie in France by the time of Louis XVI.
- Spread throughout coffee houses, ‘academies’, ‘salons’ and other social gathering places in Paris and major provincial towns.
12
Q
- What were salons?
A
- What were salons?
- Salons, from Italian salone (large reception hall in Italian mansions), refers to gathering of educated and interesting people at the home of a host, who chose the company carefully in order to increase and refine the knowledge of those participating.
- ‘Salons’ centres of intellectual and social exchange.
- Often hosted by influential societal women, the salonniéres, facilitating dissemination off enlightenment ideas.
- Intellect the main condition for entry, so places where both sexes and bourgeoisie and nobles could exchange views.
- Helped break down social barriers and extend knowledge.
- Hosts such as Madame Geoffrin, Mademoiselle de Lespinasse and Madame Necker guided topics for discussion and acted as mediators in debate.
13
Q
- What were Academies?
A
- What were Academies?
- ‘Academies’ existed across France, clubs for intellectuals interested in political and social matters.
- Writers, journalists, artists and teachers.
- Put on lectures and set up debates and essay competitions for members.
- One such academy existed in Arras, where Robespierre was made director in 1786.
- Academies also had reading rooms and libraries, allowing members to study philosophe writings.
14
Q
- What were freemason lodges?
A
- What were freemason lodges?
- Freemason meetings another forum for debate.
- This was a fraternal and charitable organisation whose members were pledged (through secret rituals and rights) to brotherly love, faith and charity; members tended to be wealthy.
- First freemasonry lodge founded in France in 1688.
- By 1744, there were 40, 20 in Paris and 20 in provinces.
15
Q
- How influential was enlightenment thinking outside of those with access to advanced education?
A
- How influential was enlightenment thinking outside of those with access to advanced education?
- The spread of enlightenment thinking was largely confined to the educated.
- However, since literacy rates in France, particularly Paris, comparatively high (c.60% in Urban France), some elements of criticism able to permeate down to lower levels of society.
- While books were expensive, novels, plays, journals, even newspapers could be widely seen and read, political pamphlets abounded.
- Particularly popular were scurrilous ones attacking Marie-Antoinette.
- Some obscene, others a milder rebuke to privilege and the ways of the Ancien Régime.
- How far these ideas provoked revolution is hard to gauge, but writers do still attempt to measure it.
