The Impact of the Enlightenment in France Flashcards
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.
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.
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).
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.’
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
