Enlightenment is a NOUN
• Intellectual, moral, or spiritual
improvement
• Awareness
• Understanding
Essential questions
• What beliefs did Enlightenment thinkers
(or Philosophes) share? What united
them?
• How did the ideas of the Enlightenment
spread?
The Enlightenment:
1650-1800
Not as much of a movement, as a way of
looking at the world among European
intellectuals called philosophes of the
1700s
An intellectual is a person who:
• uses his/her mind creatively
• places a high value on or pursues things of interest to the intellect
• relies on reason rather than on emotions.
The Philosophes
• Philosophes means philosophers in
French. They were often not really
philosophers, but rather were thinkers,
social critics, and writers.
1. Use reason to examine everything
2. Human progress
3. Get rid of superstition, religious
fanaticism, ignorance, and torture.
Targets of Enlightenment
Thinkers
• Organized Church—religious intolerance,
censorship, torture
• Governments (state)—censorship, legal torture
• Monarchs--(many, but not all philosophes)
attacked “Divine Right of Kings” and the
absolute monarchies
• Slavery
• Beliefs based on superstition, not reason
• Ignorance--promoted spread of education
Enlightenment spreads
• Centered in France and Great Britain, but
spreads across Northern Europe and into
North America
• How? Encyclopedias, books, pamphlets,
novels (new form of communication),
salons, personal contacts with ruling elites.
• Confined largely to middle and upper
classes (educated, could read)
• Lower classes generally unaffected
Salons were informal gatherings, often set
up by middle- or upper-class women,
attended by Enlightenment thinkers where
new ideas would be discussed
Why France and Britain?
• France and Britain had a larger middle class and higher
levels of prosperity and cultural development than other
European countries.
•
• England was a constitutional monarchy, more freedom of
speech
Important EarLY
Enlightenment Thinkers
Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 John Locke 1632-1704
• pessimistic about humans • optimistic about humans
• Influenced by execution of
• Believed in natural rights
Charles 1 in 1649
from birth: life, liberty, and
• believed in a powerful monarchy,
but not based on divine right; property
constitutional monarchygth • Believed in constitutional
government
Important Enlightenment
Thinkers
• Baron de Montesquieu--- • Cesare Beccaria—
To combat despotism: attacked torture and
Separation of powers in secret legal proceedings
government: executive, • Torture made no sense
legislative, judicial
• Against slavery
Important Enlightenment
Thinkers
• Voltaire— propagandist • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• exposed religious and — social contract, people
government abuses and are good, belief in
intolerance “general will” of people
• freedom=being governed • Direct democracy
by rule of law, equally • Man improved by
applied returning to nature and
living a peaceful life.
Voltaire Part Deux
• Not a democrat, common
people often superstitious
and fanatical
• Supported “Enlightened
Despotism”
• Religious tolerance, • Also critical of the naïve
opposed to war and optimism of some other
conflict driven by religious Enlightenment thinkers
intolerance
18c Politics
► BRITAIN – Constitutional Monarchy, king ruled but with a
parliament
FRANCE Royal Absolutism, monarch ruled by divine right,
absolute power, “L’etat, ces’t moi” Louis XIV 1643-1715
► PRUSSIA, HABSBURG EMPIRE, RUSSIA “Enlightened
Despotism” oxymoron! , monarchs made educational, commercial,
religious, and economic reforms to gain greater popular support for the
state. Many philosophes admired this combination: strong ruler +
reforms
► OTTOMAN EMPIRE – traditional
Pair Share
• Do the forms of government that
Enlightenment thinkers advocate remind
you of anything in United States?
The Enlightenment and Women
• There were women Philosophes
• Women, particularly in France, played a
key role in spreading the ideas of the
Enlightenment through salons and
publishing
• But generally the idea of equality applied
only to men
• Rights of women were limited to home and
family
Women Critics of the
Enlightenment
• Women were not equal in
the minds of male
philosophes
• 1792 published “A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman”
calling for equal education for
girls
• Women shouldn’t depend
on their husbands
• Women needed
education to participate
equally with men in
society
Mary Wollenstonecraft