1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800

High Middle Ages

Renaissance

Reformation

Religious Wars

Age of Discovery

Scientific Revolution

State Consolidation

Mercantilist Empiresand War

Enlightenment

The “Old Regime”

Middle Ages

Political EconomicSocial

18th Century

Middle Ages

Political EconomicSocial

Feudal System

Feudal System; Religious

Feudal System; Barter

18th Century

Middle Ages

Political EconomicSocial

Feudal System

Feudal System; Religious

Feudal System; Barter

18th Century

Centralized State

Urbanization, Secular,Religious Pluralism

Mercantilism; Primitive

Capitalism

Chapter 17: The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment– The conviction that economic improvement and

political reform were both possible and desirable

• Enlightenment thinkers:– Challenged traditional intellectual and theological

authority– Believed that human beings can comprehend the

operation of physical nature and mold it to achieve material and moral improvement, economic growth, and administrative reform

– advocated agricultural improvement, commercial society, expanding consumption, and the application of innovative rational methods to traditional social and economic practices

• Because of this movement the spirit of innovation and improvement came to characterize modern Europe and Western society

Formative Influences of the Enlightenment • Ideas of Newton and Locke• Newton had persuaded

natural philosophers that traditions of thought inherited from both the ancient and medieval Christian worlds were incorrect or confused and needed to be challenged

• He also encouraged natural philosophers to approach the study of nature directly and to avoid metaphysics and supernaturalism – use empiricism to check rational speculation

• Locke argued that all humans entered the world a tabula rasa – blank page and experience shapes character

– Human nature is changeable and can be molded by modifying the surrounding physical and social environment

– Man does not need to wait for the grace of God to better their lives – they can take charge of their own destiny

• The Example of British Toleration and Political Stability

– The domestic stability after the Revolution of 1688 furnished a living example of a society in which enlightened reforms appeared to benefit everyone – liberal policies produced neither disorder nor instability but rather economic prosperity, political stability, and a loyal citizenry

• The enlightenment flourished in a print culture – a culture in which books, journals, newspapers, and pamphlets had achieved a status of their own

– One of the driving forces in print materials was an increase in literacy across Europe especially in urban centers

– Within both aristocratic and middle-class society people were increasingly expected to be familiar with books and secular ideas

• coffeehouses became the centers for discussion

– writing became a possible career choice and the new print culture was based on merit and commercial competition – not heredity and patronage

The Emergence of Print Culture

• allowed for the formation of public opinion – the collective effect on political and social life of views circulated in print and discussed in the home, the workplace, and centers of leisure

• governments could no longer operate wholly in secret or with disregard to the larger public sphere

– governments practiced censorship and imprisoned offending writers

The Philosophes• the philosophes – the writers and critics

who flourished in the expanding print culture and who took the lead in forging the new attitudes favorable to change, championed reform, and advocated toleration

• some were university professors but most were free agents

• the bulk of their readership came from the prosperous commercial and professional urban classes along with forward-looking aristocrats

• the writers and their supporters did not consciously champion the goals or causes of the middle class but allowing these ideas to flourish undermined the existing social practices and political structures based on aristocratic privilege

• Voltaire – The First Among the Philosophes

– Most influential of the philosophes

– After offending the French monarch with his irreverent works he fled to England where his ideas and beliefs about human society were heavily influenced

– he continuously turned the venom and his satire and sarcasm against one evil after another in French and European life

• in his work Candide he attacked war, religious persecution, and what he considered unwarranted optimism about the human condition