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| 272517011 | Immanuel Kant | a German Philosopher during the 18th Century who claimed the Enlightenment was "man's leaving his self-caused immaturity" and said that the motto of the Enlightenment was "Dare to know...have the courage to use your own intelligence." | |
| 272517012 | reason | a favorite principle of Enlightenment thinkers, who advocated using it, and the scientific method, to understand all parts of the world. They believed that to truly accomplish this system of thought, they needed to renounce the traditions and religion of the old world. Enlightenment thinkers believed this could be used to discover the laws of nature and human behavior. | |
| 272517013 | Fontenelle's "Plurality of Worlds" | This man was an important link between the ideas of the 17th and 18th centuries, and this major work of his expressed the complicated ideas of Newton, Kepler, and other scientists as a conversation between a noblewoman and her lover. He communicated scientific principles in a clear way that made them desirable and understandable to upper class audiences, making science a part of literature. He was also a skeptic, and portrayed the churches as the enemy of science. | |
| 272517014 | Pierre Bayle | Protestant writer who critiqued traditional religious attitudes, superstition, religious intolerance, and dogmatism. He thought forcing people to have a certain religion (i.e. Louis XIV) was wrong, because he believed individual conscience should determine religion, and that multiple religions would benefit the state. Also believed that rational textual criticism should be applied to the Bible as well as secular works. Wrote "Historical and Critical Dictionary" which criticized the biblical figures and practices. | |
| 272517015 | James Cook's "Travels" | An account of this explorer's journey, in which he discovered Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia, which was a best seller in Europe among the educated elite. These accounts built up an image of a "natural man" or a "noble savage" who was much simpler and happier than Europeans, and led to questioning of European culture. | |
| 272517016 | Cultural Relativism | The comparing of European cultures to other cultures from travel literatures, especially China (Confucian morals were highly praised). European traditions no longer seemed reasonable, but only matters of custom, and led to questioning of European culture. The discovery of other civilizations with foreign religions and ideas of God, along with cultural relativism, led to religious skepticism. | |
| 272517017 | John Locke's tabula rasa | He created this idea that every person is born with a blank mind. He thinks that knowledge comes from experiences and reason rather than heredity or faith. This implied that people were molded by their environment, and that by changing that environment and subjecting people to good influences, society could be reformed and improved. | |
| 272517018 | "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" | Written by John Locke, this work denied Descartes' belief in innate ideas, and promoted the idea of a tabula rasa. | |
| 272517019 | philosophes | Intellectuals of the Enlightenment. They weren't all philosophers, they were writers, professors, journalists, statesmen, economists, political scientists, and social reformers from the upper and middle classes, mostly. The movement centered in Paris and promoted French culture, but it was a widespread and international movement, including the new world. They believed their goal was to improve society by using reason to criticize everything, including science, philosophy, religion, and politics. Their works were censored by kings and governments, so to get around this, they published books secretly, or under pen names; book burnings often made their books more popular. Though they were all bound together with common intellectual bonds, each generation became more and more radical by building on the ideas of the last generation. | |
| 272517020 | Montesquieu's "The Spirit of the Laws" | He was an educated French noble and a famous philosophe, who supported much of the principles of the Enlightenment like distrust of traditional religion, religious toleration, denouncing slavery, and using reason to improve society. This was his most famous work. It was a study of governments, and he identified 3 main types (republic for small states, monarchy for medium states, and despotism for large states). He examined the English constitution and arrived at a system of checks and balances through separation of powers (separate judicial, executive, and legislative allowed most freedom and security for a state) mostly because he wanted French nobility to have a say in government. His works were translated to English and read by the founding fathers of America, who incorporated his ideas into the Constitution. | |
| 272517021 | Voltaire's "Treatise on Toleration" | He was an educated, upper-middle class Frenchman who received a Jesuit education in law, but he began his career as a playwright. He was well known in France, but a private quarrel with a nobleman forced him to flee to England, where he was well received. He was very impressed with the political freedoms and religious tolerance in England, and in "Philosophic Letters" he complimented England and criticized absolutism in France. He returned to France but was forced into seclusion by his reputation, where he wrote many works in support of the philosophes, especially about religious toleration. He defended a French Protestant in the Calas affair and won. His famous work argued that religious toleration was in no way harmful to the stare, and that all men were brothers under God; he wanted to end intolerance and religious fanaticism. | |
| 272517022 | deism | A religious mindset of the philosophes that was championed by Voltaire. It was based on Newton's world-machine, and said that God, the mechanic, had created the world and its natural laws, but had no direct involvement in the world, and allowed it to run on his own. They thought God didn't answer prayers and Jesus wasn't divine. | |
| 272517023 | Denis Diderot's "Encyclopedia" | French middle-class freelance writer, who was an important philosophe. He often criticized Christianity for being fanatical and unreasonable, and emphasized a material world. His most famous work was editing this, 28 volumes long with contributions from many philosophes about common concerns. It was a weapon for the philosophes against old French society, by attacking superstition and advocating religious toleration and improvement of politics and society through reason. This work was cheap enough that it was available to many middle class people, helping to spread Enlightenment ideas. | |
| 272517024 | "science of man" | The social sciences, based on the belief that Newton's principles could be used to discover laws governing human behavior. Many philosophes believed they had discovered natural laws that governed human behavior, but these were based on conditions of that time period. | |
| 272517025 | David Hume | A Scottish philosopher who strongly believed in the existence of a "science of man". He wrote the "Treatise on Human Nature", was an important social scientist, and argued that careful, systematic observations of human experiences and use of reason could create a science of man. | |
| 272517026 | Physiocrats | A group of people with similar economic views. They were lead by Francois Quesnay, and they claimed that they could discover the natural laws that governed economics. Rejected mercantilism focus on gold and silver, believed land was the only source of wealth and agriculture was what increased wealth. They also refuted mercantilism's emphasis on a state-managed economy for government's benefit. They believed that supply and demand meant that everyone should be left free to pursue their own economic gain. This meant the government should not interfere with economics (laissez-faire). | |
| 272517027 | Francois Quesnay | He was a successful French court physician, and the leader of the Physiocrats. | |
| 272517028 | Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" | He was a Scottish philosopher who focused on the natural laws of economics. This famous work made a clear support of laissez-faire. He attacked mercantilism with 3 major economic principles. First, he criticized the use of tariffs to protect home industries, because he thought free trade was a crucial economic principle. Second, he believed that labor, not land or gold and silver, was the source of a nation's wealth. Third, he thought that the state shouldn't interfere in economic matters, and that government should exist only to perform 3 basic functions (protect from invasion with army, defend individuals from injustice with police, and provide public works like roads and canals). He believed the state should stay out of the lives of individuals. | |
| 272517029 | Laissez-faire | literally, "let the people do as they choose." It is an economic policy where the government doesn't interfere at all in economics. It was supported by Adam Smith and the Physiocrats, who believed that society would benefit from free trade based on supply and demand, and economic competition. It emphasized the economic freedom of individuals, and helped bring about an idea known as economic liberalism. | |
| 272517030 | Condorcet and Baron d'Holbach | Baron d'Holbach- a German nobleman and philosophe that rejected the beliefs of his predecessors and preached a doctrine of atheism and materialism. He stated that God was a figment of human imagination, and that humans should base their actions on pleasing men and escaping punishment in this life rather than being moral to please God and escape divine retribution. His ideas were radical to his fellow philosophes, who preferred deism and feared that atheism would hurt society. Condorcet- A French philosophe who lived during the French Revolution. He believed that humans had progressed through 9 stages of history, and that the spread of reason and science marked the entrance to the 10th stage, the age of human perfection. He believed there was no limit to human perfection. | |
| 272517031 | Jean Jacques Rousseau "The Social Contract" and the general will | He was born in Switzerland and traveled Europe, he was introduced to the ideas of the philosophes in Paris. He was very critical of his predecessors, and eventually he withdrew into long periods of solitude. He believed humans lived in a happy, harmonious natural state, which had been ruined when someone decided to claim land as their own, and that government had developed around this need to protect one's private property. Government was a necessary evil. This was his most famous work, where he tried to determine how individual rights fit in with government authority. He believed that society should consent to a social contract, where everyone agreed to go along with the general will of society. He believed that the general will of society represented what was necessary to improve society, thus it was best for each individual. True freedom is adherence to laws one has imposed oneself. He believed that a representative government and parliamentary councils took that freedom away from the people. | |
| 272517032 | "Emile" | A treatise by Rosseau that was written as a novel but was actually about how a "natural man" should be educated. He believed education should foster, not restrict, a child's natural instincts, and find a balance between sentiment and reason. He was a precursor to Romanticism. He also viewed women as naturally different than men, and requiring a softer upbringing. | |
| 272517033 | Mary Astell's "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies" | Middle-Upper class Englishwoman, she believed that women needed to be better educated, and she argued that men shouldn't be resentful, because she was partial to her gender as they were partial to theirs. She also believed that genders should be equal in marriage. She points out that if absolute sovereignty is unnecessary in government, then it is unnecessary in marriage. "If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?" | |
| 272517034 | Mary Wallstonecraft | English writer who most strongly argued for the rights of women, viewed as the founder of modern feminism, and believed that women should have equal education, economic, and political rights with men. | |
| 272517035 | "Vindication of the Rights of Women" | A work written by Mary Wollstonecraft that uses two contradictions in the view of women to promote women's rights. First, she stated that since men believed arbitrary power over one's subjects is wrong, like a monarch or slave-holder, then men's power over women is wrong too. Second, if Enlightenment beliefs state that reason is innate in all beings, then women have as much reason as men and are entitled to the same rights men have. | |
| 272517036 | the salon and the coffeehouse | Rooms in the houses of wealthy city residents where philosophes and educated guests gathered for conversation about the ideas of the philosophes. These meeting rooms often brought artists and writers together with important political figures, which helped the spread of Enlightenment ideas. Women hosted these gatherings, which gave them some say in politics and popular culture, however, the woman's power depended on the affluence of the men who attended the gathering. Famous hosts of these meetings included Madam Geoffrin, whose Parisian home provided a safe place to express ideas unwelcome in the royal court (She assisted in the secret publication of the Encyclopedia.) These other gathering places helped spread Enlightenment ideas. | |
| 272517037 | Marie-Therese de Geoffrin | Famous hosts of these meetings included Madam Geoffrin, whose Parisian home provided a safe place to express ideas unwelcome in the royal court (She assisted in the secret publication of the Encyclopedia.) She was a famous host of the salons in Paris, and it was an honor to be invited to her home. She had large amount of political influence who | |
| 272517038 | American Philosophical Society | A gathering of lawyers, doctors, and local officials in Philadelphia, who met to discuss Enlightenment ideas, and constituted one of the learned societies of the time. | |
| 272517039 | Rococo | A new style of decoration and architecture that began to spread through Europe by the 1730s. It emphasized grace and gentle action, unlike the Baroque, which stressed majesty, power, and movement. This new style rejected strict geometric designs and focused more on curves. It followed natural patterns like seashells and flowers, and was light, graceful, delicate and highly secular. It emphasized the newfound emphasis on pleasure, happiness, and love. It could easily be used with the existing style of Baroque architecture. | |
| 272517040 | Antoine Watteau | A Rococo painter who expressed the life of the nobles as refind, civilized, and reflective of upper-class pleasure and joy. However, the undertones of his paintings reflect sadness and the idea that pleasure, love, and life are fragile and transitory. Painted "Return from Cythera" | |
| 272517041 | Balthasar Neumann | A great architect of the eighteenth century, whose work clearly expresses the Baroque-Rococo style. His two greatest works are the pilgrimage church of Vierzehnheiligen in Germany and the Bishop's palace, the residential home of the prince-bishop of Wurzburg. The buildings display a mix of secular and spiritual with lavish decoration, light, bright colors, and elaborate detail. | |
| 272517042 | Neoclassicism | Emerged as an artistic movement in France in the late 1700s. These artists wanted to return to the simplicity and elegance of the ancient Greek and Roman painters. They were influenced by the recent discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum. | |
| 272517043 | Jacques-Louis David | A Neoclassical artist whose style had moral seriousness and an emphasis on honor and patriotism which made him popular during the French Revolution. He painted "Oath of the Horatii" from Roman history, which supported patriotism. | |
| 272517044 | Johann Sebastian Bach | A German musician and the director of church music at the Church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig. He composed "Saint Matthew's Passion" and many cantatas and motets. He helped perfect the Baroque style and believed music was a way to honor God. | |
| 272517045 | George Frederick Handel | A Baroque composer born in Germany who had an international career, and the focus of his music was mainly secular. He studied in Italy then moved to England where he tried to run an opera company. He was patronized by the English royalty, but he wrote music for public audiences that were often huge and unusual, like his "Fireworks Music". He wrote many operas and secular music, but he is most commended for his "Messiah", a religious work. | |
| 272517046 | Franz Joseph Haydn | a music director for Hungarian royalty, he composed hundreds of symphonies, string quartets, oratorios, Masses, and others. He visited England several times, where he was influenced by the way that the English musicians wrote their works for the public instead of patrons. He dedicated two great oratories, "The Creation" and "The Seasons" to the public. | |
| 272517047 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | He was a child prodigy who sought a patron, but rejected the demanding archbishop of Salzburg. He moved to Vienna but didn't find a patron, making his life poor and miserable. He continued writing great music, but died at 35 as a pauper. He reached the ultimate of the concerto, symphony, and opera. He wrote 3 super famous operas (The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni) and his grace, melody, precision, and emotion have never been surpassed. | |
| 272517048 | Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" | A writer in England in the 1700s whose first, most famous novel was this. It was about a servant girl who resisted her master's attempts for an affair. He read her letters and realized her virtue, and so married her. "Virtue rewarded." His writings appealed to many because of the new sense of sensibility, the taste for sentimental and emotional things. | |
| 272517049 | Henry Fielding's "History of Tom Jones, A Foundling" | His literature was meant to combat the deep morals expressed in Richardson's work by describing people who had no morals but survived by wit alone. This, his best work, was a novel about the adventures of a young scoundrel. It describes many levels of English society and emphasizes action over inner feeling; however, he criticizes the moral hypocrisy of his time. | |
| 272517050 | Edward Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" | He was a historiographer in the 1700s, and this, his masterpiece, expressed the Philosophes lack of sympathy for the Middle Ages. He thought that Rome fell for many reasons, but he blamed Christianity as one of them. | |
| 272517051 | Addison and Steele's "Spectator" | Best known British magazine (1711), goal was to mix morality and humor; popularize philosophy.Like the philosophes, it tried both instruct and entertain. It praised morals like family, marriage, and courtesy; this made it appealing to women. | |
| 272517052 | newspapers and libraries | Began in England, these sources of knowledge were either very cheap or free, so they reached many people. Books recieved a wider circulation through public libraries in cities and private libraries. | |
| 272517053 | Realschule and Volkschulen | 1st- German schools that offered modern language, geography, and bookkeeping to prepare boys for business and give thm practical educations. 2nd-State supported primary schools in Austria, however, only 25% of children attended. | |
| 272517054 | Cesare Beccaria | Italian philosophe in the 18th century who wrote "On Crimes and Punishment", he argued that punishments should be deterrants, not brutal, and he thought that imprisonments were a better deterent than capital punishment. He opposed capital punishment as barbaric. | |
| 272517055 | Carnival | One of the largest celebrations of the year, it was celebrated in Spain, Italy, France, Austria, and some German States. It was the period leading up to Lent, so there was much eating, drinking, celebration and indulgence. It was also a time when people could get out their frustration by verbally and physically insulting others, even their superiors. | |
| 272517056 | gin | This was the poor man's drink in England. It was too unrefined for the upper classes, but the lower classes drank huge quantities of it in the 18th Century. The poor would get drunk all the time because it was so cheap, and limits had to be placed on its sale to control the drinking. | |
| 272517057 | chapbooks | Short brochures printed on cheap paper that were sold to commoners and contained both religious and secular material, like stories of saints, inspirational or adventure sories, or satires. These aided the transition of popular culture from spoken to written. | |
| 272517058 | Joseph II's Tolertion Patent | This monarch was very supportive of religious toleration. He passed this in 1781, and it recognized the public practice of Catholicism, allowed private worship for Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek Orthodox, and made his subjects equal in all other ways. | |
| 272517059 | Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews | The large Jewish communities in Eastern Europe were known as these. They had few rights, paid extra taxes, and faced public hate (pogroms). Jews that had been expelled from Spain several hundred years earlier were called this. They moved to Turkey or large cities like Amsterdam, Venice, London. They were free to practice banking and business. These were traditional fields for Jews during the Middle Ages Because of this, they became useful to rulers, and those who worked for monarchs were called "Court Jews". Some Enlightenment thinkers wanted toleration for Jews. Philosophes denounced persecution but were hostile towards Jews. Many Europeans favored the assimilation of Jewish people into society by forcing them to convert. Joseph II of Austria gave Jews more rights (no extra tax, can move around, hold jobs), but they still can't own land or worship in public.They were encouraged to learn German and assimilate into society. | |
| 272517060 | pietism and the Moravian Bretheren | Lack of enthusiasm led to this new religious movement in Germany and England, influenced by deism and rationalism. Begun by German Clerics who wanted personal religion (1600s) Spread by teachings of Count Nikolous von Zinzendorf, to him and the Moravian Brethren, his sect, it is the mystical, personal experiences with God that are true religion, not the new rational ideas of the Lutheran clergy. He thought people shouldn't try to understand God. | |
| 272517061 | John Wesley and Methodism | Anglican minister (1700s), underwent spiritual crisis and mystical experience. To him, God's grace gave him assurance of salvation, made him become a missionary in England to bring glad tidings of salvation to the people. He was opposed by the Anglican Church who said emotional mysticism was just superstition. He preached to the masses, especially the lower class that had been neglected by the elitist Anglican Church. His preaching caused violent conversions, after which his converts were organized into Methodist societies, where they practiced Wesley's good works as a part of salvation. Showed reason hadn't destroyed religion. |
