The Enlightenment 1700 1800 Immanuel Kant What is
- Slides: 9
The Enlightenment 1700 -1800
Immanuel Kant What is Enlightenment? (1784) Enlightenment is man's release from his selfincurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. […] Sapere aude. Have courage to use your own reason!"- that is the motto of enlightenment.
Origins of Enlightenment Renaissance/Reformation – Individualism – Scholarship – Increased Literacy Ø Scientific Revolution – Newtonian physics/natural laws – Empiricism/Scientific Method Ø Age of Exploration – Relative truth and morality Ø
Characteristics of the Enlightenment n Rationalism/Reason – Apply Scientific Method to study laws of human nature n Progress – “Optimism” – Create better societies n Freedom – Of thought and expression – From oppressors
The Englightened Individual: The Philosophe ØFrench “publicists” of new ideas ØSalons – civilized social gatherings presided over by wealthy women Her circle met daily from five o'clock until nine in the evening. There we were sure to find choice men of all orders in the State, the Church, the Court [. . ] Politics, religion, philosophy, anecdotes, news, nothing was excluded from the conversation […]News of all kinds was gathered there in its first freshness. On Julie de Lespinasse
Pre-Enlightenment Philosophy in the Age of Reason Ø 17 th century Europe Ø Science + Philosophy Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (1651) John Locke An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
Philosophes & Human Nature Ø Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762) Ø Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
The Great Debate Reason & Logic Ø Rationalism Ø Empiricism Ø Tolerance Ø Skepticism vs Tradition & Superstition Ø Ø Nostalgia Religion Irrationalism Emotionalism
The Big Questions n What is the nature of man? n Is society governed by natural laws? n What is the purpose of government? n What is the best form of government?
