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Outline on the Enlightenment
& Modernity:
The Tenets of the Enlightenment
circa 1642 - 1789
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External
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- Project: The Enlightenment |
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- Project: Which Aspects
of the Enlightenment are Still Relevant Today? |
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- Video: The French Revolution |
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- Project: The French Revolution |
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There are TWELVE tenets of the Enlightenment
1. "Worship" of Reason |
7. Scientific Method |
2. Religion Oppresses |
8. Rationality Overcomes Emotions |
3. Reason is Powerful |
9. Universal Rights |
4. Nature is Orderly |
10. Progress |
5. Universal Laws |
11. Social Sciences Shepherd Progress |
6 Deism |
12. Individualism |
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In the pre enlightenment period religion & nobility ruled the direction
of govt, scholarship, & overall treatment of people. This was
to change. Great thinkers like Galileo & Newton proposed new
ideas that could be seen, measured, & proven w/ evidence. The
churches heliocentric view of the universe was challenged. John Locke
also championed new ideals of viewing humanity at the individual level.
No longer were people to be believed to be born as a finished product,
but rather a product of their experiences & influenced by the world
in which they grew & developed in (Goodwin, 2008, p. 64). |
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Four areas where significant change occurred were: 1. Religious:
a. Questioning of Catholic beliefs and Protestantism led to tolerance for
new ideas. 2. Intellectual: a. Free intellectual inquiry resulted from
widespread opposition to religious intolerance. b. The French revolution
led to 'age of reason'. c. Educational institutions free of
religious allegiance also spread. 3. Economic: a. Industrial
revolution, move away from agrarian fiefdoms led to an increasingly wealthy,
independent and educated middle class. 4. Political: a. Nation
states emerged, ruled by kings and parliaments that only paid lip service
to religious rule. b. Parties and factions which have legitimate
differences of opinion (Goodwin, 2008, p. 64). |
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1. WESTERN SOCIETY "WORSHIPS" REASON: SCIENCE ALLOWS
US TO EXAMINE EVERYTHING |
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Western Society elevated reason / science so that it was the organizing
principle for life |
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For some reason displaces religious worship, but for most, it supplements
religious worship |
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The Enlightenment philosophers believed that given the advancement
of knowledge, it's only a matter of time until people learned to let reason,
not ignorance, emotion, or superstition, guide them and then people/society
can would find happiness/harmony |
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We can know things beyond what holy men tell us |
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The Enlightenment's embrace of reason & science heralds a new theory
of knowledge or epistemology |
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2. RELIGION CAN OPPRESS |
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Some could dare say in public: "God is Dead" but
most people are still very religious |
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Religious leaders were accused of keeping people in ignorance in order
to maintain their own personal power |
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The Enlightenment blamed people in authority, esp. the leaders of the
Roman
Catholic Church, for keeping people in ignorance in order to maintain their
own personal power |
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3. REASON / SCIENCE IS EXTREMELY POWERFUL |
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Enlightenment thinkers were influenced by discoveries in the physical
sciences by such people as Galileo & Newton |
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For the Enlightenment philosophers, math yielded absolute truth since
it was based on simple axioms (self evident truths), and then moved from
one self evident step to another |
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For the Enlightenment philosophers, the mathematical / logical model
was the model all the sciences should use |
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Reason is the power that allows one to “see” mathematical truths just
as clearly as one's hand before one's eyes; the senses, however, yield
only particular/contingent truths |
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4. NATURE IS ORDERLY & KNOWABLE |
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See Also: Montesquieu |
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Montesquieu was an important contributor to idea of Orderliness of
Nature |
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For the Enlightenment philosophers, the nature is vast and complex,
but well ordered |
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The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) described nature
as “a mighty maze, but not without plan.” |
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The Enlightenment philosophers & Montesquieu believed all things
could be explained according to few simple laws, e.g. gravitation |
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Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws (1748) is an example
of of the simplicity, orderliness & knowableness of nature:
“The
material world has its laws, the intelligences superior to man have their
laws, the beasts their laws, and man his laws.” |
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According to post modernists, the conception of the orderliness &
knowableness of nature is incorrect |
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For the post modernists, the process of classification presupposes
orderliness, so by the very act of classifying a scientist is proposing
a solution which makes the science of the Enlightenment circular |
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5. THERE ARE UNIVERSAL LAWS |
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For the Enlightenment philosophers, there are laws for physical &
social sciences & even for the divine |
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For the Enlightenment philosophers, the universal laws of the physical
sciences applied even to god |
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Even god does not violate physical & social laws
Examples
- gravity
- conservation of matter & energy |
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Everything in the world could be explained by a few simple laws |
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See Also: Social laws |
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6. DEISM IS THE IDEA THAT GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE
& THEN LEFT IT ALONE, RULING OUT THE POSSIBILITIES OF MIRACLES |
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See Also: Science & religion |
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For the Enlightenment philosophers, truth is good |
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During the age of the Enlightenment, people believed that the universe
could be understood by the human mind |
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During the age of the Enlightenment, people believed that god could
create a universe too complex to understand, but he did not |
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God designed the world, the Laws, so that they are knowable |
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Thus during the Enlightenment era, for the first time people began
to believe that future events are predictable |
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The universe was a big clock that kept perfect time |
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7. THE SCIENTIFIC METHODS EMERGES AS A POWERFUL CENTERPIECE
OF SCIENCE |
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The scientific method could be applied to study of human nature |
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Philosophers organized knowledge in encyclopedias & founded scientific
institutions |
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Many scientific institutes were formed, including the now famous Royal
Society in England |
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With the development of science, came the development of the methods
of induction & deduction |
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8. RATIONALITY MUST OVERCOME EMOTIONS |
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People who act on impulse are doing so out of ignorance or lack of
ed & refinement |
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Descartes thought that to become rational, a person need only
acquire an ed that teaches a good method of reasoning |
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For Descartes, & other Enlightenment philosophers, people have
rational will & the ability to wait |
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For Descartes, & other Enlightenment philosophers, animals are
ruled by their emotions |
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For Descartes, & other Enlightenment philosophers, our big advantage
over other animals is that we reason |
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9. PEOPLE HAVE UNIVERSAL RIGHTS |
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The French Philosophers criticized church & state, pushing for
the “rights of man” |
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The concept of inalienable rights in the US Constitution has roots
in the Enlightenment: ‘All men are created equal and endowed
by their creator with certain inalienable rights: Life, Liberty, Pursuit
of Happiness’ |
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For the French, during the Enlightenment, universal rights included
freedom from arbitrary power, the freedom of speech, freedom of trade,
& the freedom to realize ones talents |
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10. THERE IS PROGRESS |
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Optimism! |
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At the time of the Enlightenment, life for the common people had barely
changed from the hunter gatherer era, through pre ancient society, through
Ancient Empires, through the early middle ages |
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Then w/ the Enlightenment, political & religious freedom inventions,
& quality of life improved |
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W/ the positive changes of the Enlightenment, common people saw real
progress for the first time in history |
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The positive changes that began w/ the Enlightenment have continued
for approximately 300 yrs. now |
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11. THE SOCIAL SCIENCES SHEPHERD PROGRESS |
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See Also: Saint Simon 1760 - 1825 |
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Saint Simon held that the social sciences should become "the new religion"
to unite all & establish modern society |
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The Chicago school (mid - late 1800s) establish the ideas that the
social sciences could shepherd progress |
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The idea of the social science shepherding progress became fanatical
for St. Simon & "a cause" for the Chicago School |
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The idea that the social sciences could shepherd progress has never
been accepted by the public, but has occasionally been accepted by leaders |
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12. INDIVIDUALISM IS A VALID PHILOSOPHY, A SUPERIOR PHILOSOPHY |
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The Enlightenment thinkers & the individualist philosophy as developed
in this era connotes a different conception of individualism than we might
address today in that they were contrasting individualism w/ the conception
of the person that existed in traditional society where there was very
little credence given to the importance of the common person to act or
think on their own |
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