The Enlightenment

Sociological Theory Soc 4111 Daily Schd.

Sociology 4111

Department of Sociology and Anthropology
UMD
  1. AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT,

    TRENDS IN THOUGHT PRIOR TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

    BEGAN IN ENGLAND IN 1680S, IN FRANCE IN 18TH CENTURY

    PHRASE EMPLOYED BY WRITERS OF THE PERIOD

    CONVINCED THEY WERE EMERGING FROM CENTURIES OF DARKNESS (dark ages of feudalism?) AND IGNORANCE INTO A NEW AGE ENLIGHTENED BY REASON, SCIENCE, AND A RESPECT FOR HUMANITY. (This will be clearly demonstrated in St. Simon and Comte)

  2. ENLIGHTENMENT CAN BE TRACED TO A NUMBER OF 17TH CENTURY, & EARLIER, THINKERS, SUCH AS: REN DESCARTES, BARUCH SPINOZA, THOMAS HOBBES, JOHN LOCKE,

    • FUELED BY NEW DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE; CULTURAL RELATIVISM RESULTING FROM EXPLORATION (and a bit of ethnocentrism)

    • FAITH IN THE POWER OF HUMAN REASON

    • IMPRESSED BY ISAAC NEWTON'S LAW OF GRAVITY

    • LOOK FOR LAWS OF NATURE AND SOCIETY

    • THROUGH USE OF REASON, UNENDING PROGRESS IS POSSIBLE

    • COMES ONLY FROM EXPERIENCE AND OBSERVATION GUIDED BY REASON.

    • A GREAT PREMIUM WAS PLACED ON THE DISCOVERY OF TRUTH THROUGH THE OBSERVATION OF NATURE, RATHER THAN THROUGH THE STUDY OF AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES, SUCH AS ARISTOTLE AND THE BIBLE.

    • HUMAN ASPIRATIONS SHOULD NOT BE CENTERED ON THE NEXT LIFE, BUT RATHER ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THIS LIFE

    • WORLDLY HAPPINESS WAS PLACED BEFORE RELIGIOUS SALVATION.

  3. THESE THINKERS WERE JOURNALISTS AND PROPAGANDISTS AS MUCH AS PHILOSOPHERS, REFERRED TO THE PHILOSOPHES.

    POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER AND JURIST CHARLES DE MONTESQUIEU, THE SPIRIT OF LAWS (1748); DENIS DIDEROT, ENCYCLOPDIE (1751-72); JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU, SOCIAL CONTRACT (1762), EMILE (1762), AND CONFESSIONS (1782); HAD A PROFOUND INFLUENCE ON POLITICAL AND EDUCATIONAL THEORY SERVED AS AN IMPULSE TO 19TH-CENTURY ROMANTICISM.

    KANT IN GERMANY, DAVID HUME IN ENGLAND, CESARE BECCARIA IN ITALY, AND BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND THOMAS JEFFERSON IN THE U.S.

    DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY SEVERAL WERE IMPRISONED FOR THEIR WRITINGS, MOST WERE HAMPERED BY GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP AND ATTACKS BY THE CHURCH.

    BY THE 1770S, SECOND-GENERATION PHILOSOPHES RECEIVED GOVERNMENT PENSIONS, TOOK CONTROL OF ESTABLISHED INTELLECTUAL ACADEMIES.

    SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS AND PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING BECAME FASHIONABLE, post French Revolution Science becomes the way to reason for intellectuals (we will see this in St. Simon)

    DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SHOWED FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT ENLIGHTENED IDEAS COULD BE PUT INTO PRACTICE.

    THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS USUALLY SAID TO HAVE ENDED WITH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789.

  4. WEBSTER DEFINITION:
    A PHILOSOPHIC MOVEMENT OF THE 18TH CENTURY MARKED BY QUESTIONING OF TRADITIONAL DOCTRINES AND VALUES, A TENDENCY TOWARD INDIVIDUALISM, AND AN EMPHASIS ON THE IDEA OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN PROGRESS, THE EMPIRICAL METHOD IN SCIENCE, AND THE FREE USE OF REASON.

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Copyright: © 2001, John Hamlin
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