Enlightenment 1

1. Enlightenment thinkers believed nothing was to be accepted on faith and that everything was put through the rational, critical, scientific way of thinking. This approach caused many con-flicts with churches, who believed in the authority of their religion. Because of this, the En-lightenment was secular and revived and expanded the Renaissance views of worldly expla-nations.

2. Fontenelle’s lady was happy to see that the human mind is capable of making great progress instead of being sad or shocked that the traditional beliefs were wrong. This was similar to the general sentiment of Enlightenment thinkers because they did not rely on Medieval or Reformation views, but not necessarily on Renaissance views. Instead of learn-ing about ancient sciences, they explored more and sought to find more. They challenged the authority of religion.

3. Medieval and Reformation thinkers were concerned with sin and salvation, while Renais-sance thinkers were concerned with recovering the texts of ancient Rome and Greece and following their pattern. However, Enlightenment thinkers wanted to go farther than Renais-sance ones and discover more than the ancient philosophers.

4. Skepticism emerged from the confusion the Thirty Years’ War created over tolerations of religions. Catholics and Protestants believed religious truth was worth fighting for and dying for. They also believed that religious unity was necessary for a strong state. Skeptics be-lieved that religious truth could never be known with absolute certainty. Pierre Bayle was a famous skeptic and examined the religious beliefs and persecutions of the past. He saw that human beliefs had varied greatly and had often been wrong and concluded that nothing could ever be known beyond all doubt. He believed that open-minded toleration was the best thing to do. His book Historical and Critical Dictionary influenced many and was very popular.

5. John Locke believed that humans at birth had “blank” minds that grew based on how the environment writes the individual’s understanding and beliefs. Human development was determined by education and social institutions.

6. The entire population of Europe was not “enlightened,” as many of the people still strongly believed in traditional beliefs and sought a revival of religious orthodoxy. However, by the late 1700s, a large portion of western Europe’s educated elite had embraced many of the new ideas. Philosophes believed there was a great divide between the enlightened public and the ignorant multitude. Philosophes believed that the common people were doomed to superstition and confusion because they did not have enough money or time to look past their poverty.

7. Montesquieu did not like the royal absolutism established under Louis XIV. He believed in preventing tyranny and promoting liberty by dividing and sharing the political power into classes and legal order that held unequal rights and privileges. A strong, independent upper class was important to prevent the abuse of power. He admired the English system of ba-lancing power between the king, Parliament, and the courts and believed the French courts of parlement were defenders of liberty. He wasn’t a fan of the uneducated poor and was not a democrat.

8. In 1717, Voltaire was imprisoned for eleven months in the Bastille for insulting the regent of France and in 1726, he insulted a great French nobleman, causing him to be beaten and ar-rested. This left a deep impression on him and all of his life he struggled against legal injus-tice and unequal treatment before the law. He was forced to leave France and went to Eng-land. Voltaire praised England in his writings

9. Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert edited the seventeen-volume Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Science, the Arts, and the Crafts. Diderot was a skeptic and d’Alembert was a leading scientist and mathematician. They set out to teach people how to think critically and objectively about all matters. The book was at first banned after the con-troversial topics of atheism, the soul, and blind people. All of the volumes were finished af-ter fifteen years and included hundreds of thousands of articles by leading scientists, fam-ous writers, skilled workers, and progressive priests. The two editors showed that human beings could use the process of reasoning to expand human knowledge, which would result in greater happiness.

10. After 1770, the unity of the philosophes and their thought began to break down, and due to the acceptance of Enlightenment belief by the public, some sought originality by exaggerat-ing certain ideas and excluding others. The newer philosophes built rigid, dogmatic systems.

11. Baron Paul d’Holbach believed that humans were completely determined by outside forces and that free will, God, and immortality of the soul were myths. He was an aggressive athe-ist and determinist who had a deep hostility towards all religions. His writings hurt the unity of the Enlightenment movement. David Hume believed that the human mind is really noth-ing but impressions that are only viewed by sense experiences. Because of this, reason can-not tell us anything about questions that cannot be verified by sense experience. His writ-ings undermined the Enlightenment’s faith in the power of reason. Marie-Jean Caritat changed Enlightenment belief to be about fanciful utopianism. He hypothesized and tracked the nine stages of human progress that had already occurred and predicted the next one to bring perfection. He eventually committed suicide under the threat of revolutionary ex-tremists.

12. Rousseau was greatly influenced by Diderot and Voltaire. He was committed to individual freedom like other Enlightenment thinkers; however, unlike them, he believed rationalism and civilization were destroying the individual. He argued that warm, spontaneous feelings had to complement and correct cold intellect. The basic goodness of the individual and the unspoiled child had to be protected from cruel civilization. He believed in a social contract between the general will and popular sovereignty that could be breached if the monarch was corrupt.

13. The European market for books grew dramatically in the 1700s. Germany saw explosive publication rates. France had an explosive growth in book consumption. This was due to a small increase in literacy and cheaper books. Between the solid and upper middle classes, the clergy, and the aristocracy saw an eightfold increase in books. Religious books decline in France greatly. Because of book banning, many books were published in other countries and smuggled into France and other absolutist countries. Reading was approached in a different way, a reading revolution, that turned away from sacred texts that were full of authority and reverence and teaching of earthly duty and obedience to God. Reading had been patriarchal and communal, but now changed to individual, silent, and rapid.

14. Immanuel Kant argued that if serious thinkers were granted the freedom to exercise their reason publicly in print, then explanations would almost surely follow. He believed that Fre-derick the Great of Prussia was an enlightened monarch because he allowed freedom of the press.

15. The most popular social gatherings during the Enlightenment were in elegant drawing rooms known as salons. There, conversations about Enlightenment ideas spread them to the upper middle class and the aristocracy. Inside the salons, there were great aristocrats, wealthy middle-class financiers, high-ranking officials, and noteworthy foreigners that ex-amined Enlightenment thought.

16. The style of rococo used soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits, and starry-eyed lovers protected by hovering cupids. The feminism influence in the debating salons led to the emergence of polite society and the general attempt to civilize a rough military nobility. Some philosophes argued for the greater rights and education for women, saying that the position and treatment of women were the best indicators of a society’s level of civilization and decency.

17. Elite women in the salons were the mediators as well as the benefactors to them. They or-ganized projects and met with foreign leaders. The women were informal teachers who bonded with younger women and passed skills on to them.


1. Voltaire believed in a Supreme Being because he reasoned that there had to be someone who created the world and life. Since these were so beautiful, one should worship the Su-preme Being to show respect to his creation. This does not reflect the Isaac Newton’s scien-tific system because Voltaire believed that there was a harmony between the heavenly globes that could not be broken.

2. Voltaire was trying to teach through satire and thus make his writing so ironic that it was entertaining but still preached a message. He was effective because he satires religion as bloody and constantly bickering over small changes.

3. Voltaire attacked all religions. He satirizes religious ceremonies and sacrifices, as well as those who kill other people only because they disagree slightly with his or her religious views. He criticizes people who force other people to convert to a religion and kill them if they don’t.

4. If a person today thought and wrote like Voltaire, that is satirical and critical, he or she would be called a destroyer of Christianity. While literally it can support religious, it subtly criticizes the practices and ceremonies of religion.