Chapter 17The Eighteenth Century:

The Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlighenment in Europe

The Age of Enlightenment in Europe

1. Among the first scientific societies was the Academy of Experiments founded in Florence in 1657 by two of Galileo's students and patronized by the Medicis. It had laboratory facilities to carry out experiments.

2. The English Royal Society evolved out of the informal gatherings of scientists at London and Oxford in the 1640s. In 1662 it was chartered by Charles II but received little state support.

3. The French Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris grew out of informal scientific meetings in the 1650s and was formally recognized by Louis XIV in 1666. It received extensive state support and remained under state control. Members were appointed and paid salaries by the state.

4. The construction of observatories in 1675 at Paris and at Greenwich in England greatly facilitated research in astronomy.

5. The Scientific Academy was created in Berlin by the elector of Brandenburg in 1700. Sponsored by the government, it was devoted to the betterment of the state.

6. Beginning in 1665 the Journal de Savants was published weekly in Paris providing general scientific knowledge and results of experiments. The English Royal Society began publishing Philosophical Transactions in 1665. With a focus upon practicing scientists, it published papers of its members and learned correspondence.

7. Amsterdam had been a center of publishing since the seventeenth century.

8. The Enlightenment in Sweden centered on the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences established in 1741, Linnaeus's Botanical Gardens created at Uppsala in 1741, and the Swedish Academy established in 1786 at Stockholm.

9. More books were written in the eighteenth century on education than all previous centuries combined. In general, there was discontent with the control of education by the clergy which gave rise to a demand that there be state regulation and inspection of educational facilities. By the second half of the eighteenth century, new schools were established in Prussia, Belgium, Austria, and Russia. These schools taught practical subjects suited to the interests of the people.

10. In teaching medicine, the University of Leiden in the Netherlands became the leading university in the eighteenth century. Also of importance were Edinbugh University in Scotland and a new medical school founded in Vienna.

11. Emperors, kings, and princes throughout Europe sought to demonstrate their wealth and power by building palaces imitating the estate of the French king at Versailles. While they reproduced the size, the style was Baroque-Rococo which blended into the whole building sculptured figures as well as wall and ceiling paintings.

Question:1. How did the universities represent centers of dissemination for the Enlightenment?

The Age of Enlightenment in Europe

1. Among the first scientific societies was the Academy of Experiments founded in Florence in 1657 by two of Galileo's students and patronized by the Medicis. It had laboratory facilities to carry out experiments.

2. The English Royal Society evolved out of the informal gatherings of scientists at London and Oxford in the 1640s. In 1662 it was chartered by Charles II but received little state support.

3. The French Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris grew out of informal scientific meetings in the 1650s and was formally recognized by Louis XIV in 1666. It received extensive state support and remained under state control. Members were appointed and paid salaries by the state.

4. The construction of observatories in 1675 at Paris and at Greenwich in England greatly facilitated research in astronomy.

5. The Scientific Academy was created in Berlin by the elector of Brandenburg in 1700. Sponsored by the government, it was devoted to the betterment of the state.

6. Beginning in 1665 the Journal de Savants was published weekly in Paris providing general scientific knowledge and results of experiments. The English Royal Society began publishing Philosophical Transactions in 1665. With a focus upon practicing scientists, it published papers of its members and learned correspondence.

7. Amsterdam had been a center of publishing since the seventeenth century.

8. The Enlightenment in Sweden centered on the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences established in 1741, Linnaeus's Botanical Gardens created at Uppsala in 1741, and the Swedish Academy established in 1786 at Stockholm.

9. More books were written in the eighteenth century on education than all previous centuries combined. In general, there was discontent with the control of education by the clergy which gave rise to a demand that there be state regulation and inspection of educational facilities. By the second half of the eighteenth century, new schools were established in Prussia, Belgium, Austria, and Russia. These schools taught practical subjects suited to the interests of the people.

10. In teaching medicine, the University of Leiden in the Netherlands became the leading university in the eighteenth century. Also of importance were Edinbugh University in Scotland and a new medical school founded in Vienna.

11. Emperors, kings, and princes throughout Europe sought to demonstrate their wealth and power by building palaces imitating the estate of the French king at Versailles. While they reproduced the size, the style was Baroque-Rococo which blended into the whole building sculptured figures as well as wall and ceiling paintings.

Question:1. How did the universities represent centers of dissemination for the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment “Dare to know” – Immanual Kant Scientific method to understand life Paths to Enlightenment

Popularization of Science Bernard de Fontenelle (1657-1757)

Legacy of Locke and Newton Newton – reasoning could discover natural laws that

govern politics, economics justice, religion, and the arts

Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding – knowledge derived from the environment

Philosophes and their Ideas Desire to change the world Call for freedom of expression Pierre Bayle (1647-1706)

Attacked superstition, religious intolerance, dogmatism

Impact of Travel Literature Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

Persian Letters, 1721 Attacks traditional religion, advocacy of religious

toleration, denunciation of slavery, use of reason

The Spirit of the Laws, 1748 Natural laws Three kinds of government – republic, monarchy,

despotism Separation of powers – a mistake

Francois-Marie Arouet, Voltaire (1694-1778) Philosophic Letters on the English, 1733 Criticism of traditional religion

Calas affair Deism

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) Encyclopedia, 28 volumes

François Quesnay (1694-1774) Physiocrat – natural economic laws Land constitutes wealth Rejection of mercantilism

“Science of Man”David Hume (1711-1776)

Treatise on Human NatureSystematized common sense

Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations Attack on mercantilism Advocate of free trade Labor constitutes wealth “Passive policeman”

Later Enlightenment Paul d’Holbach (1723-1789)

Doctrine of atheism and materialism Marie-Jean de Condorcet (1743-1794)

Humans have progressed through nine stages of history

Tenth stage of perfection

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of

MankindPreservation of private property

Social Contract Harmonize individual liberty with governmental authority

General WillEmile

Education

“Woman Question” Mary Astell (1666-1731)

Better education and equality in marriage Mary Wollstonecraft

Vindication of the Rights of Woman Subjection of women by men wrong

Social Environment of the Philosophes Salons

Marie-Thérèse de Geoffrin (1699-1777) Marquise du Deffand (1697-1780)

Other means for spreading the Enlightenment

Culture and Society in an Age of Enlightenment Innovations in Art, Music, and Literature

Rococo Art Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)

Fragility and transitory nature of pleasure, love, and life

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) Enchantment and exuberance

Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753) Secular and spiritual interchangeable

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) Neoclassicism

Development of Music Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Gerge Frederick Handel (1685-1759) Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Development of the Novel Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

Writing History Voltaire Edward Gibbon

High Culture of the Eighteenth Century Increased readership; newspapers and magazines Education and Universities

Crime and Punishment Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Crime and Punishment

Punishment should serve only as deterrents World of Medicine

Emphasize clinical experience Medical practitioners

Popular Culture Festivals, Carnivals, and Fairs Chapbooks and Almanacs Primary education for the masses

Religion and the Churches The Institutional Church

Church-State relations The Jesuits

Toleration and Religious Minorities Toleration and the Jews

Ashkenazic Jews Sephardic Jews Some Enlightenment thinkers favored acceptance of

the Jews Joseph II

Popular Religion Catholic Piety

Patron saints Protestant Revivalism

Moravian Brothers John Wesley (1703-1791), Methodist societies