The Age of Enlightenment: Affirmation of Reason and Freedom The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century culminated the movement
toward modernity initiated by the Renaissance. The philosophes
attacked medieval otherworldliness, rejected theology as an avenue to
truth, denounced the Christian idea of people’s inherent depravity, and
sought to understand nature and society through reason alone, unaided by
revelation or priestly authority. They believed that they were inaugurating an
enlightened age. Through the power of reason, humanity was at last liberating
itself from the fetters of ignorance, superstition, and despotism with which
tyrants had bound it in past ages. The Enlightenment grew directly out of the Scientific Revolution. The
philosophes admired the discoveries made in the seventeenth century and the
method that made them possible. They celebrated Newton as a rare
genius who had fully deciphered nature’s mysteries, and they shared with
Bacon and Descartes the conviction that science was a great boon to humanity.
The philosophes sought to expand knowledge of nature and to apply the
scientific method to the human world in order to uncover society’s defects
and to achieve appropriate reforms. The philosophes embraced Newton’s science, but they carefully ignored
his religious beliefs. They saw themselves as engaged in a monumental
struggle against superstition, ignorance, and arbitrary power, all of which,
they said, drew sustenance from religion. The Enlightenment Outlook: Reason and Science Newton had uncovered universal laws that explained physical phenomena.
Are there not general rules that also apply to human behavior and social
institutions? Could a science of man be created that would correspond
to and complement Newton’s science of nature, thus providing clear and
certain answers to the problems of the social world? The philosophes believed
that the true laws of society are laws of nature. The social world was defective because it lacked the
rationality evidenced in nature. Using Newton’s and Bacon’s method of
analysis and synthesis, by drawing inferences and eventually universal
principles from a careful evaluation of observed phenomena, the philosophes
examined society as if it were a physical entity. From its component parts,
carefully observed and analyzed, they constructed general laws that applied
to the individual and society. Knowledge of these laws would make possible
the resolution of the social problems that had persistently burdened
humanity. The philosophes rejected the authority of tradition and urged people to
have the courage to break with beliefs and institutions that did not meet the
test of reason and common sense. To this extent they were the disciples of
Descartes, who maintained that doubting inherited knowledge is the first step
towards the discovery of truth. Never before had Westerners placed such
confidence in the power of the mind. Behind their devotion to reason and
worldly knowledge lay an impassioned moral indignation against
institutions and beliefs that degraded human beings. For the philosophes
science, history and literature had an ethical component; they provided
knowledge that improved the individual and society and promoted human
happiness. Traditional Religion Assailed The philosophes waged an unremitting assault on traditional
Christianity, denouncing it for harboring superstition and fostering
fanaticism and persecution. Relying on the facts of experience, as Bacon had taught, the
philosophes dismissed miracles, angels, and devils as violations of natural
laws and figments of human imagination that could not be substantiated by
normal evidence. With science as an ally, the philosophes challenged
Christianity’s claim that it possessed infallible truths, and they ridiculed
theologians for compelling obedience to doctrines that defied reason. The philosophes also assailed Christianity’s view of human nature as
evil and human beings as helpless without God’s assistance. They believed
that society’s leaders should work to improve the possibility of human
happiness on earth rather than focusing exclusively on the goal of salvation.
Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) (1694-1778) Voltaire was the acknowledged leader of the French Enlightenment. Few
of the philosophes had a sharper mind, and none had a sharper wit. Spending
more than two years in England, Voltaire acquired a great admiration for
English liberty, commerce, science, and religious toleration. His angriest
words were directed against established Christianity, to which he attributed
many of the ills of French society. Voltaire was appalled by all the crimes
committed in the name of God. He condemned religious fanaticism and
superstition. He saw the church as a resolute opponent of reason and a more
humane society. Paul- Henri Thiry, Baron
d’Holbach (1723-1789) d’Holbach was the Enlightenment’s foremost exponent of atheism. He
regarded the idea of God as a product of ignorance, fear and superstition. He
believed that to discover the true principles of morality men needed no theology,
revelation or gods. They only needed their common sense. He believed that men
were wicked only because their reason was not sufficiently developed. Denis Diderot (1713-1784) Diderot attacked Christianity for also suppressing the natural and healthy
expression of our passions. Christianity’s sexual mores were contrary and
hurtful to human nature. To forbid people their passions is to forbid them to
be fully human and to deny them happiness. He denounced European imperialism
and the exploitation of non-Europeans. In his Supplement to the Voyage of
Boubainville (1772), Diderot describes a Tahitian elder rebuking the European
for bringing sexual shame and guilt to his land. Deism While some philosophes were atheists, most were deists, who rejected
miracles, mysteries, prophecies and other fundamentals of revealed
Christianity and sought to fashion a natural religion that accorded with
reason and science. To deists it seemed reasonable that this magnificently designed
universe, operating with clockwork precision, was created at a point in time
by an all-wise Creator. But once God had set the universe in motion, he had
refrained from interfering with its operations. In addition to an argument
for the existence of God from design, the deists argued that there must have
been a first cause to reality. Deists rejected entirely revelation, miracles and original sin. They
denied that the Bible was God’s revelation, rejected clerical authority, and
dismissed Christian mysteries, prophecies and miracles as violations of a
lawful natural order. To the philosophes, Jesus was not divine but an
inspiring teacher of morality. Many deists still considered themselves
Christians, but the clergy regarded their views with horror. English freethinkers, Toland (1670-1722) and Tindal (1657-1733)
attacked clerical authority and rejected religious dogmas that seemed to
contradict common sense. Their advocacy of a natural religion, one that
accorded with reason, was the foundation of deism. Toland argued that if the
truth of an idea could not be demonstrated by reason, we should reserve
judgment. Tindal held that God, who is wise and just, prescribed a perfect
moral law for human beings that he had implanted in human hearts. True
religion consists in doing all the good we can. In essence religion consists
of a few moral truths that are ascertainable by the mind. Rituals, miracles
and asceticism are merely priestly accretions; they have nothing to do with
God’s moral law. He advocated a natural religion: one that valued reason,
made people cognizant of their moral duties, condemned persecution and had
little to do with priests, miracles and revelation. The German philosopher and mathematician G. W. Leibniz
(1646-1716) (who had independently developed the same mathematical hypotheses
that had enabled Newton to create calculus and the Laws of Motion), defined
the optimistic and scientific spirit of the age in his Theodicy (1711). He argued that God is good, and everything that
exists must therefore be understood as a part of God’s grand design of the
universe. Everything that has happened or ever will happen has been
predetermined. Every aspect of the universe, even human behavior, can be
understood as an effect of God’s initial cause. Even suffering is part of a
greater good- God’s divine plan. Whatever appears evil is only misunderstood
good. Alexander Pope, the
English poet, popularized Leibniz’s understanding of the divine design in his
“Essay on Man” (1734). The conclusion of the poem sounds the note of optimism
and faith in reason that is so typical of the Enlightenment: All Nature
is but Art, unknown to thee; All
Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see; All
Discord, Harmony not understood; All
partial Evil, universal Good: And, spite
of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite, One truth
is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT. Enlightenment Political Thought Eighteenth century political thought is characterized by a thorough going secularism; an indictment of despotism, the divine right of kings, and the special privileges of the aristocracy and the clergy; a respect for English constitutionalism because it enshrined the rule of law; and an affirmation of John Locke’s theory that government had an obligation to protect the natural rights of its citizens. The philosophes favored constitutional government that protected citizens from the abuse of power, but, with the notable exception of Rousseau, their concern for liberty did not lead them to embrace democracy, for they placed little trust in the masses. Voltaire placed his confidence in reforming despots who were sympathetic to enlightenment ideas (enlightened despots). Montesquieu’s contribution to political theory rests essentially on his
The Spirit of the Laws (1748). In
this immense work, he held that the study of political and social behavior is
not an exercise in abstract thought, but must be undertaken in relationship
to geographic, economic and historic conditions. He collected data and then
tried to draw general rules governing society. His effort to explain social
and political behavior empirically- to found a science of society based on
the model of natural science- makes him a forerunner of modern sociology. Montesquieu concluded that different climactic and geographic
conditions and different national customs, habits, religions and institutions
give each nation a particular character. Its government’s institutional form
and laws need to pay heed to the character of the people. Montesquieu
believed in natural law- universal norms which apply to all humanity- , but
he was a cultural relativist who recognized that positive law could take
different forms because of differing environmental conditions and historical
development. He believed that universal laws had to be adapted to particular
social and physical conditions. He believed that the republican form of
government was fit for small states, like ancient Athens and Sparta. For a
democratic republic to endure, there must be no great extremes in wealth;
devotion to the community must outweigh self-interest, and the behavior of
the citizens must not degenerate into license. If these conditions are not
met then social cohesion breaks down. (The founding fathers of the United
States read Montesquieu with interest.) Montesquieu believed a monarchy was best suited for large areas that
require centralized authority to hold it together; its success depends upon a
military aristocracy imbued with the sense of honor and a respect for fixed
laws. He regarded despotism as a pernicious form of government. Ruling as he
wishes and unchecked by law, the despot knows nothing of moderation and
institutionalizes cruelty and violence. To safeguard liberty from despotism,
Montesquieu advocated the principle of separation of powers between
executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. In a good
government one power balances and checks another power; the framers of the
U.S. Constitution were impressed by this argument. Voltaire (1694-1778) Voltaire was not a systematic political theorist but a propagandist and
polemicist who hurled pointed barbs at all the abuses of the Old Regime. He
disdained arbitrary power based on an individual’s whim and advocated rule by
a code of law that applies equally to all. He agitated for the English form
of constitutional monarchy and was impressed by the large measure of
religious toleration and freedom of thought in England. He admired Newton,
Locke and Bacon. Voltaire was no democrat. He had little confidence in the capacities of
the common people whom he saw as prone to superstition and fanaticism. Nor
did he advocate revolution. What he did favor was reforming society through
the advancement of reason and the promotion of science and technology. He
fought for freedom of the press, religious toleration, a fair system of
criminal justice, proportional taxation, and striking down the privileges of
the clergy and aristocracy. He believed that enlightened rulers who used
their power to end abuses and promote the common good were the best hope for
reform. Where Montesquieu sought to strengthen the aristocracy, Voltaire saw
the nobility as the principal barrier to enlightened reform. Voltaire:
Introduction to Candide (Powerpoint) Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) To the philosophes, advances in the arts and sciences were the hallmarks
of progress, but Rousseau, a Geneva born French thinker, questioned reason
and suspected that intellectual progress might undermine morality. He drew a
sharp distinction between civilized or societal man and natural or savage
man. For Rousseau, natural man, the individual prior to the creation of civilized
society, was superior to the civilized man in several ways: he was stronger and
healthier, and he had greater compassion for suffering humans. Separated from
nature and leading an artificial existence, civilized man became feeble and
anxious. Not simply content with satisfying natural needs, he becomes envious
and greedy, pursues luxury and sinks into debauchery. He has lost much of his
compassion for his fellow human beings. Rousseau believed the natural man was more
willing to listen to the ‘first promptings of humanity’ which were moral. He
rejected Hobbes’ view of the natural state as brutish and violent. Instead, he
saw human beings as inherently good. Humans each possess an inner voice, a
conscience, in which a sense of justice and compassion resides . The inner
voice does not depend upon intelligence. Indeed, society distorts and perverts
our nature. In the original state of nature there was little difference between
individuals, but this natural equality ended when private property emerged,
with disastrous results: insatiable ambition, jealousy, rivalry. Force and
guile swept away the natural man’s goodness and pity. Rousseau believed that
civil society had been invented to protect property. It enabled the rich and
the clever to dominate others; it also led to national wars, which had been
far more destructive than the occasional acts of violence between individuals
which had jarred the state of nature. Rousseau seemed to hold the startling thesis that civilization had
ruined humanity, that natural, instinctive, feeling man was morally superior
to thinking man of modern society. Because of his recognition and
glorification of emotion’s primitive power, Rousseau is an important
forerunner of the Romantic Movement. But if we look at his thinking more
carefully, a more complicated response to civilization emerges. Rousseau was
not railing against civilization in general but against the civilization of
his day. Modern civilization had corrupted people morally, and its political agent, the
despotic state, had deprived them of their freedom. He believed that
society’s institutions had to be reshaped in order to restore to the
individual his original freedom, goodness and compassion for others. He
believed that once the abuses of society-- inequality, despotism,
selfishness-- were understood, a new society could be created in which reason could be used
to enhance man’s innate goodness. In The Social Contract
(1762), Rousseau conceived of the state as a genuine democracy, a moral
association that binds the people in freedom, equality and civic devotion.
Individuals need society to fulfill their moral potential. Rousseau admired
the Greek city-state, for it was an organic community in which citizens set
aside private interests in order to attain the common good. The citizens
viewed the polis as a second family that instructed them in proper morality
and promoted cultural and intellectual life. The ideal polis would be a small
state, in which each member had the opportunity to know each other and
participate actively in public affairs. Like Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau refers to an original social contract
that terminates the state of nature and establishes the civil state. The
clash of particular interests in the state of nature compels people to enter
into a social contract and create civil society. The problem was
Rousseau’s solution is for each person to surrender unconditionally all
his rights to the community as a whole and to submit to its authority. To
prevent the assertion of private interests over the common good, Rousseau
wants the state to be governed in accordance with the general will -- an
underlying principle that expresses what is good for the community. The
general will is not a majority or even a unanimous vote. Rather, it is a
plainly visible truth that is easily discerned by common sense, by reason and
by listening to our hearts. It is the voice of humanity within us. It
resembles the Stoic conception of ‘right reason’, of thinking purged of
self-interest and unworthy motives so that it accords with the natural law
underlying the universe. For Rousseau, true freedom consists of obedience to
laws that coincide with the general will, that serve the community’s common
interests. Obedience to the general will transforms an individual, motivated
by self-interest, appetites, and passions, into a higher type of person: a
citizen committed to the community as a whole, one who realizes that personal
happiness is inextricably tied to the happiness of others. Like ancient Athens, Rousseau’s state is a direct democracy, in which
the citizens themselves, not their representatives, constitute the lawmaking
body; in this way the governed and the government are one and the same.
Rousseau believes that people will obey the laws they have a voice in making.
They will rise above self-interest and rationally seek the common
good when they see themselves as participating citizens rather than as
subjects of tyrants. The state imagined by Rousseau enshrines equality: its
citizens are equally subject to the laws which they equally participate in making.
When people enter the social contract, they exchange natural liberty for
‘civil liberty, which is limited by the general will’. People who refuse to
obey can be compelled. Rousseau believes that people should be forced to be
free. By substituting justice for instinct, submission to the general will
encourages reason rather than satisfaction of the appetite. Both Machiavelli
and Hobbes sought security through punitive measures imposed by the ruler.
Rousseau, in contrast, held that cooperation with fellow citizens, a
heightened sense of community, was the avenue to security. Critics of Rousseau assert that his political thought, whose goal is a
body of citizens who think alike, buttresses a dangerous collectivism and
opens the gates to totalitarianism. Forcing men to
be free is a euphemism for making them blindly obedient to the masses or
strongest party. To liberals, the state was a potential threat to individual
freedom and self-development. To Rousseau, the state, by overcoming
selfishness and strife among competing interests, enhanced freedom and
self-development. Unlike Locke and Montesquieu and 19th century liberals,
Rousseau did not treat governmental authority with caution. He did not place
constitutional limits on the state, nor did he erect safeguards to protect the
individual or minorities. He rejected Locke’s principle that citizens possess
rights independent of the state. Since the individual comprised the state,
how could he have rights against himself? Rousseau’s state contradicts liberal
ideals: it possesses unlimited power, demands submission in the name of the
general will, requires the individual to identify his personal life with the
totality, deplores diversity, and is intolerant of minorities. His critics
maintain that the notion of the general will opened the gates to
dictatorship. Rousseau’s notion of the legislator -- a charismatic leader
who
knows what the general will is and feels duty-bound to guide the people to
the right choice-- inspired Robespierre to justify the Terror. Truth is restricted
only to those who agree with the general will;
others can be denied their rights, even their lives. Enlightenment Social Thought The philosophes rejected the Christian belief that human beings are
endowed with a sinful nature, a consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience of
God. Although pessimistic about human nature, they believed in the
individual’s essential goodness and in their capacity for moral improvement.
Diderot: “Nature has not made us evil. It is bad education, bad models, bad
legislation that corrupt us.” Voltaire: “[A person is] born neither good nor
wicked; education, example, the government into which he is thrown- in short,
occasion of every kind- determines him to virtue or vice.” The philosophe’s
conception of human nature rested heavily on John Locke’s epistemology, or
theory of knowledge. To the philosophes, it seemed that Locke had discovered
the fundamental principles governing the human mind, an achievement
comparable to Newton’s discovery of the laws governing physical bodies. Epistemology, Psychology, Education In his Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690), Locke argued that humans are not born with innate
ideas (the idea of God, principles of good and evil, and rules of logic, for
example), divinely implanted in their minds as Descartes had maintained.
Rather, said Locke, the human mind is a blank slate (a tabula rasa) upon which are imprinted
sensations derived from contact with the phenomenal world. Knowledge is
derived from experience. Locke: “Our observation employed either about external
sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds perceived and
reflected upon by ourselves, is that which supplies our understanding.” Locke’s epistemology is a principal foundation of the school of
philosophy known as empiricism, which is closely associated with British
thinkers. Following Locke, British empiricists rejected Descartes’ theory
that self-evident ideas are imprinted on the mind. When the mind transcends
the realm of concrete experience, they said, it engages in flights of fancy,
vain dreams, and idle speculation- barriers to the accumulation of knowledge.
Building on Locke’s empiricism, Enlightenment thinkers held that people
should not dwell on unanswerable questions, particularly sterile theological
ones, but we should seek practical knowledge that enlightens human beings and
gives us control over our environment. They argued that all theories must be
analyzed, judged, and confirmed on the basis of actual human experience.
Locke’s empiricism insisted on clarity and verification; his approach
coincided with Bacon’s call for an inductive science. It also stimulated an
interest in political and ethical questions that focused on concrete human
concerns. It helped mold the utilitarian and reformist spirit of the
Enlightenment. If there are no innate ideas, then human beings, contrary to Christian
doctrine, are not born with original sin, are not depraved by nature. All
that individuals are derives from their particular experiences. If people are
provided with a proper environment and education, they will behave morally;
they will become intelligent and productive citizens. By their proper use of
reason, people could bring their beliefs into harmony with natural law.
Reform minded philosophes preferred to believe that evil stemmed from faulty
institutions and poor education, both of which could be remedied, rather than
from defective human nature. Religious Toleration, Freedom of the Press, Humanitarianism The philosophes regard religious persecution as humanity’s most
depraved offense against reason. The philosophes waged a relentless campaign
for toleration, continuing a struggle initiated by enlightened sixteenth and
17th c. thinkers and statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic: Spinoza,
William Penn, Roger Williams, Richard Overton and Pierre Bayle. Locke argued
that since the doctrines of faith could not be proved, no one has the right
to compel others to believe. Voltaire said, “It is clear that every private
individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same
opinion, is a monster....” Censorship was a serious and ever present problem for the philosophes.
Both ecclesiastical and ministerial authorities condemned their ideas. Their books
were burned, and frequently they were imprisoned. They argued that freedom of
thought and the press, meaning everything in print, was essential to liberty. The philosophes’ humanitarianism led to attacks on various forms of
brutality tolerated by the state: torture to extract confessions, cruel and
unusual punishments, slavery and war. Arguing that torture was not simply
inhumane but a totally irrational way of determining guilt or innocence, the
philosophes called for the elimination of torture from codes of criminal
justice, and several European lands abolished torture in the eighteenth
century. They denounced war as a barbaric affront to reason. They agitated in several countries for
abolishment of slavery and the slave trade, arguing that the practice was as
destructive to the slave owner as it was to the victims. Progress The philosophes were generally optimistic about humanity’s future
progress. Accepting Locke’s theory of knowledge, the philosophes attributed
evil to a flawed but remediable environment, not to a wicked human nature.
They believed that once the environment had been reformed, they could look
forward to the day when reason would prevail over superstition, prejudice,
intolerance and tyranny. They believed that the progressive advancement of
knowledge would promote material and moral progress. The belief in a golden
age of earthly happiness held by many philosophes was a secularized version
of the millenarian Christian belief in humanity’s cumulative spiritual
growth, a process that would culminate in Christ’s return. Condorcet (1743-1794), a nobleman who died
in prison during the French Revolution, expounded a theory of the continuous
and indefinite improvement of humanity. He pointed toward a golden age
characterized by the triumph of freedom and reason. Other philosophes were
not so sanguine. Voltaire, in Candide,
protested against the naive optimism that ignored the might of human
meanness, ignorance and irrationality. The Enlightenment and the French Revolution The philosophes themselves were not revolutionaries, but their ideas
helped to trigger the French Revolution. By drawing attention to the abuses
of the Old Regime and by agitating for reform based on reason, the
philosophes helped create a revolutionary mentality. They made people believe
that many 18th century institutions had ceased to have any value and that
society should be reorganized on entirely new lines. These views acquired the
driving force of a new political passion. The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 stirred the imagination
of Westerners. Both participants and observers sensed that they were living
in a pivotal age. On the ruins of the Old Order, founded on privilege and
despotism, a new era was forming that promised to realize the ideals of
liberty and equality championed by the philosophes. It seemed that the
natural rights of the individual, a distant ideal until then, would reign on
earth, ending centuries of oppression and misery. Never before had people
shown such confidence in the power of human intelligence to shape the
conditions of existence. Never before had the future seemed so full of hope.
This lofty vision kindled emotions akin to religious enthusiasm and attracted
converts throughout the Western world. Tocqueville compared the Revolution to
a religious movement:
The Liberal Revolution:
The French Revolution attempted to reconstruct society on the basis of Enlightenment thought, which had embraced Locke’s theory of natural rights. The Declaration of the Rights on Man (1789) expressed the liberal and universal goals of the philosophes:
The Revolution also unleashed fearful forces, terror as
government policy, political extremism, total war, and nationalism, that
threatened to negate the liberties desired by the philosophes. When the newly
established republic was threatened by foreign invasion and internal enemies,
the Jacobins, led by Robespierre, initiated the Reign of Terror. A disciple
of Rousseau, Robespierre conceived the national general will as ultimate and
infallible. Its realization meant the establishment of a Republic of Virtue,
founded on reason, virtue and good citizenship; its denial meant the death of
an ideal and a return to despotism. Robespierre was convinced that he knew
the right way and that those who impeded the implementation of the new
society were not just opponents but sinners who should be liquidated for the
good of humanity. With Robespierre we see the crystallization of a
revolutionary mentality that aspired to regenerate the world in accordance
with a new and secular world-view that carried the force of an absolute
faith. They were true believers who resorted to terror in order to create a
‘new man’ and a new social and political order based on rational principles; they sought to carry out
Rousseau’s conviction that it is proper to force people to be free. The Reign of Terror poses fundamental questions about the meaning of
the French Revolution and the validity of the Enlightenment conception of
man. To what extent was the Terror a reversal of the ideals of the Revolution
as formulated in the Declaration of the Rights of Man? To what extent did the feverish passions
and fascination for violence demonstrated in the mass executions indicate a
darker side of human nature beyond the control of reason? The Jacobins unleashed a new force- total commitment to a political ideology-
that would fuel twentieth century totalitarian movements. To fight foreign invaders and put down civil war, the Jacobins mobilized the nation’s
human and material resources. The levee en masse decreed by the Convention in
1793 heralded the emergence of modern total war. Acting in the name of the
general will, the state could mobilize the entire citizen body, and all
citizens had a moral and legal obligation to defend the state. The world wars
of the 20th century are the terrible fulfillment of this new development in
warfare. Whereas 18th century wars were fought by professional soldiers
for limited aims, the French Revolution initialized conscription, the nation
in arms, and the mobilization of all the peoples of the state for unrelenting
conflict. In calling for the complete devotion of the nation,
the French Revolution also heralded the
rise of modern nationalism: the image of the nation as the sole divinity
that it is permissible to worship. With its potential to trample upon the
rights of the individual and other nations, nationalism clashed with the
outlook of the philosophes, who were cosmopolitans with a warm concern for
humanity. They would have deemed nationalism, which demanded dedication of
body and soul to the nation and in the process submerged thought in a torrent
of emotion, to be a repudiation of their cosmopolitanism. It was a dogma
capable of evoking wild and dangerous passions and a setback for the process
of reason. The reforms of the French Revolution upheld the dignity of the
individual, demanded respect for the individual and barred the state from
denying these rights. The tragedy of the Western experience is that this
humanist vision would be undermined in later generations. And ironically, by
spawning total war, nationalism, terror as government policy, and a
revolutionary mentality that sought to change the world through violence, the
French Revolution itself contributed to the shattering of this vision. The Enlightenment and The Modern Mentality The philosophes asserted the self-sufficiency of the human intellect
against divine wisdom beyond rational understanding. The Enlightenment legacy
is of a rational, secular vision of nature and society, a belief in the
efficacy of reform, in religious toleration and a market economy. The
denunciation of despotism and championing of natural rights, equality under
the law, and constitutional government are the chief foundations of modern
liberal government. The ideals of the Enlightenment traversed the Atlantic
and helped shape the political thought of the founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence clearly
articulated Locke’s basic principles: that government derives its authority
from the governed, that human beings are born with natural rights, which
government is obliged to protect, and that citizens have the right to resist
a government that deprives them of their rights. The Constitution asserted
that the people are sovereign and it contained several safeguards against
despotic power including Montesquieu's principle of separation of powers. The Bill of Rights gave recognition to
the individual’s inherent rights and explicitly barred government from
tampering with them. The Federalist
Papers incorporated specific ideas of Locke, Montesquieu, Hume and the
Encyclopedia, analyzed political forms in a rational, secular and critical
spirit, regarded the protection of individual freedom as a principle goal of
the state, and expressed a willingness to break with past traditions when
they conflicted with good sense. The new American republic gave evidence that
men had the capacity for self-improvement and self-government and that
progress might be a reality. The philosophes broke with the traditional Christian view of human
nature and the purpose of life: men and women were born sinful; suffering and
misery were their lot, and relief would come only from God. In contrast, the
philosophes expressed confidence in people’s ability to attain happiness by
improving the conditions of their earthly existence and articulated a theory
of human progress that did not require divine assistance. The idea of secular
progress grew out of the Enlightenment. To be sure the promise of the Enlightenment has not been achieved. ‘The world has not turned out the way the philosophes
wished and half expected it would.... Problems of race, of class, of
nationalism, of boredom and despair in the midst of plenty have emerged
almost in defiance of the philosophes’ philosophy.’ (Peter Gay) The
world-view of the philosophes suffered from inherent weaknesses. Their
emphasis upon the abuses of religion ignored the spiritual sustenance of
religion. Their contempt for the Middle Ages reveals a tendency to judge the
past according to preconceived norms that might not apply to the period in question.
They regarded differences between people as inconsequential since reason was
common to all humanity. They believed that man should conform as nearly as
possible to a standard conceived as universal, uncomplicated, immutable:
uniform for every rational human being. This meant that the outlook of a
small party of thinkers would become normative for all peoples and cultures.
Such an undervaluing of the complex relationship between the past and
present, of human diversity and the immense appeal of tradition- even if
blatantly opposed to reason- promotes the presumptuous and dangerous belief
that society and government can be rapidly molded to fit abstract principles
and that reformers need pay only scant attention to historically conditioned
cultural forces. The philosophes' belief in universal timeless truths that apply to all
people, at all times lends credence to commitment to political abstractions
which justify any action, including state terror. Critics have accused the philosophes of overvaluing the intellect at
the expense of human feelings. They did not recognize the value of feelings
as a source of creativity and did not care for their full development.
Rather, they viewed the emotions as impediments to clear thinking that had to
be overcome. The philosophes' exuberant view of science and reason also
prevented them from realizing that reason is a
double-edged sword: it could demean as well as ennoble human personality. The
philosophes believed that removing thought from the realm of myth and religion
and eliminating irrational forms of social organization would foster human
emancipation. They could not foresee that modern bureaucracy and technology,
both creations of the rational mind, could fashion a social order that
devalues and depersonalizes the individual. Rationality threatens to
manipulate the individual as it would any material object. Reason has the
capacity to subordinate and sacrifice the individual to theoretical systems,
particularly political ideologies. Even so, the Enlightenment ideals have become an intrinsic part of the
liberal-democratic tradition and inspired nineteenth and twentieth century
reformers. |