HST 122 -- Enlightenment: Context and Causes

I. What was the Enlightenment?
        A. definition: 18th-century movement for progressive
                social, economic and political reform
        B. France: hotbed of Enlightenment ideas
        C. philosophes: Enlightenment intellectuals
                1. not really philosophers
                2. more like intellectual publicists

II. Eighteenth-Century Society
        A. Nobility
                1. defined by their legal rights/privileges
                        - e.g., special judicial treatment, tax exemptions
                2. land-based wealth
                    Images: house1, house 2,  woman, family, man, conversation
        B. Bourgeoisie
                1. French term for town-dweller; negative connotation
                2. seen as a threat by the nobility
                3. becoming very wealthy
                4. aspire to nobility; start mixing with the nobility
                5. salons: 1, 2, 3; academies
        C. the Masses
                1. most people still poor in the 18th century
                2. agricultural improvements
                        a. specialization in single crops 
                            [Village Plan; Example of enclosure]
                        b. better fertilizers
                        c. introduction of corn and potatoes from the Americas
                3. this leads to increased population
                        - rose from 120 million in 1700 to 180 million in 1800
                4. problem: decrease in war, famine, plague, unclean living conditions
                5. no checks on population growth
                6. new agricultural developments can only take them so far
                7. eventually population becomes too large
                8. prices go up when food is in high demand
                9. wages go down when the labor supply goes up
                10. this leads to a huge poverty/crime/prison problem
                    Images: the masses: 1, 2, 3; prisons: 1, 2, 3

III. Objects of Enlightenment critique
        A. immediate causes: absolute monarchy and the Church (1685)
                1. Edict of Nantes revoked
                        a. French Protestants flee; the intellectuals gravitate
                                toward presses and begin a propaganda battle
                        b. portray Louis XIV as a tyrant and clergy as persecutors
                2. James II comes to the English throne
                        a. unhappy English Protestants align with French Protestants
                        b. leads to opposition movements in England and France
                        c. Glorious Revolution in England
                        d. very open movement in England; covert in France
        B. the nobility
                1. very critical of noble privileges
                2. didn't like that birth determined wealth and privileges

IV. Enlightenment Ideas
        A. Reason
                1. direct result of the Scientific Revolution
                2. scientists argued that reason allows the discovery of
                        laws about how nature works
                3. philosophes argued that reason allows the discovery of
                        laws about how society works
                4. Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method
                        a. emphasis on reason
                        b. very practical ways to approach problems
        B. Nature
                1. also a direct result of the Scientific Revolution
                2. philosophes want to find natural laws that govern society
                3. Condorcet, On the Future Progress of the Human Mind 
        C. Progress
                1. philosophes want to use reason to discover natural laws
                        about how society works in order to achieve 
                        social progress
                2. social progress: anything that improves the condition of people