HST 122 -- Enlightenment Thinkers

I. Francois-Marie de Voltaire (1694-1778)
        A. changed his name from François-Marie Arouet
        B. educated by Jesuits
        C. became a poet and playwright
        D. trouble with the law
        E. went to England; learned English; studied the differences
                between France and England
        F. returned to France in 1728
        G. the Marquise du Châtelet became his patron
        H. he wrote Philosophical Letters Concerning the English Nation (1734)
                in which he demonstrated the superiority of the English
                1. religious toleration
                2. middle class can gain powerful positions
                3. not dominated by greedy church
                4. make their poets and scientists national heroes
II. Denis Diderot (1713-84)
        A. son of a poor craftsman; educated by Jesuits
        B. working on his own philosophy; wrote erotic novels
                to pay the bills; landed him in jail
        C. got out of jail; began work on the Encyclopedia
        D. over 200 intellectuals contributed over 60,000 articles
            - e.g., button making, fishnet making, glass making
        E. elaborate set of footnotes and references to confuse the censors
        F. eventually the monarchy shut down publication
        G. Diderot found a new publisher in the Netherlands
III. Adam Smith (1723-90)
        A. Scottish economist
        B. wanted to discover natural laws about how the economy works
        C. wrote Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
        D. attacked the ideas of mercantilism
        E. came up with the idea of the "invisible hand"
                1. people invest in industry because they want to acquire wealth
                2. because a country's revenue is equal to the sum of the revenues
                        of its industries, people are promoting the financial
                        interests of the country
                3. thus, no need for rulers to subscribe to mercantilism and
                        impose trade restrictions
                4. the government should stay out of the economy
                        - laissez-faire: let it be; hands off
        F. warned against the rich getting richer
IV. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)
        A. women becoming more involved in public life
                1. organizers of salons -- DOC 15
                2. writers
        B. Lady Montagu read widely and traveled across Europe to Turkey
        C. desire for women to have access to education and public debate
        D. The Nonsense of Common Sense (1738)
		excerpt: "Among the most universal errors, I reckon that of 
			treating the weaker sex with a contempt which has a very 
			bad influence on their conduct. How many of them think 
			it excuse enough to say they are women, to indulge any 
			folly that comes into their heads! This renders them useless 
			members of the commonwealth, and only burdensome to 
			their own families, where the wise husband thinks he lessens 
			the opinion of his own understanding, if he at any time 
			condescends to consult his wife's. Thus, what reason nature 
			has given them is thrown away, and a blind obedience expected 
			from them by all their ill-natured masters…”
V. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)
        A. came to Paris from Geneva in the 1750s
        B. critical of the philosophes; books and salons weren't the answer
                to society's problems
        C. the answer could be found in politics; we must find the best
                form of government
        D. wrote the Social Contract (1762)
		excerpt: "The problem is to find a form of association which will 
		defend and protect with the whole common force, the person and 
		goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself 
		with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.  
		This is the fundamental problem of which the social contract provides 
		the solution.  [In the social contract,] each of us puts his person and 
		all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general 
		will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an 
		individual part of the whole."
               	 	1. government should be based on a contract with the people
               	 	2. not an absolute monarchy
                	3. theoretical foundations of democracy
                	4. condemned by the parlement of Paris
        E. Rousseau left France for England
                - king George III became his patron