chapter 17 outline.htm

His 102

Chapter 17

I.                    The Enlightenment

A.     The attack on tradition

1.      Pierre Bayle – Dictionary

2.      Travel literature & notion of cultural relativism

3.      Newton and Locke -- Essay Concerning Human Understanding

4.      Montesquieu -- Spirit of the Laws

5.      Voltaire – Candide

6.      Diderot – Encylopedia & Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville

7.      Adam Smith – Wealth of Nations

8.      Marie-Jean Condorcet – Progress of the Human Mind

9.      Jean-Jacques Roussea – The Social Contract & Emile

10.  Mary Wollstonecraft – Vindication of the Rights of Woman

B.     Social Environment

1.      Art, Music and Literature & other culture

a.  The salons – disseminators of enlightened ideas

b.      Art:  Baroque-Rococo and Neoclassicism

Antooine Watteau; Balthasar Neumann (Rococo)

Jacques-Louis David (Neoclassicism)

c.       Music:  Baroque & Classical

Bach and Handel (Baroque)

Haydn & Mozart (Classical)

d.      literature and history

Fielding – The History of Tom Jones

Gibbon:  Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire

e.       Crime

Cesare Beccaria – On Crimes & Punishment Bretonne – The Broken Man

f.        Popular Culture

The Carnival

Drinking habits

Education

C.     Religion

1.      The Institutional Church

a.       Church/State relations

b.      Toleration?

2.      Popular Religion

a.       Catholic Church

b.      Protestant Piety (Pietism)

Reading Guide:

1.    Be able to identify the main figures of the Enlightenment as listed on your outline.

2.    If the enlightenment was mainly a movement of the elite, what was going on among the general population at     large?

3.    What were the enlightenment affects on the various "state churches" as well as popular religious beliefs?  Did the Enlightenment increase/decrease religious toleration?  Explain.

Chapter Assignment

The Enlightenment was the attempt to use reason and rationality to improve society.  Discuss the ways in which the Enlightenment introduced a new spirit of questioning traditional authority.  Areas to be considered are:  politics -- Compare the subject of political authority as discussed in the Magna Carta (introduction and #1, p. 258) with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract  (p. 483).  Another political document to be considered is Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws (p. 478) dealing with separation of powers. Discuss two other documents from the following and discuss each's contribution to new Enlightened thinking:  Denis Diderot, Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville (p. 480) on the subject of sexuality; Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (p. 485) on the subject of equal rights; the notion of progress as seen by Edward Gibbon in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, (p. 490); and Restif de la Bretonne's The Broken Man, (p. 492) on the subject of crime and punishment.  By the end of the assignment you should have a good feel for how the Enlightenment was beginning to affect society at all levels.  As always, include a good introduction and conclusion.