Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Blog #6 Week 11/23-11/30 Enlightenment
Analyze the ways in which enlightenment thought addressed religious beliefs and social issues in the 18th century. Be sure to address specific enlightenment thinkers, events and/or topics that were addressed. It would also be a great idea to address their works to support your argument. (Remember to respond to the question in 6-8 sentences (yes it can be longer) and to respond to two of your classmates answers in 4-6 sentences. Do not just agree or disagree without defending or justifying your argument.) Think above and beyond the common answers that you may see. Be sure to challenge your classmates arguments by challenging the validity of their statements, along with the evidence that they use. Remember many students are very vague and they do not give detailed answer so call them on it. Good Luck!!!! Go Mustangs!!!
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in general, the philosophes were criticle of church institutions and, as the textbook says, "frequently anticlerical" but they didn't hold anything against religion itself. they wanted religion to be without fanaticism and intolerance. towards christianity, thinkers such as Voltaire inquired the morality and truthfulness of the bible.In voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary he draws attention to the the depraved acts of biblical heroes and the contradictions of biblical stories. philosophes criticism on traditional religion is very apparent in their thoughts on Islam. they thought of Islam as a 'false religion'- a religion unusually carnal/sexual since they portrayed heaven as a place of sensual pleasure. in Fanaticism or Mohammed the Prophet, voltaire's underline thought was that Islam is just another example of religious fanaticism he so vivaciously despises. not all thought of Islam in such a bleak light. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Turkish Embassy Letters extols the Islamic society and advises the English to follow certain practices of Islamic society (vaccination etc).
The publication of the Encyclopedia by Denis Diderot had a huge impact of society. It covered subjects like manufacturing, canal building, ship construction, agriculture etc. making it a very excellent source for people to gain knowledge. it also spread enlightenment over over the continent. Another aspect of the social effect enlightenment had on society was criminal law. Marquis Cesare's On Crimes and Punishments called out the issue of unjust punishments. he wanted speedy trials and and just punishments. laws should ensure the greatest happiness for humans as possible. economically, philosophes saw government regulation hindering expansion of natural social laws. physiocrats, for example, thought the main role of government was to protect property and leave trade to the merchants. Adam Smith favors this thought in The Wealth of Nations.
one month till Christmas!!!!!! >.<
during the enlightenment ideas emerged both secular and religious based. for example, the evidence found during the enlughtenment contradicted the traditions of the church and made the mystery and divinity lose its meaning. in britain they tried to enforce toleration towards unitarians and catholics. in print culture the religious books were decreasing and becoming more secular.
in the social aspect the invention of the encyclopedia was known as the greatest monument of the enlightenment. it was a plea and form for the freedom of expression. it contained ideas on religion, government, and philosophy. the development of the enclyclopedia undermined intellectual assumption and ignored the divine law. therfore knowlegde was more widely spread and more easily accessible.
ill respond when more people post,
k?? =]]]
The enlightenment was like a reform throughout Europe. New ideas being made, old ideas being reanswered. new events would happen to greaten the religious and social parts of England. for ex: John Locke, he would discribe the ways of the people (Natural Rights) he was for the people! he said how you can shape a person's character through experience and human nature is changeable. also the print culture, it increased the printing of books and literacy greatly rose. another idea is the publication of the encyclopedia by Diderot. it included many ideas of different philosophes about religion, government, and philosophy. also it included manufacturing, canal building, ship constrution, and improvement on agriculture. i'll comment on my peers when MORE PEOPLE DO THE BLOG!!!!!!!
During the Enlightenment, people started to challenge some of the ideas of the church, but were not trying to overthrow or disprove all the teachings in the bible. Copernicus was one of the great minds of the day to contridict the church, but only wanted to refine some of the statements said in the bible. He did not completely change the model. He only altered it enough so that it would coincide with the observations he made. Around the same centary, people like Hobbes and Locke were stressing different ways in which to rule the citizens of different lands. Through observations of individuals, both dedueced different conclusions. Locke thought that people could govern themselves through common sense and through moral judgement, while Hobbes though that all humans were selfish and could not rule themselves without one person taking complete charge over them. This was a time of change and most governments would start to split and lean toward either one of these.
(I need to look into this topic more and will come back to reply to others later. This might not be the comment I am going to submit.)
the enlightenment showed both religious beliefs and social issues through a lot of the people. for example, there was david hume. he argued against faith and claimed that human ideas came from our senses rather than faith.
also, there was the belief of deism which was the belief that God created all things. although it was similar to catholicism, they believed in different things and deaism was not the same as catholicism. they didn't believe in the same god. deists were open minded about who their god was and what he did/ created.
blaise pascal believed that religion was separate from reasoning and science. he thought that atheists and diests overestimated reason and the religions required a "leap of faith". he believed people needed god's grace and believed in predestination.
a social issue was witchcraft. if you ever disagreed with the church, you were considered to be working with the devil. as religious and political tensions were used in theology, it portrayed the demons and the devil as more powerful. therefore, easily "taking over" someone, mainly women.
ok... i kinda don't understand this question so i just wrote what i THOUGHT mr. neal was asking. anyone wanna help me out? sorry if i'm wrong "/
Ashley: I didn't read your response but all the question wants to know is how the enlightment affect/addressed religious/social issues. How did the new way of thinking affect Catholicism?
I'll respond tommarrow.<./procrastination>
Hmm...well, first thought: religion? A lot of Enlightenment thinkers kind of denounced it. We talked about a one of those in class today...um, David Hume, I think, was his name. Much more for using reason than faith to explain things. A second point on religion would be that toleration was starting to be practiced more and more, especially by some of the monarchs (in a general sense, of course...there are always the Jews who don't get the best end of things). My source for that would have to be Joseph II and Maria Theresa's letters between each other; King Joe seemed very much for tolerance, and obviously got his way when his mother died.
Social issues...*sigh*. I think, in general, the social issues were less obvious than other time periods. It doesn't seem as war-infested as other periods of time. The Enlightenment was, obviously, an enlightenment; you really think everyone just fell into this? It took time. It took patience. It took a lot of argument. It was a philosophical battle between the old thinkers and the new. Any transition is difficult (even when the transition is benificial) and this was no different; I'm sure there was plenty of bitterness between people with varying opinions on how to think about the world. I don't really have any evidence of this, it's simply food for thought...anyways.
Comments:
1) Anu, thank you for branching out. Islam's new ideas had an interesting part in Europe's new ideas. Atleast, I think so. And yes, one month 'til Christmas. ;)
2)and this one will wait...
The enlightenment adressed social issues , for instance Marquis di Beccaria adressed the dilema of crime and punishment. That the death penalty and torture should really be the last resort of punishment that if anything they should be put in a rehab.There was also the natural rights, the price theory, the suggesttion of diviging the govt. into 3 branches, checks and balances all introduced by John Locke an English Philosoper.
It adressed religious beliefs, there was the faith in reason than faith in revelation. A new belief called Deism which the exsistence of God was a rational explaintion of the universe and its form. There was the universe was govered bu natural law. More philosophes questioned the catholic church. Such one named Jean de Condorcet he thought that science could describe nature,it could not provide a guide for morality.
The Enlightenment in the 18th century influenced many different areas in European society and religion. The Encyclopedia was one of the greatest influences of the Enlightenment. It included illustrations of manufacturing, canal building, ship construction, and improved agriculture. Denis Diderot illustrated the movement’s determination to explore life on earth rather than in a religious sense. David Hume argued that no evidence supported the belief of divine miracles in Christianity in “Of Miracles.” In Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary he points out immoral acts of biblical heroes. The Islamic religion was considered as a false religion and Christian authors ignored the Islamic understanding of life.
The Enlightenment thought addressed religion as well as society. Critical philosophers complained about the established and non-established Christian church that it delayed the search of a rational life and the scientific study of nature. Deism arose due to the thoughts of writers believing the life of religion and reason could be combined together. Deists hoped the wider acceptance of faith would end the rivalries among Christians. Voltaire published Mohammed the Prophets another example of his religious fanaticism. Maquis Cesare Beccaroa published On Crimes and Punishments in which he attacks torture and capital punishment. He believed the purpose of laws were to secure the happiness of human beings.
Responses:
Anu: I agree with the part of the Encyclopedia had one of the greatest impact on society describing canal and ship building. I also agree with Islam not being considered a religion because of the sensuous delights in heaven.
Hailey: I agree with the part of toleration was being practiced more especially by the monarchs. I agree with your evidence of Joseph II letters to Maria Theresa. Also, the wars seemed less during the Enlightenment period.
wow, i never thought about copernicus..thank you evan for bringing him up. so he altered the bible to say what he wanted to say? ..just like the church..then again he was right about a heliocentric system. and to hailey m'dear i like how you referred to joseph and king joe..highly amusing. anyways back to the point, what i really like was that you mentioned the enlightenment being bloodless-which only goes to show how far using your mind can take you. i wouldnt say the e.t.'s (enlightenment thinkers =P)denounced religion itself, they criticized fanaticism not religion.
did criticize against fanaticism
Responses:
i agree with anu, the encyclopedia was a major component of the enlightenment. it helped spread the knowlegde of the enlightenment ideas more quickly. it was easy to access and composed of many thoughts during the enlightenment
i agree with haley. that religion was losing some importance becacuse they started t use reason and logic to explain things instead of soley what in the bible.
Responses:
i agree with anu, the encyclopedia was a major component of the enlightenment. it helped spread the knowlegde of the enlightenment ideas more quickly. it was easy to access and composed of many thoughts during the enlightenment
i agree with haley. that religion was losing some importance becacuse they started t use reason and logic to explain things instead of soley what in the bible.
During the 18th Century, many philosophes were not trying to openly overthrow or rebel against the church, but they were instead providing alternate theories. Such as Copernicus, his main intent was never to challenge the church, but he simply wanted the theory that he had worked so hard on to be known to the public. The church was the one who saw him as a threat. Locke suggested that people are all born the same, but their experiences change them. What they go through makes them what they are. Psychology seemed to really be a new science. Hobbes and Locke both had such different theories yet both of them were not trying to hurt the church in any way.
Evan, you said that all governments had to lean to one or the other. What if they didn't want to? What if they liked the way they were? And please specify the two governments that you were talking about. Was it either democracy or having a king/one absolute ruler?
Abby, the encyclopedia really was one of the key parts of the Enlightenment. Did it affect the church in any way? Did they feel threatened by it? I think they possibly could've, because it was a book of knowledge on all sorts of subjects, so the church could've felt like it was slipping behind in the intellectual race. What do you think?
Prompt: “Analyze the ways in which enlightenment thought addressed religious beliefs and social issues in the 18th century. Be sure to address specific enlightenment thinkers, events and/or topics that were addressed.”
My Comment:
Okay. First of all, the Enlightenment is the basically an age of reason and it dominated the most of the intellectual movement of the 18th century. Philosophes and philosophers both criticized the existing institutions of the absolute monarchy and the established church. In addition, they also promoted individual freedom and illustrated religious beliefs through their enlightened works.
(Religious) Besides the Deism and the faith that other classmates had mentioned about, we also have Voltaire who wrote “A Treatise on Toleration” in 1763 (Enlightenment Document Packet #1). In his essay, or should I say the document, he focused on attacking superstition because he believed that those superstitious people are ridiculous. He also went against religious persecution (I believed the Jews was what he was trying to point out?), and war. I also agreed with other classmates on the part of the Deism. Voltaire was an advocate of it. Deists believed that after the God created the universe, it operated on its own. They also believed that there is life after death, and the God would reward those who did good things in their previous life and punish those who did bad things in their previous life. One of the stories that I read about Voltaire was that he was trying to defend a Huguenot merchant named Jean Calas. Jean Calas was a Huguenot merchant who murdered his son because his son wanted to become a Catholic. Jean Calas was arrested and was convicted. Voltaire defended Calas in his “Treatise on Tolerance” saying that the case against Calas was pointless because he was convicted by a court consisted of an anti-protestant group. Voltaire commented that the conviction was not fair to Calas because he was convicted probably because of the difference of religious beliefs between Calas and the anti-protestant group. At the end, a new investigation was done and the conviction of Jean Calas was reversed. Voltaire defended Calas because he believed if the different religious beliefs caused the conviction of Jean Calas, it is pointless to have the trial.
(Social) Many great enlightened thinkers addressed social issues during the Enlightenment. For instance, we have John Locke, who believed that the people have the right to rebel if the government didn’t protect our natural rights (Social Contract). On the other hand, we have Thomas Hobbes, believing that our society should be ruled by an absolute monarch (Leviathan). Furthermore, we have Rousseau with the famous quote, “People are born free but everywhere they are in chains” (Social Contract – 1762), illustrating that the government restricted individuals’ freedom. In addition to Rousseau’s beliefs, the “General Will” was one of his best known theories. The General Will was an idea illustrating that the society should be rule by the will of the majority since he was sure that there is always a common interest in the society. Although this sounds good, but it only achieved what the majorities wanted, but not the minorities’. He believed that obeying the General will, is the action of freedom.
My Responses:
Paulina: I agreed with Paulina because in Beccaria’s book, “Crime and Punishment”, published in 1764, illustrated the crime issues in the society. For example, he believed that punishment failed to deter crime; therefore the government should focus more on the rehabs of the criminals instead of spending money on torturing and executing them.
Hailey: I agreed with Hailey when she said that “toleration was starting to be practiced more and more”. The most obvious ones would be the enlightened despots, including Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Joseph II, and Maria Teresa. All of them achieved some degree of religious toleration. Religious toleration became one of the characteristics of enlightened despotism.
Enlightenment thought didn't really touch Religion.. I can think of one way it might have touched it: the belief that people are naturally good and can be modeled (John Locke's Tabula Rasa) could be an example that goes against the Catholic beliefe that everyone is born with sin, sin=bad so in a way a human isn't born pure. During this time, however, there was a movement called The Great Awakening that was basically people preaching and "spreading the word". Just as people were expressing true human nature, people were expressing about their religious beliefs elsewhere.
Also, there was the introduction of pietism which basically says that people should seek their inner light. This experience affected the emotions, however, and not reason.
Enlightened thought also touched social issues. People began to think more about certain things. They also became more aware of certain ideas thru salons and coffee houses. Certain people, such as John Locke, thought humans could be modeled (in a way). If everyone turns out they way they are because of their surroundings can you not change the surroundings for many people and solve many social problems?
Also, this enlightenment movement led to the enlightened despots. Rulers that ran with enlightened ideas that helped the citizens of their countries in one way or the other.
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David Kim: Copernicus? Wrong section bud. Scientific Revolution is where Copernicus' theory of the rotation of the heavenly spheres. But since you mentioned it.. Copernicus knew what he was getting himself into. I mean, he did write a letter to the Pope telling him he knew the circumstances and the outcomes of his actions.. but! He was going to do it anyway. If he knew that he would be going against the Church and years and years of their teachings... Wouldn't you say he knew what was up?
Paulina: I agree with your statement on Marquis di Beccaria. His book On Crimes and Punishments completley addressed the issue about how to treat those that have broken the law. I mean, he basically began the whole 'innocent untill proven guilty' and argued that the state should protect it's citizens, even if they're criminals.
During the enlightenment many changes and questions arose about society and the church. First of all, enlightenment thinkers such as Copernicus and Voltaire. Copernicus argued with the church bible stating that the earth was sun-centered not earth-centered. Also Voltaire believed the church was a static force useful only as a counterbalance since its "religious tax". On the other hand there were some people who wanted change in society positively. Catherine the Great, Fredrick the great, and Joseph the second exercised the change in society for the good of their country. They got rid of torture as the main type of punishment. Fredrick the great improved agriculture by giving peasants tools, stocks and seeds. Also his government encouraged manufacturing textiles/metals. These things had a great impact on their countries as it evolved into the pre-stage for the industrial revolution.
I strongly agree with evan with his views on Copernicus. After all his ideas turned out to be correct. Also i agree with evan on the two enlightenment philosophers he chose, Locke and Hobes. Their beliefs are what helped bring about change in the government.
I also agree with abby about the encyclopedia being the greatest monument of the enlightenment. Without it contained different aspects that helped people become more educated and brought upon change to a new era. But most importantly it showed the freedom of enlightenment thinkers ideas.
"I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it." Voltaire
A new kind of religion, known as Deism, stated that nature was rational and since God created nature he was rational and so they believed that God created everything and set it in motion.
Also Islam was seen as a rival to Christianity. Many European writers portrayed Islam as a "false religion" and that Muhammed was a false prophet because he had not performed any miracles.
Through the "heroic leadership" of Jean Le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot, the Encyclopedia was considered one of the greatest monuments of the Enlightenment. This was the only work during the Enlightenment that illustrated the movement's determination to examine life on earth rather than religion. And as Abby mentioned, the articles in the encyclopedia ignored divine law and it was mainly focused on the well-being of humanity.
Rousseau questioned the morality of a society where commerce and industry were considered very important human activities in both of his works, "Effects of the Arts and Sciences" and "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality". While other philosophes believed that life was good as long as you enjoyed "the fruits of the earth", Rousseau questioned exactly what constitutes the good life.
My Responses:
I agree with Megha when she said that Christian authors ignored the Islamic understanding of life. Many writers also thought that Muhammed was an impostor who hadn't performed any miracles.
Also I agree with Abby when she said that with the Encyclopedia ideas were spread and easily accesible. It focused on life in general rather than through religion.
Woah! Slow down there Niha.
Deism was not an entirely new religion.
People still believe the whole 'Jesus' thing.
They just believe that God is not always working. He created everything (a system) and then left it alone.
It is not however a completely new religion/system of faith.
The Enlightenment thinkers were openly pessimistic, but not so necessarily against the church in expressing their religious beliefs. I believe this was due to the steady decline in Catholicism's influence throughout the 18th century that made the church a topic that was less popular to criticize. The fact that philosophers such as Newton were able to express their ideas about deism and God's laissez-faire(did i spell that right?) relationship with earth without being constantly pestered by the church.
As far as social issues, i believe that literally every enlightenment thinker had something to say. For example, there were thinkers such as Rousseau that believed that human beings were born free, but ultimately and inevitably, they were restricted by the corruptions of government.
As for my commentary...
1.) I 100% agree with Hailey in where she noted that toleration was beginning to be practiced as far as religion was concerned. I believe this is relevant in that people really were sort of more accepting of people's own personal opinions of God and his likeness and might be seen as a beginning step toward liberalism.
2.) Andres...hmmm... I'm not necessarily convinced in your reasoning with Locke's influence on social issues. I believe that he certainly did have some effect in society (definitely) but you gave weak examples. Sorry...haha, I like posting last. @_@
thanks guys!! you're ideas and philosophies really helped me with my essay on this topic!!
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