The Enlightenment was an era of intellectual importance. It was during this period that intellectual thinking flourished as compared to previous periods and it was this large growth in people’s insight that led to an analysis of society and ultimately the criticism of society. Some of the thinkers of the era stressed the perverse nature of man like Moliere. Rousseau claimed materialism destroys friendships and bonds, leading to jealousy and suspicion. Bayle supported a separation church and science, faith and reason, under the pretext that God was incomprehensible. However, others took a more constructive stance and noted the somewhat flawed structures of their societies. Voltaire for example stressed the importance of civil rights, which he believed his society lacked. His ideas revolved around free practice of religion, free trade, and separation of church and state. Montesquieu criticized that his society lacked separation of powers, a more democratic government. Locke wrote that government and its people had a social contract and that government existed mainly for the people, quite contrary to the monarchies established in Europe. These thinker’s ideas of society, although radical at the time, established some sort of standard that future generations like the Founding Fathers used for their governments. Their ideas were spread by their writings. At some point during this era, the Industrial Revolution occurred, leading to mass production of books and other literary forms. Through the establishment of structures and places, like coffee houses, their ideas spread, making their criticism very powerful against the institutions they denounced.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Asher.P1.T1 - Enlightenment Synthesis Question
Whereas the Renaissance era was the age in which ideas of science and individualism only began to bud, the Enlightenment era became the cultural movement where reason and reform flourished and blossomed. During the Enlightenment era, societal woes became a concern and philosophers, writers, and intellectuals sprouted across Europe to express their individual opinions on such issues and how to address them.
Philosophers played a large part in building the sense of reason during the Restoration era, and notable players included John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire. John Locke, often known as the “Father of Liberalism”, became known not only for his work during the Enlightenment period but a guide for the many other intellectual thinkers who follow him. His work on Two Treatises of Government became a framework for a theory of civil society and was later used by our Founding Fathers as the structure of American government. Locke highlighted the idea that any government unjust to its people can be overthrown, and a separation of powers in government would also stop man’s natural tendencies to be greedy. His social criticism against the British society of the time inspired other philosophers, including Rousseau. Rousseau, however, disagreed with Locke and stated that man was not greedy, but instead a moral figure. Rousseau insisted that the people should be the one to legislate, and that class distinctions would soon disappear. Voltaire, on the other hand, advocated for radical social reform by criticizing the society’s restrictions on freedom. Voltaire believed in the separation of church and state as well as the freedom of religion. These glaring remarks contrasted against previous sentiments of how churches should be revered.
The Enlightenment era sparked a collection of individuals who fought for the people’s rights and encouraged reform in the relatively unchanged society. Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire, among many others, became the forefront for rights that many countries now protect.
- Freddy Tsao, Andy Kang, David Lee, Michael Amini
Asher.P4.T8.Enlightenment
Clair Fuller
Laurel Kitada
Alex Tranquada
Jodi Shou
Team 8/Team Dragon
December 7, 2011
Asher, Period 4
The Enlightenment of the mid-1600s to the mid-1700s centered strongly on rationale and reason, prompting focused criticism of the philosophies of previous literary and artistic periods. Religious and other 'sentimental' doctrines were rejected, replaced by emphasis on logic. Rising in response to this paradigm shift, a revival of critical writing swept Europe. A certain form of social and intellectual criticism became the genre of 'satire', exemplified in plays, novels, and essays. Notable among the Enlightenment satirists were Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot, and Robert Harley. Many of these writers were members of the Scriblerus Club, and their perception of the previous periods they satirized as "tedious, narrow- minded, and pedantic" accurately sums up the attitudes of the Enlightenment satirists as a general collective. Wit, irony and sarcasm became the weapons of the satirists; extended sarcasm, such as in Swift's "A Modest Proposal", argued effectively for one point by seeming to argue for its opposite. Extreme language and symbolism was also used to effect, for example, in Pope's "The Rape of the Lock". Though humor was often included, the use of hyperbole, analogy, and antithesis to juxtapose two views made satire stinging. In particular, the relationship-centric hierarchy of artists and patrons, present in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, stood in contrast to the sensible, empirical nature of the developing Enlightenment societal structure, and was sharply criticized by the satirists. By employing devices meant to disparage, Swift, Pope, and their fellow writers made laughable the mentalities of those earlier periods.