Goedendag.
In dit document staan alle aantekeningen voor Early enlightenment. Hiermee refereer ik naar; tutorials, lectures, al het leesmateriaal (optioneel en verplicht). Al het lesmateriaal is ook ingedeeld per week, als je een goed en duidelijk overzicht wil van alle informatie die je nodig ...
Early enlightenment
Week 1
Lecture 1:
What is early enlightenment:
The name of this course is early enlightenment. In the first two weeks, we will mainly be
looking at the French enlightenment. Weeks three and four we skip the channel and look at
Barkeley Hume and the Scottish enlightenment and perhaps after we will return and say a
few words about the Dutch enlightenment. There will be made no use of powerpoints, so
you can’t complain about the lack powerpoints. In the end of this course there is a
examination. Before we are able to address the topic of the course. The concept of
enlightenment is highly ambiguous, referring to the enlightenment European philosophers
as a rule refer to late seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophers. That is what we are
talking about when we talk about the enlightenment however the enlightenment is more
than just another episode in the history of philosophy. During the eighteenth century this
enlightenment slowly turned into a broad social and cultural movement spreading across
most parts of Europe (there were exceptions) and by the last quarter of the eighteenth
century this essentially social movement quite suddenly acquires a political edge. And it is
important to know that during the final quarter of the eighteenth century (1776) that we see
a Dutch revolution which was a disaster (the Batavian revolution 1787) but it preceded the
French revolution for two years (1789). When the French over took the dutch had the
Batavian republic (1795). It is obvious that these revolutions heralding the end of the old
order were not essentially philosophical events since there were other social and economic
reasons. In the next course we are taking a close look at the French revolution but the act is
that the revolutionaries themselves went out of their way to justify their actions referring to
the enlightenment. They all claim to act as agents of the enlightenment.
The three main problems of enlightenment:
The first problem concerns the so called unity. Many experts have come to view that there
is no such thing as the European enlightenment. Local geographical and cultural differences
were so different that we have to distinguish between several types of enlightenment.
There are a lot of varieties. The enlightenment with the most attention is the French
enlightenment with Voltaire being the most famous French philosopher of them all, the
,reason why we associate France with the enlightenment. The German enlightenment is
very different from the one in France. As is the Scottish enlightenment. Most people have
come to differentiate between a moderate enlightenment and a radical enlightenment.
Some philosophers were still pretty conservative, the radicals were a tiny minority.
The second problem is the chronology of the enlightenment. When did it start? We
know that people started talking about the enlightenment This metaphor becomes popular
around 1700 but a very famous expert Johnathan Isreal has shown 20 years ago that the
radical enlightenment preceded the modest enlightenment and that the enlightenment took
off with a bang and over time grew more moderate. This happened around 1650. We should
be looking for the first enlightenment sings around 1650 and this happened in Holland. In
Amsterdam where Spinoza launched a philosophy that was more radical than everything
before which shocked more moderate philosophers. The chronology is unclear but what
seems to be certain is that there is a definite shift taking place in Europe in enlightenment
discourse by the middle of the 18th century. This is obvious, the texts are different because
the tone sharpens. The first example are the works of Voltaire (the most famous
enlightenment philosopher) He gets angry, he launches and starts his battle cry. In 1748
Leiden there is a new book published entitled ‘’man and machine’’ this is the first public
example of a school of thought that has been there of philosophical atheist materialism.
There is no soul, only matter in motion. The third example is in 1751 when a series of books
start appearing ‘’the encyclopedie’’ and a final example is that France their censorship
collapses. The censorship used to be huge in the 17th century but there was a book black
market and books were prohibited. In the 1760’s a new France head of censorship is
appointed who admits that he can’t stop the huge influx of dangerous titles, he actually joins
philosophy and tries to work from the inside out to negotiate. He went out of his way to help
the most dangerous philosopher of them all Rousseau.
There is a problem of chronology and the reason why we talk about the enlightenment as an
episode of philosophy is because of the critique which the enlightenment inspired. There
was such a thing as the counter enlightenment from the start the majority of the French
authors were not in favor of the causes developed by the enlightenment. Religion opposed
the enlightenment, they developed a critique which became popular. Enlightenment turned
into something you were in favor of or rejected you had to take sides. You are in favor of
the enlightenment or you reject it.
Enlightenment was a true turning point in history because during the enlightenment
there was the first peak of intelligence in the authors of the time. The concept of
enlightenment became already a discussion in the 18th century. And the most famous
example is Emmanuel Kant who in 1784 wrote an essay ‘’an answer to the question, what is
this’’. Nearly all experts agree that if there is one natural culture which deserves a special
interest in the enlightenment it is France, this is because French starts to replace Latin in the
17th century. There was a network of letters started by Erasmus where philosophers talked
to each other, Erasmus has written a huge amount of letters. Latin used to be the language
of all universal centuries well into the 19th century. Holland only abolished this in 1876. A
lot of famous old texts were written in Latin because of this. Another reason is diplomacy,
France used to reign supreme. Nearly everyone upper class used to speak French. To be
civilized was to be able to read, write and speak French. There is also the monumental
,event of the French revolution. In this event it was the end of the old regime, the
revolutionaries went of their way to claim that they acted on behalf of the enlightenment.
Robespierre drove even his admirers crazy with his constant quotations of Rousseau. The
man had speeches about it which lasted 6-8 hours.
A thing that most experts agree upon is that if you want to identify the first famous
French philosopher with who the French enlightenment started, Pierre Bayle (1647-1706)
and he was nicknamed the philosopher of Rotterdam where he spend most of his working
life. He was a protestant born in the south of France in a tiny village to a poor family his
father being a minister, he barely had a academic education but he went to Uni and after a
series of odd jobs he becomes a philosopher at a French university. From the early 1680’s
the cause of protestants becomes desperate resulting in 1685 where several hundreds of
thousands are kicked out you had the choice to convert to become catholic, executed or
leave. This creates a exodus of a highly educated, well off France group leaving the country
creating problems for France and the Dutch republic. He ended up in Rotterdam after
meeting a man who took interest in his potential, the Netherlands started a uni prep in
Leiden. Pierre finds a publisher in Rotterdam and with him becomes the president of the
European republic of letters. He had the contacts and was in the know, he gets fame very
swifty. Famous works include ‘’lettre sur les cometes’’ there was a comet coming which
made people worried but Bayle wrote about this to inform people. He also wrote multiple
books ‘’nouvelles la republique des lettres’’ which was a review of books. His best work was
‘’commentaire philosophique’’ which was about religious tolerance. He arrived as a young
man, he was paid poorly and only taught a few hours a week. He had time to cultivate his
career as a author. In 1691 orthodox protestants in the Netherlands had taken writing and
presented it to the city council in Rotterdam. Because his mentor had passed away, he got
suspended and later fired. in his biographies it shows that Bayle did not care (although later
scholars have shown that he was quite offended) because he was working on his crowning
achievement was published ‘’dictionaire les critique’’ it is a massive and stunning
philosophical dictionary and it was widely considered to be very influential. This book has a
huge impact on the entire enlightenment. It was a gateway to a scholarship.
Le Commentaire philosophique, Thomas Bayle. (religious tolerance)
Bayle was known for his pacifism. Protestants wanted to attack the nemesis and tried to get
a alliance going. In 1689 there was a revolution when protestant William the third took the
throne of England, England had a war with France. Bayle was against it because religion
should never be the cause of any war. This made many people consider him a traitor. But
Bayle felt like religion should mean that religion is tolerant for people their beliefs. Bayle
writes many arguments about this. His main one being from the old testament citing ‘’Christ
said compel them to come in so that my house may be full’’. A phrase which is interpreted
as that Christ is not in favor religious toleration. But Bayle argued that the practice of forced
conversion is criminal, to force another human being to say that they believe in something
which they do not believe only results in organized hypocrisy and he next hits Saint Augustin
(Christian from the 5th century, author of the confessions both Luthor and Kelvin wanted to
, claim him. Saint Augustin argued against toleration but he also said that committing a crime
is against the bible with this he argued the bible against Saint Augustin his interpretation.
The second argument concentrates what it means to have a religion and faith, faith
according to Bayle is highly individual which means being faithful to always look god in the
eyes. A faithful man will not blink. The third argument is the human right to make a
mistake, you can run the risk to make a mistake. We all have the right to mistake because
there is only one being which can pass judgement namely god. Bayle is skeptical against
human reason instead of the reason of god this gives him the reputation of being a
dangerous person. From Bayle onwards if you wanted to be part of the enlightenment this
was one of your main dogmas. The dogma of religious toleration. You can not be part of the
enlightenment if you are not tolerant of other religions. Europe was torn apart by wars of
religion. By the end of the seventeenth century many philosophers agree that religious wars
have to stop. Spinoza, John Locke, Bayle all argued against for this. Bayle sees himself as a
genuine skeptic. Skepticism is a main school of thought in philosophy and sees that we are
simple mortals and that we are not meant to understand everything because god goes
above human reason. This is all the more reason to have more confidence in the revelation
and in god. He is skeptical in philosophy but stops being skeptical once faith enters and
accepts all these matters and accepts everything about that. A society inhabited by virtuous
atheists was perfectly fine, which was scandalous because atheists were seen as immoral.
A new modern philosophy (Marshall and Sreedhar)
Chapter 18: Montesquieu
Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a French philosopher and lawyer. His most famous works are ‘’the
spirit of the laws and the persian letters. A troglodyte story which raises questions about the nature
and status of justice and virtue in human beings and human society.
It is about a fictional people (troglodytes) who completely lack justice and
virtue. It is about the downfall of such people and it’s point is that societies could not survive if every
human being was born onjust. The second chapter is about the troglodytes with virtue and how they
thrive. The story is a critique of Hobbes and Mandeville since humanity does survive which means
that they are not entirely selfish.
(Montesquieu; men were made to be virtuous and justice is as indispensable to existence as life itself
Montesquieu: the interest of the individual is bound up in that of the community. If the individual
thrives they give back to the community so that others may thrive as well. .)
Chapter 21: Du Châtelet
Châtelet (1706-1749) was a French philosopher, physicist and mathematician. She was best known
for her work presenting and engaging with the science of Isaac Newton though her thought was also
influenced by Leibniz. In addition she was a significant scientific mind in her own right being the first
to predict infrared radiation. In the work presented here she presents a new metaphysical
foundation for Newtonian physics drawing on Leibniz and Wolff. She argues that matter must have
some active motive power she called force. She argues that such a foundation is necessary to
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