University of Amsterdam — Political Science History of
the Modern World since 1750
Purple: Important Characters
Underlined: Important Sentences
Red: Important Events
Green: Important Concepts/Words
Introduction, Rationality & Romanticism
History and Political Science
History of the Modern World is an analysis of societies and human relationships and
how these interacted, changed and became 'modern' since the eighteenth century.
There are different structures that will be shed light on during the course:
➢ Social structures that determine societal groups, their relationships and enduring
patterns of behaviour
➢ Economic structures that determine work, labour relationships and strategies for
survival
➢ Political structures that determine power relationships between societal groups,
within governmental bodies and between governmental bodies and citizens'
➢ Cultural repertoires, these are norms, mental practices, sciences, and art, that are
characteristic of different societies in certain historical periods
The Enlightenment
The enlightenment as a historical concept
A conceptualization of enlightenment
There are 4 different criteria for enlightened thinking, if these are all met then you
can speak of enlightenment in maximum
, 1. The reality is knowable, so we can understand it, and it is determined by
natural forces, and not by supernatural forces
2. With the help of the rational, experimental and empirical scientific
method will it be possible to answer all questions concerning nature and
society, through this method knowledge will be obtained
3. Nature and society around us can be controlled and engineered, this by
the application of universal knowledge
4. Humanity – and human society — can be raised and educated to attain a
higher degree of perfection, this is called ‘faith in progress' and believes in
the progress of society
Immanuel Kant was an enlightened philosopher who created a definition of
enlightenment - "There to think" — by this he meant that you should let go of
everything that is seen as knowledge but not obtained objectively. You should
think for yourself and not let others think for you.
The enlightenment as an Intellectual and Societal Phenomenon
René Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes is the symbolic starting point of modern
scientific thinking. Modern scientific thinking is a way of obtaining knowledge and
thinking of the world, through human observations and mathematics as logical
reasoning.
Cartesian dualism is the division between subjective and objective knowledge
of the truth.
Subjective knowledge: When the norms or ideas of the creator of that
knowledge are combined with facts.
Objective knowledge: It is purely based on facts, like with the use of
mathematics.
Deductive reasoning or logic is a process of reasoning. You go from one or more
premises to reach a conclusion, it so makes connections between premises and
conclusions. This is also called top-down logic, as you first find a theory and then
,find data and make observations to see if what you thought was right really is
like that or not.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Bacon was the most important civil servant in
Great Britain in his time, he was very powerful diplomatically. He argued that
to reach societal goals, you should imply knowledge to understand and control
nature. The understanding of nature could be done through several methods;
observation, experimenting, reasoning and generalizing.
Bacon believed in rationalism, this is a view that the only source and test of
knowledge should be reason. The truth is, therefore, no sensory but intellectual,
deductive and objective.
Also, did he believe in The New Atlantis. Through progress and technological
advancement would the world be reformed in a perfect society which would be
created by controlling nature. This would be done through the scientific method
of observing, experimenting and reasoning
Denis Diderot, a France writer and philosopher and D'Alembert, a France
scientist, created the first encyclopaedia in Europe that was available for the
people. The creation of their encyclopaedia took 21 years, from 1751 until 1772.
Through their work, more people could obtain knowledge about nature and
society.
Deism: A philosophical belief that puts meaning to religion in an enlightened
and rationalistic way. It says that God exists and is responsible for the creation
of the universe, but does not interfere directly with the world as it is created. It,
therefore, accepts the natural laws and rejects the divine ruling of one person.
They see God as a watchmaker that has no feelings but puts the laws of nature
in being, everything needs somebody to begin it all. Deism has a big tolerance
toward different ways of thinking about 'god' as long as it does not get
organized but is your personal idea and god — churches and pastors, therefore,
are seen as ignorant and do not fit in their way of thinking of the modern
society
3
, The enlightenment as a social phenomenon.
The enlightenment spread around the society and also turned into a social
phenomenon. People would come together in salons, associations, or lodges and
created an enlightened culture.
Women played a big role in this culture as gatekeepers or hostesses of the
social gatherings, as so become very powerful and formed a source of
education in this per iod. Two of the most powerful women were Mme.
Geoffrian and Mme. Julie de Lespinasse.
Through the social gatherings, independent thinking and reasoning about society
and government began, and a public opinion was created. Newspapers and
magazines spread these opinions in countries and across countries. Sometimes
they would be censored, but this was not really feasible because the rules of
censorship were not the same in all countries and republics. Therefore, there
would always be a place where the magazines and newspapers could be created
and published and transported to other places afterward.
The Republic of Letters
An international intellectual community among the intellectuals of the Age of
Enlightenment. The knowledge was spread and discussed through
correspondence, exchange of published papers and pamphlets, then discussed in
the salons or other gatherings.
Natural Law and Enlightened Political Ideas
Natural law is a philosophy that states that certain rights are inherent just by
the fact that you are a human, and that these laws can be understood through
