Enlightenment Ideas

I. Rethinking human nature

A. Laws of human nature

1. John Locke's idea of humans as a blank slate

a. we are made by our experiences (linked to reason)

2. David Hume's phenomenalism

a. mind made up of impressions and impulses

b. society channels self-interested passions

c. only natural phenomena exist--no God

II. Reconsidering Education

A. John Locke and the development of reason

1. Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

B. J. J. Rousseau on natural education

1. Emile (1762)

III. New ideas in politics

A. Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws

1. law provides balance; prevents corruption

2. separation of powers

B. Rousseau's idea of the social contract

1. civil society founded on General Will

a. compare with Locke

2. central importance of equality

C. Thomas Paine and natural rights

1. going further than Locke

2. what would Rainsborough say?

D. Jacques-Louis David's painting Oath of the Horati

1. classical style typical of the enlightenment

2. ideals of equality, republic and general will

3. what about the women?

E. Influence on the revolutions to come

IV. Adam Smith and the Birth of Economics

A. Natural laws of material life

1. similar to Hume's outlook

2. interaction of self-interested people

--with the help of "invisible hand"

B. Wealth increased by greater division of labor

1. requires free trade

2. invisible hand--each person helping self helps the whole

V. Enlightenment and Women

A. Women's role

1. examples of women leaders

B. Are women rational?

1. many argue no

2. Mary Wollestonecraft's counter-argument

VI. Enlightenment and Religion

A. tolerance

1. example of Voltaire

2. hope that rule of reason renders religious strife meaningless

a. separation of politics and religion

b. separation of church and state

B. natural theology

1. God in nature

2. God of reason

C. evangelicalism--coming up next