Chapter 16.2!

Urban Culture and Life in the Public Sphere - New institutions - Reading Revolution - Conversation and other stuff - What the salon represented - Elite women - Other institutions - The last thing I dont think I need to study just read it once I guess

A series of new institutions and practices encouraged the spread of enlightened ideas in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The European production and consumption of books grew significantly. In Germany, the number of new titles appearing rose from six hundred in 1700 to twenty-six hundred in 1780. The types of books changed dramatically. The proportion of religious and devotional books published in Paris declined after 1750; history and law held constant; the arts and sciences surged. Reading more books on more subjects, the public approached reading in a new way. The result was what some scholars have called a reading revolution. The old style of reading in Europe was centered on a core of sacred texts that taught an obedience to God. Reading had been patriarchal and communal, with the father slowly reading the text aloud to his assembled family. Now reading involved a broader field of books that constantly changed. Reading became individual and silent, and texts could be questioned. Subtle but profound, the reading revolution ushered in new ways of relating to the written word. Conversation, discussion, and debate played a role in the Enlightenment. Evolving from gatherings presided over by the précieuses, the salon was a regular meeting held in the elegant private drawing rooms of talented, wealthy men and women. They encouraged exchange of observations on literature, science, and philosophy. Many of the most celebrated salons were hosted by women, known as salonnières, such as Madame du Deffand. Invitations to salons were highly coveted; introductions to the rich and powerful could make the career of an ambitious writer, and, in turn, the social elite found amusement and cultural prestige in their ties to up-and-coming artists and men of letters. The salon represented an accommodation between the ruling classes and leaders of Enlightenment thought. Salons were sites in which philosophes, French nobility, and prosperous middle classes intermingled and influenced one another while maintaining due deference to social rank. Critical thought about almost any question became fashionable and flourished alongside hopes for human progress through greater knowledge and enlightened public opinion. Elite women exercised influence on artistic taste. Soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits, and starry-eyed lovers protected by hovering cupids were hallmarks of the style they favored. This style, known as rococo, was popular throughout Europe. Feminine influence in the drawing room went hand in hand with the emergence of polite society and the general attempt to civilize a rough military nobility. Some philosophes championed rights and expanded education for women, claiming the position and treatment of women were the best indicators of a society's level of civilization and decency. For these male philosophes, greater rights for women did not mean equal rights, and the philosophes were not particularly disturbed by the fact that elite women remained legally subordinate to men in economic and political affairs. Elite women lacked many rights, but so did the majority of European men, who were poor. A number of institutions provided the rest of society with access to Enlightenment ideas. Lending libraries served an important function for people who could not afford their own books. The coffeehouses that first appeared in the late seventeenth century became meccas of philosophical discussion. In addition to these institutions, book clubs, debating societies, Masonic lodges and newspapers all played roles in the creation of a new public sphere that celebrated open debate informed by critical reason. The public sphere was an idealized space where members of society came together as individuals to discuss issues relevant to the society, economics, and politics of the day. What of the common people? Did they participate in the Enlightenment? Enlightenment philosophes did not direct their message to peasants or urban laborers. They believed that the masses had no time or talent for philosophical speculation and that elevating them would be a long and potentially dangerous process. Deluded by superstitions and driven by violent passions, the people, they thought, were like children in need of firm parental guidance. Despite these prejudices, the ideas of the philosophes did find an audience among some members of the common people. At a time of rising literacy, book prices were dropping and many philosophical ideas were popularized in cheap pamphlets and through public reading. Although they were barred from salons and academies, ordinary people were not immune to the new ideas in circulation.

Catherine the Great of Russia - Show as she? - The marriage - Catherine and the Enlightenment / her first goal - Her second goal - Emelian Pugachev - Pugachev's rebellion - Her third goal

Catherine the Great was one of the most remarkable and adored rulers of her age. Her father commanded a regiment of the Prussian army, but her mother was related to the Romanovs of Russia, and that proved to be Catherine's opening to power. Catherine's Romanov connection made her a suitable bride at the age of fifteen for the heir to the Russian throne. It was a mismatch from the beginning, but her Memoirs made her ambitions clear: she wanted dat crown. When her husband, Peter III, came to power during the Seven Years' War, his decision to withdraw Russian troops from the coalition against Prussia alienated the army. Catherine formed a conspiracy to depose her husband. Catherine's lover Gregory Orlov and his three brothers murdered Peter, and the German princess became empress of Russia. Catherine drunk deeply at the Enlightenment. She set out to rule in an enlightened manner. She had three main goals. First, she worked hard to continue Peter the Great's effort to bring the culture of western Europe to Russia. She imported Western architects, musicians, and intellectuals. When the French government banned the Encyclopedia, she offered to publish it in St. Petersburg. With these actions, Catherine won good press in the West for herself and for her country. Peter the Great westernized Russian armies, but it was Catherine who westernized the imagination of the Russian nobility. Catherine's second goal was domestic reform, and she began her reign with ambitious projects. She appointed a legislative commission to prepare a new law code. This project was never completed, but Catherine restricted the practice of torture and allowed limited religious toleration. She tried to improve education and strengthen local government. The philosophes applauded these measures and hoped more would follow. Common Cossack soldier Emelian Pugachev sparked an uprising of serfs. Proclaiming himself the true tsar, Pugachev issued orders abolishing serfdom, taxes, and army service. Thousands joined his cause. Pugachev's untrained forces eventually proved no match for Catherine's noble-led army. Betrayed by his own company, Pugachev was captured and savagely executed. Pugachev's rebellion put an end to intentions Catherine had about reforming the system. The peasants were dangerous, and her empire rested on the support of the nobility. Catherine gave the nobles absolute control of their serfs, and she extended serfdom into new areas. She freed nobles forever from taxes and state service. Under Catherine the Russian nobility attained its most exalted position, and serfdom entered its most oppressive phase. Catherine's third goal was territorial expansion, and she was successful. Her armies subjugated the descendants of the Mongols and the Crimean Tartars. Her greatest coup was the partition of Poland. When Catherine's armies scored victories against the Ottomans and threatened to disturb the power between Russia and Austria, Frederick of Prussia obligingly came forward with a deal. He proposed that Turkey be let off easily and that Prussia, Austria, and Russia each compensate itself by taking a gigantic slice of the weakly ruled Polish territory. Catherine jumped at the chance. The first partition of Poland took place in 1772. Subsequent partitions in 1793 and 1795 gave away the rest of Polish territory, and the ancient republic of Poland vanished from the map.

Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened Absolutism - Life of a Jew - Haskalah - Arguments for tolerance won somethings or something like that -

Europe's small Jewish populations lived under highly discriminatory laws. Jews were confined to tiny, overcrowded ghettos, were excluded from most professions, and could be ordered out of a kingdom at a moment's notice. Still, a very few did manage to succeed and to obtain the right of permanent settlement, usually by performing some special service for the state. Many rulers relied on Jewish bankers for loans to raise armies and run their kingdoms. Jewish merchants prospered in international trade because they could rely on contacts with colleagues in Jewish communities scattered across Europe. An Enlightenment movement known as the Haskalah emerged from the European Jewish community, led by the Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Christian and Jewish Enlightenment philosophers began to advocate for freedom and civil rights for Jews. The Haskalah accompanied a period of controversial social change within Jewish communities, in which rabbinic controls loosened and heightened interaction with Christians took place. Arguments for tolerance won some ground. The British Parliament passed a law allowing naturalization of Jews, but later repealed the law due to outrage. The progressive reforms took place under Joseph II. Among his edicts were measures intended to integrate Jews more fully into society, including eligibility for military service, admission to higher education and artisanal trades, and removal of requirements for special clothing or emblems. Welcomed by many Jews, these reforms raised fears among traditionalists of assimilation into the general population. Many monarchs rejected all ideas of emancipation. Although he permitted freedom of religion to his Christian subjects, Frederick the Great of Prussia firmly opposed any general emancipation for the Jews, as he did for the serfs. Catherine the Great, who acquired most of Poland's large Jewish population when she annexed part of that country in the late eighteenth century, similarly refused. In 1791 she established the Pale of Settlement, a territory including parts of modern-day Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus, in which most Jews were required to live. Jewish habitation was restricted to the Pale until the Russian Revolution in 1917. The first European state to remove all restrictions on the Jews was France under the French Revolution. Over the next hundred years, Jews gradually won full legal and civil rights throughout the rest of western Europe. Emancipation in eastern Europe took even longer and aroused more conflict and violence.

Frederick the Great of Prussia - The beginning - Maria Theresa of Austria - Frederick's fight / Seven Years War - After Seven Years War - Frederick's primary tools

Frederick the Great built on the work of his father, Frederick William I. Although he embraced culture and literature rather than the militarism championed by his father, by the time he came to the throne Frederick was determined to use the splendid army he had inherited. When young empress Maria Theresa of Austria inherited the Habsburg dominions upon the death of Charles VI, Frederick pounced. He invaded her province of Silesia, defying a diplomatic agreement that had guaranteed Maria Theresa's succession. Maria Theresa was forced to cede almost all of Silesia to Prussia. In one stroke Prussia had doubled its population to 6 million people. Now Prussia unquestionably stood as a European Great Power. Frederick had to fight against great odds to save Prussia from total destruction after the ongoing competition between Britain and France for empire brought another great conflict in 1756. Maria Theresa, seeking to regain Silesia, formed an alliance with the leaders of France and Russia. The aim of the alliance during the resulting Seven Years' War was to conquer Prussia and divide up its territory. Despite invasions from all sides, Frederick fought on with stoic courage. In the end he was saved: Peter III came to the Russian throne in 1762 and called off the attack against Frederick, whom he greatly admired. The Seven Years' War tempered Frederick's interest in territorial expansion and brought him to consider how more humane policies for his subjects might also strengthen the state. Frederick went beyond a commitment to Enlightenment culture for himself and his circle. He allowed his subjects to believe as they wished in religious and philosophical matters. He promoted the advancement of knowledge, improving his country's schools and permitting scholars to publish their findings. Moreover, Frederick tried to improve the lives of his subjects more directly. The legal system and bureaucracy were Frederick's primary tools. Prussia's laws were simplified, torture was abolished, and judges decided cases quickly and impartially. Prussian officials became famous for their hard work and honesty. After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763, Frederick's government energetically promoted the reconstruction of agriculture and industry. Frederick himself set a good example. Thus Frederick justified monarchy in terms of practical results and said nothing of the divine right of kings. Frederick's dedication to high-minded government went only so far, however. While he condemned serfdom in the abstract, he accepted it in practice and did not free the serfs on his own estates. He accepted and extended the privileges of the nobility, who remained the backbone of the army and the entire Prussian state. In reforming Prussia's bureaucracy, Frederick drew on the principles of cameralism, the German science of public administration that emerged in the decades following the Thirty Years' War. Influential throughout the German lands, cameralism held that monarchy was the best of all forms of government, that all elements of society should be placed at the service of the state, and that, in turn, the state should make use of its resources and authority to improve society. Predating the Enlightenment, cameralist interest in the public good was usually inspired by the needs of war. Cameralism shared with the Enlightenment an emphasis on rationality, progress, and utilitarianism.

Race and the Enlightenment - A turning point - Kant & Race - What happened previously with race - History of the Two Indies - On Scholars

Historians found in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment a crucial turning point in ideas about race. A catalyst for new ideas about race was the urge to classify nature unleashed by Scientific Revolution's insistence on careful empirical observation. In The System of Nature, Swedish botanist Carl von Linné argued nature was organized into a God-given hierarchy. As scientists developed taxonomies of plant and animal species, they began to classify humans into hierarchically ordered "races" and to investigate the origins of race. The comte de Buffon argued that humans originated with one species that then developed into distinct races due largely to climatic conditions. Kant elaborated his views about race in On the Different Races of Man, claiming that there were four human races, each of which had derived from an original race. According to Kant, the closest descendants of the original race were the white inhabitants of northern Germany. Using the word race to designate biologically distinct groups of humans was new. Previously, Europeans grouped peoples into "nations" based on their historical, political, and cultural affiliations. When European thinkers drew up a hierarchical classification of human species, their own "race" was placed at the top. Europeans believed they were culturally superior to "barbaric" peoples in Africa and the New World. Emerging ideas about racial difference taught them they were biologically superior as well. Scientific racism helped legitimate and justify the tremendous growth of slavery that occurred during the eighteenth century. If one "race" of humans was fundamentally different and inferior, its members could be seen as particularly fit for enslavement and liable to benefit from tutelage by the superior race. Racist ideas did not go unchallenged. The abbé Raynal's History of the Two Indies attacked slavery and abuses of European colonization. Denis Diderot adopted Montesquieu's technique of criticizing European attitudes through the voice of outsiders in his dialogue between Tahitian villagers and their European visitors. James Beattie responded directly to claims of white superiority by pointing out Europeans had started out as savage as nonwhites supposedly were and that many non-European peoples in the Americas, Asia, and Africa had achieved high levels of civilization. Former slaves, like Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoana, published eloquent memoirs testifying to the horrors of slavery and the innate equality of all humans. These challenges to racism, however, were in the minority. Many other Enlightenment voices supporting racial inequality may be found. Scholars are only at the beginning of efforts to understand the links between Enlightenment thinkers' ideas about race and their notions of equality, progress, and reason. There are clear parallels, though, between the use of science to propagate racial hierarchies and its use to defend social inequalities between men and women. French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau used women's "natural" passivity to argue for their subordinate role in society, just as other thinkers used non-Europeans' "natural" inferiority to defend slavery and colonial domination. The new powers of science and reason were thus marshaled to imbue traditional stereotypes with the force of natural law.

The Influence of the Philosophies - Different answers on stuff / philosophies - baron de Montesquieu - Montesquieu in politics - What Montesquieu focused on - François Marie Arouet (Voltaire) - Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil - Voltaire's works - Voltaire the reformer - Voltaire + religion - Strength in philosophies / Encyclopedia - More Encyclopedia! Dios mio!

The spread of the spirit of inquiry owed a great deal to the work of the philosophes, intellectuals who proclaimed that they were bringing light of reason to their ignorant fellow humans. Philosophe is French for "philosopher," and in the mid-eighteenth century France became a hub of Enlightenment thought. There were three reasons for this. French was the international language of the educated classes. France was the wealthiest and most populous country in Europe. The unpopularity of King Louis XV and his mistresses generated growing discontent and calls for reform among the educated elite. The French philosophes made it their goal to reach a larger audience of elites, many of whom were joined together in a concept inherited from the Renaissance known as the Republic of Letters — an imaginary transnational realm of the well educated. One of the greatest philosophes, the baron de Montesquieu, pioneered this approach in The Persian Letters, a social satire that's considered the first major work of the French Enlightenment. It consisted of amusing letters written by two Persian travelers who saw European customs in unique ways, allowing Montesquieu a vantage point for criticizing existing practices and beliefs. Montesquieu turned to the study of history and politics. His interest was personal, for he was disturbed by the growth in absolutism under Louis XIV. Montesquieu was also inspired by the example of the physical sciences, and set out to apply the critical method to the problem of government in The Spirit of Laws. The result was a complex, comparative study of republics, monarchies, and despotisms. Showing that government was shaped by history and geography, Montesquieu focused on conditions that would promote liberty and prevent tyranny. He argued for a separation of powers, with political power divided and shared by a variety of classes and legal estates. Admiring the English balance of power, Montesquieu believed that in France the thirteen high courts — the parlements — were defenders of liberty against royal despotism. Apprehensive about the uneducated poor, Montesquieu was no democrat, but his theory of separation of powers had a great impact on the constitutions of the young United States in 1789 and of France in 1791. François Marie Arouet was known by the pen name Voltaire. He wrote more than seventy witty volumes, hobnobbed with royalty, and died a millionaire through shrewd speculations. His early career was turbulent, and he was arrested on two occasions for insulting noblemen. Voltaire moved to England for three years in order to avoid a longer prison term in France, and there he came to share Montesquieu's enthusiasm for English liberties and institutions. Returning to France, Voltaire had met Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet, a noblewoman with a passion for science. Inviting Voltaire to live in her country house, Madame du Châtelet studied physics and mathematics and published scientific articles and translations, including the first translation of Newton's Principia into French. Excluded from the Royal Academy of Sciences because she was a woman, Madame du Châtelet had no doubt that women's limited role in science was due to their unequal education. Voltaire wrote works praising England and popularizing English science. He witnessed Newton's burial and lauded him as history's greatest man, for he had used his genius for the benefit of humanity. In the true style of the Enlightenment, Voltaire mixed the glorification of science and reason with an appeal for better individuals and institutions. Voltaire was a reformer, not a revolutionary, in politics. He concluded that the best one could hope for in the way of government was a good monarch, since human beings are very rarely worthy to govern themselves. He praised Louis XIV and conducted an enthusiastic correspondence with King Frederick the Great of Prussia, whom he admired as an enlightened monarch. Nor did Voltaire believe in social and economic equality, insisting that the idea of making servants equal to their masters was "absurd and impossible." Voltaire's philosophical and religious positions were more radical than his social and political beliefs. His writings challenged the Catholic Church and Christian theology at almost every point. Voltaire believed in God, but he was a deist, envisioning God as akin to a clockmaker who set the universe in motion and ceased to intervene in human affairs. Above all, Voltaire and most of the philosophes hated all forms of religious intolerance, which they believed led to fanaticism. Simple piety and human kindness were religion enough. The strength of the philosophes lay in their dedication and organization. The philosophes felt they were engaged in a common undertaking that transcended individuals. Their greatest intellectual achievement was a group effort — the Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Crafts, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. The two men set out to find coauthors who would examine the rapidly expanding whole of human knowledge. Even more fundamentally, they set out to teach people how to think critically and objectively about all matters. The Encyclopedia survived resistance from the French government and the Catholic Church. It contained 72000 articles by scientists, writers, skilled workers, and progressive priests, and it treated every aspect of life and knowledge. Not every article was daring or original, but the overall effect was little short of revolutionary. Science and the industrial arts were exalted, religion and immortality questioned. Intolerance, legal injustice, and out-of-date social institutions were openly criticized. The encyclopedists were convinced that greater knowledge would result in greater human happiness, for knowledge was useful and made possible economic, social, and political progress. Summing up the new worldview of the Enlightenment, the Encyclopedia was widely read, especially in less-expensive reprint editions, and it was extremely influential.

The International Enlightenment - International dimensions - Catholic Enlightenment - Scottish Enlightenment - David Hume - Adam Smith - Enlightenment in British North America - Debate of Enlightenment ideas - Northern Europeans

Thinkers traversed borders in a constant exchange of visits, letters, and printed materials. Voltaire wrote almost 18000 letters to correspondents across Europe. The Republic of Letters was a cosmopolitan set of networks stretching from western Europe to its colonies in the Americas, to Russia and eastern Europe, and along the routes of trade and empire to Africa and Asia. Within this international conversation, scholars have identified regional and national particularities. Many strains of Enlightenment — Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish — sought to reconcile reason with faith. Some scholars point to a distinctive "Catholic Enlightenment" that aimed to renew and reform the church from within, looking to divine grace rather than human will as the source of progress. The Scottish Enlightenment, centered in Edinburgh, was marked by an emphasis on common sense and scientific reasoning. After the Act of Union with England, Scotland was freed from political crisis to experience a period of intellectual growth. Scottish intellectual revival was also stimulated by the creation of the first public educational system in Europe. David Hume's emphasis on civic morality and religious skepticism had a powerful impact at home and abroad. Building on Locke's teachings, Hume argued the human mind is nothing but a bundle of impressions. These impressions originate in sensory experiences and our habits of joining these experiences together. Since our ideas reflect only our sensory experiences, our reason cannot tell us anything about questions that cannot be verified by sensory experience, such as the origin of the universe or the existence of God. Hume's rationalistic inquiry ended up undermining the Enlightenment's faith in the power of reason. Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments argued that thriving commercial life of the eighteenth century produced civic virtue through values of competition, fair play, and individual autonomy. In An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Smith attacked the laws and regulations that, he argued, prevented commerce from reaching its full capacity. The Enlightenment in British North America was influenced by English and Scottish thinkers, especially John Locke, and by Montesquieu's arguments for checks and balances in government. Leaders of the American Enlightenment, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, would play a leading role in the American Revolution. Enlightenment ideas were debated in German-speaking states. Immanuel Kant, was the greatest German philosopher of his day. Kant posed the question of the age when he published a pamphlet in 1784 entitled What Is Enlightenment? He answered, "Sapere Aude [dare to know]! 'Have the courage to use your own understanding' is therefore the motto of enlightenment." He argued that if intellectuals were granted freedom to exercise their reason publicly, enlightenment would almost surely follow. Kant was no revolutionary; he also insisted that individuals must obey all laws, no matter how unreasonable, and should be punished for "impertinent" criticism. Like other Enlightenment figures in central and east-central Europe, Kant thus tried to reconcile absolute monarchical authority and religious faith with a critical public sphere. Northern Europeans regarded Italian states as culturally backward, yet important developments in Enlightenment thought took place in the Italian peninsula. After achieving independence from Habsburg rule, Naples entered a period of intellectual expansion as reformers struggled to lift the weight of church and noble power. In northern Italy a central figure was Cesare Beccaria. His On Crimes and Punishments was a passionate plea for reform of the penal system that decried the use of torture, arbitrary imprisonment, and capital punishment, and advocated the prevention of crime over the reliance on punishment. The text was quickly translated into French and English and made an impact throughout Europe.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - His origin story - His commitment to individual freedom - Gender roles - The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau made his way into the Parisian Enlightenment through his intellect. He contributed articles on music to the Encyclopedia and became friends with its editors. Rousseau came to believe that the philosophes were plotting against him. In the mid-1750s he broke with them, living as a lonely outsider with his uneducated common-law wife and going in his own highly original direction. Rousseau was passionately committed to individual freedom. However, he attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying, rather than liberating, the individual. Warm, spontaneous feeling had to complement and correct cold intellect. Moreover, the goodness of the individual and the unspoiled child had to be protected from the cruel refinements of civilization. Rousseau's ideals greatly influenced the early romantic movement, which rebelled against the culture of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century. Rousseau also called for a rigid division of gender roles. According to Rousseau, women and men were radically different beings. Destined by nature to assume a passive role in sexual relations, women should also be subordinate in social life. Women's love for displaying themselves in public was unnatural and had a corrupting effect on both politics and society. Rousseau rejected the sophisticated way of life of Parisian elite women. His criticism led to calls for privileged women to renounce their frivolous ways and stay at home to care for their children. Rousseau's contribution to political theory in The Social Contract was based on two fundamental concepts: the general will and popular sovereignty. The general will is sacred and absolute, reflecting common interests of all the people, who displaced the monarch as the holder of sovereign power. The general will is not the will of the majority, however. The general will may be the long-term needs of the people as correctly interpreted by a farsighted minority. Little noticed in its day, Rousseau's concept of the general will had a great impact on the political aspirations of the American and French Revolutions. Rousseau was both one of the most influential voices of the Enlightenment and, in his rejection of rationalism and social discourse, a harbinger of reaction against Enlightenment ideas.

The Austrian Hapsburgs - Maria Theresa - Maria Theresa's reforms - Joseph II - What Joseph and others did

Maria Theresa of Austria set out to reform her nation, although traditional power politics was a more important motivation for her than were Enlightenment teachings. A devoutly Catholic mother and wife who inherited power from her father, Charles VI, Maria Theresa was a remarkable but old-fashioned absolutist. Her more radical son, Joseph II, drew on Enlightenment ideals, earning the title of "revolutionary emperor." Emerging from the War of the Austrian Succession with the serious loss of Silesia, Maria was determined to introduce reforms that would make the state stronger. First, she initiated church reform, with measures aimed at limiting the papacy's influence, eliminating many religious holidays, and reducing the number of monasteries. A whole series of administrative renovations strengthened the central bureaucracy, smoothed out provincial differences, and revamped the tax system. The government sought to improve the lot of the agricultural population, cautiously reducing the power of lords over their hereditary serfs and their partially free peasant tenants. Joseph II moved forward when he came to the throne. Joseph abolished serfdom and decreed that peasants could pay landlords in cash rather than through labor on their land. This measure was violently rejected not only by the nobility but also by the peasants it was intended to help, because they lacked the necessary cash. When a disillusioned Joseph died prematurely at forty-nine, the entire Habsburg empire was in turmoil. His brother Leopold II canceled Joseph's radical edicts in order to re-establish order. Peasants once again were required to do forced labor for their lords. Despite differences in their policies, Joseph II and other absolutists of the later eighteenth century combined old-fashioned state-building with the culture and critical thinking of the Enlightenment. In doing so, they succeeded in expanding the role of the state in the life of society. They perfected bureaucratic machines that were to prove surprisingly adaptive and enduring. Their failure to implement policies we would recognize as humane and enlightened — such as abolishing serfdom — may reveal inherent limitations in Enlightenment thinking about equality and social justice, rather than deficiencies in their execution of Enlightenment programs. The fact that leading philosophes supported rather than criticized eastern rulers' policies exposes the blind spots of the era.

The Emergence of the Enlightenment - The beginnings - Europe's contacts - Scientific revolution - Pierre Bayle - What Huguenots did - Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz - Essay Concerning Human Understanding

The European Enlightenment was a broad intellectual and cultural movement that gained strength gradually. It was the generation between the publication of Newton's Principia and the death of Louis XIV that tied the knot between the Scientific Revolution and a new outlook on life. Enlightenment thinkers believed their era had gone far beyond antiquity and that intellectual progress was very possible. Talented writers of that generation popularized hard-to-understand scientific achievements and set an agenda of human problems to be addressed through the methods of science. The Enlightenment was also fueled by Europe's increased contacts with the wider world. The rapidly growing travel literature taught Europeans that peoples of China, India, Africa, and Americas all had different beliefs and customs. Europeans shaved their faces and let their hair grow. Turks shaved their heads and let their beards grow. Countless similar examples discussed in travel accounts helped change the perspective of educated Europeans. They began to look at truth and morality in relative, rather than absolute, terms. If anything was possible, who could say what was right or wrong? The Scientific Revolution generated doubt and uncertainty, contributing to a crisis in late-seventeenth-century European thought. Some people asked whether ideological conformity in religious matters was really necessary. Others asked if religious truth could ever be known with certainty and concluded that it could not. The atmosphere of doubt spread from religious to political issues. This was a natural extension, since many rulers viewed religious dissent as a form of political opposition and took harsh measures to stifle unorthodox forms of worship. Thus, questioning religion inevitably led to confrontations with the state. These concerns combined spectacularly in the career of Pierre Bayle, a Huguenot who took refuge from government persecution in the Dutch Republic. Bayle examined the religious beliefs and persecutions of the past in his Historical and Critical Dictionary. Bayle concluded that nothing can ever be known beyond all doubt, a view known as skepticism. His Dictionary was found in more private libraries of eighteenth-century France than any other book. Many Huguenots fled France for the Dutch Republic, a center of early Enlightenment thought for people of many faiths. Baruch Spinoza borrowed Descartes's emphasis on rationalism and his methods of deductive reasoning, but rejected mind-body dualism. Spinoza came to believe that mind and body are united in one substance and that God and nature were two names for the same thing. Spinoza was excommunicated by the relatively large Jewish community of Amsterdam for his controversial religious ideas, but he was heralded by his Enlightenment successors as a model of personal virtue and courageous intellectual autonomy. German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz adopted the idea of an infinite number of substances or monads from which all matter is composed. His Theodicy declared that ours must be the best of all possible worlds because it was created by God. Leibniz's optimism was ridiculed by the French philosopher Voltaire. Out of this period of intellectual turmoil came John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke set forth a new theory about how human beings learn. Locke insisted all ideas are derived from experience. The human mind at birth is like a blank tablet on which the environment writes the individual's understanding and beliefs. Human development is determined by education and social institutions. Locke's essay contributed to the theory of sensationalism, the idea that all human ideas and thoughts are produced as a result of sensory impressions. With his emphasis on the role of perception in the acquisition of knowledge, Locke provided a systematic justification of Bacon's emphasis on the importance of observation and experimentation. The Essay Concerning Human Understanding passed through many editions and translations and, along with Newton's Principia, was one of the dominant intellectual inspirations of the Enlightenment. Locke's equally important contribution to political theory, Two Treatises of Civil Government, insisted on the sovereignty of the elected Parliament against the authority of the Crown.