Enlightenment Of 18th Century
The
enlightenment was a great time of
change in both Europe and America. Some of the
biggest changes, however,
happened in the minds of many and in the writings of
many philosophers. These
included some of the beliefs of David Hume, Jean
Jacques Rousseau,
Immanuel Kant, and Francois Voltaire. Writers during this time
focused on
optimism, which is the opinion to do everything for the best
(Chaney
119), and the best for these philosophers was to stretch the
minds of the
ordinary. David Hume was Scottish and was born on April 26, 1711
and died in
1776. He states that he was not born into a rich family and
was born into the
Calvinist Presbyterian Church. However, after being
influenced by the works of
Isaac Newton and John Locke he began to draw
back from the Church. He writes in
Enquiry, "The idea of God, as meaning
an infinitely intelligent, wise and
good Being, arises from reflecting on the
operations of our own mind, and
augmenting, without limit, those qualities of
goodness and wisdom." (Pomerleau
214) The questions he brought up against
religion were that concrete experiences
must lead us and that we must think
about the quality of the stories that were
handed down to us. He wanted
everyone to only believe the actions that one
experienced, there has to be
proof. He also believed that there were four basic
problems to the stories
that we hear. First of all, the facts to the stories are
never the same to
everyone. Second, we stretch the truth to make everything
interesting. Third,
people who do not understand these stories tend to make
things up. Finally,
not all of the religions agree. Therefore, the stories
conflicted each other
leaving a person to not know what to believe. He believes
that "Our most holy
religion is founded on Faith, not on reason; and it is
a sure method of
exposing it to put it to such a trial as it is, by no means,
fitted to
endure." (215) Hume also believed in the social contract. This is
that kings
are in power because of luck and citizens should have control over
their own
power. During Hume's lifetime a representative government was not
something
that countries thrived on. He also thought that the duties of men were
to
love children and to pity those that are less fortunate. He also thought
that
one should respect other's properties and keep our promises. Hume argued
that we
are born into our family with the knowledge passed on to us, from
this point
Hume says that government is only an interference in the lives
of people. He
uses the example of American Tribes where no one needs a
government to keep
peace within the group (Pomerleau 222). These are the two
main points that Hume
tried to make. They are the basis of what got people to
think about their lives
and decide that what they have now might not be the
best thing that their life
can accomplish. From his points of view, we can
move on to another influential
philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau. Jean
Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in
1712. His first years in his life
were very hard because his mother died shortly
after birth and he was sent to
live with his aunt. However, his life turned
around and he married and began
his life as a philosopher. Rousseau was involved
with the social contract
like Hume. His book, however, did not become popular
until after the French
Revolution because these were the conditions that the
revolution was based on
(Chambers 669). His ideal government would contain a
small state, prevention
of overpowering businesses, and equality in rank and
fortune (Castell 419).
He distrusted the aristocrats because he believed they
were drawing away from
traditions that were once held very high ("The
Enlightenment," http). To
him kings are just concerned with themselves and
when one dies, another one
is needed. None of these people ever take in to
consideration the less
fortunate. Everyone has to move to the beliefs of one
man. Rousseau felt that
the government should be in the hands of many, not just
one. Ideally,
everyone in a society needs to be in agreement with one another.
Another
belief that Rousseau represented was deism, which is that god created
the
universe and then allowed it to run according to natural law and
not
interfering with it anymore. Again, these questions began to be disputed
and the
people began to realize that their lives could mean more than just
what the
higher officials might say. They began to think about what life and
the world is
really about. This brings us to the next philosopher, Immanuel
Kant. Immanuel
Kant was born on April 22, 1724. Kant studied both Hume
and Rousseau and
rethought his aspects of science and shifted a little
towards philosophy. In
addition to his thinking, he also spent a lot of time
lecturing at Konigsberg,
Martin Knutzen. His two main scientific
questions dealt with how far can the
scientific method be applied to
everything and how to explain scientific
knowledge. He realizes that both of
these cause the mind to start with some
given information and an answer is
then given for humans to understand (Stumpf
302). Kant was firm in his
belief on a priori knowledge, which is the knowledge
that is prior to
experiences, but he also states that not everything can be
based on
experiences since we cannot experience everything. From these beliefs,
he
also believed in two realities, phenomenal and noumena. Phenomena,
derived
from a Greek word meaning "that which appears," (Castell 599) is
the
world as we experience it and noumena is intelligible or nonsensual
reality. In
the world we only experience phenomena because noumena is present
but it is
external from us and only appears as it is organized by us (Stumpf
312). From a
social standpoint, Kant believed that as long as a man could
support himself and
owned property he should be qualified as a citizen. He
states that if everyone
is required to pay for public welfare then everyone
should have his or her
freedom guaranteed. If this if present then there is
no need for a rebellion,
which will lead to a stronger government. Kant feels
that this is hard to obtain
because people need a political balance but at
the same time they need to be
able to keep their freedom. A type of freedom
that he feels should be held by
all is the freedom that everyone is punished
the same and the death penalty
should only be carried out only when an
individual is proven guilty (Stumpf
316). Kant believed in God because he
felt that if one would deny all existence
that did not support any logic,
then nothing at all would exist to anyone. He
also states that "it is morally
necessary to assume the existence of
God." (Stumpf 319) From this he also
realizes that one does not necessarily
need to believe in God, but one needs
to respect the beliefs "for duty's
sake." When thinking about God, according
to Kant, it is an experience that
we can not experience. Kant takes us to the
last of the four major philosophers
on the enlightenment period, Francois
Voltaire. He based a lot of his thoughts
on the three previous philosophers
but did not speak to them directly. His
writings are fewer but more radical
that the others. Francois Voltaire lived
from 1694-1778. To most he was known
as the most vigorous antireligious debater.
He was the philosopher that
was favoring deism the most. He wished that everyone
would stop Christianity
and follow his beliefs. One reason that he felt this was
because from his
experiences, bad things came from religion (Chambers 660).
Voltaire,
unlike Rousseau, favored the aristocracy and was often invited to
their
parties to talk about some of his ideas. From this Voltaire, unlike many
of
the philosophers of his day, was often left to think about things on his
own
("The Enlightenment," http) and another reason for this is because
for
twenty eight years he was held in succession from Paris for some of his
extreme
writings. One of the most disturbing things in Voltaire's life was
from the
earthquake in Lisbon on Nobember1, 1755. This was one thing that
Voltaire could
not understand and thought about forever. He did not want to
turn to God as
everyone else did, nor did he want to be on the side of the
atheist. He was
stuck in the middle and only left with the thought of the
innocent people that
were killed (Gay 52). For most of the philosophers
during the time of the
Enlightenment, things were bad. Most of them had
to publish their books in
secrecy and still had to deal with them getting
burned as officials found out.
This would be a very big disappointment,
but they later prove that some of their
beliefs are right when people begin
to rebel because of the dramatic messages
that they sent to people. Whether
philosophy, religion, or politics were the
basis of one's reading they were
generally flipped around. It is said that
educated people have the power to
do anything, and during the Enlightenment this
source of power is obvious and
is carried out. Whether the readers believed the
philosophers or not, it got
the reader thinking and he talked to his friends and
the revolts began. The
Enlightenment was a time of change but it was also a time
that dealt with the
"unreality" that some thought could be but never
were because some were so
extreme or contradicted each other from philosopher to
philosopher.