world class education . europe: the enlightenment elizabeth hyde
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World Class Educationwww.kean.edu
Europe: The Enlightenment
Elizabeth Hyde
18th-century intellectual movement.
Based upon the belief that REASON could be used to improve society.
Practiced by “philosophes,” (French for philosopher).
Immanuel Kant wrote in 1784:
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. . . . Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) ‘Have the courage to use your own understanding,’ is therefore the motto of the Enlightenment.”
Facilitated by many forms of PRINT Newspapers, pamphlets, underground book
trade
Ideas discussed in Meeting places, coffee houses, taverns
Salons
Freemasonry—lodges and clubs
Voltaire anti Catholic Church Anti absolutism
Diderot Anti church (a Deist), anti absolutism Believed in power of knowledge
Published Encyclopédie
Titlepage to Diderot’s Encyclopedia.
Enlightenment on politics Influence of Locke and Hobbes
Montesquieu Separation of powers
Rousseau Social contract
Education Economy: laissez-faire approach (Adam
Smith) Crime, punishment, and torture Enlightened Absolutism
Frederick the Great of Prussia Joseph II of Austria Catherine the Great of Russia
Enlightened Absolutism did not result in large-scale changes for ordinary Europeans.
But the Enlightenment did produce: Rationale for, theory of, and vocabulary used
to: Critique monarchical governments Justify revolutionary acts Create new democratic forms of government