4. the Ideals of the Enlightenment

Contemporary Civilization (Ideas and Institutions Section X: The iE ghteenth Century Enlightenment of Western Man) 1958 4. The deI als of the Enlightenment Robert L. Bloom Gettysburg College Basil L. Crapster Gettysburg College Harold L. Dunkelberger Gettysburg College See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/contemporary_sec10 Part of the Intellectual History Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Bloom, Robert L. et al. "4. The deI als of the Enlightenment. Pt. X: The iE ghteenth Century Enlightenment." Ideas and Institutions of Western Man (Gettysburg College, 1958), 67-87. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec10/4 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 4. The deI als of the Enlightenment Abstract Among the ideals of the Enlightenment were nature, science, humanitarianism, cosmopolitanism, toleration, and progress. The ideals of any age are those ideas and principles to which men give their allegiance, and consequently ideals are a key to understanding what an age is like in terms of its hopes and aspirations, and to some extent its practices. [excerpt] Keywords Contemporary Civilization, Enlightenment, Nature, Science, Humanitarianism, Cosmopolitanism, Toleration, Progress Disciplines History | Intellectual History Comments This is a part of Section X: The iE ghteenth Century Enlightenment. The Contemporary Civilization page lists all additional sections of Ideas and Institutions of Western Man, as well as the Table of Contents for both volumes. More About Contemporary Civilization: From 1947 through 1969, all first-year Gettysburg College students took a two-semester course called Contemporary Civilization. The ourc se was developed at President Henry W.A. Hanson’s request with the goal of “introducing the student to the backgrounds of contemporary social problems through the major concepts, ideals, hopes and motivations of western culture since the Middle Ages.” Gettysburg College professors from the history, philosophy, and religion departments developed a textbook for the course. The first edition, published in 1955, was called An Introduction to Contemporary Civilization and Its Problems. A second edition, retitled Ideas and Institutions of Western Man, was published in 1958 and 1960. It is this second edition that we include here. The opc y we digitized is from the Gary T. Hawbaker ’66 Collection and the marginalia are his. Authors Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, and W. Richard Schubart This book chapter is available at The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec10/4 4 . The Ideals of the Enlightenment Among the ideals o f the Enlightenment were nature, science, humanitar ianism , cosmopolitanism , toleration , and pr ogress . The ideals of any a ge a r e t hos e ideas and p r inciples to which men give their alle g iance ~ and cons e quently ideals are a key to ) * Repr inted f r om The Wo r ks of .. , Joseph Bu tler ... (New York : Rober t Carte r ~ 1842} , pp . 2b=34 , 36 . X p . 68 unders t anding what a n age i.s like in terms of its h opes and aspirations 9 and to s ome extent its practices. The p r eced ing material has o f fered many reasons why natu re and science were e l e vated t o t he posit ion o f ideals, so that her e we shall me r ely emphasize some of t hose r easons . Nature and science were inextricably linked i n t he eighteenth centur v eca had one c entral meanin at that t 1me : or e r . Scien ce itself wa.s an orderly inquiry . I was not ed ~isc ove ri n g t he h armony o f the ~N e~to nian w o rld-mac hin~ . As we have seen 3 p a,;tm;::e s symbolized by tlia t mac hine, fleant or d ¥£,... an order that e xtended from t he physical laws o f the u n iverse to a moral law . The eighteenth century revered natur e a nd science because i t was keenly aware of t he chaos t h at existed in human i deas and i nstitu tions ; and becau s e it was so desper ately a nx ious t o achie ve r easonable , use ful, and or derly ideas and institutions . fi cie n ce was _ not only a me;tlJ.od g f... ingni E¥.w:c hu t also ~ weapohl. a pot ~ t ~ ~ ~; ~~d s ~: ~* ~~~ ~; ;:Qt ~ ·~ ~ ~ ~-~ u~~ - E ~ ~ t ~§~lf:~ t =1$Jl1~~ p o r;;; ~:;~ ~gr a~~~~ n t was ~t hat t hese evils cou l d be de e ated with the help o f science . Her e again, n ature was allied with scienc e . The scientific investigato r found what seemed rational a nd natural t o him in e very a r ea o f l ife from economics t o metaphysics , and the r atio n a l and the natur al we r e always what seeme d desirable ( t o t he eighteent h centu· y thinker . ~ allied with nature, ~as t he means t o tbe o rd e ~l~ life , t he good life, heaven on earth . To the En lightenment humanitarianism was a shining new ~ ~ ~eal . wi ~ UQ 1J. t limi t s . It was ._an e~phas i s on t he egy al ~o,Ij: h 7~ ~ and d1gn1 ty o :f e~wrK humap bSl! nEi w,a. thout r e~,ar d to sta t1an, race, o r c iviliza t i o n . This e mp fi asis was based on t he belief ?hat a ll men have equal rights to happines s a n d liber ty . The good soc i ety , t hen, i s one in which eac h individual cou nts for one and in which h a ppiness is to be measured by the standar d of each individual . Huma ni tar ianism also included an emotional feeli ng f or hum anily summed u p in words l ike b enevolen ce, sym- pathy ~ kindness , and fellow-f ee+ing . The combination of p r inciples a nd emo tio n resulted i n the battle c r y of humanite under which the eighteent h cen t ury hoped t o carry t he bless ings of science t o all mankind . ~~~ A~~~ • S-osmapglitan j sw ~ owed logically from the belief in ~~ s c ience and the order of nature as interpre t ed by the En light ~~~ enment . Sinc e science d i scover ed facts and l aws whic h were the same the wor ld o ver, and s1nce the or der o f na tu:r e was u ni ve r - sal , i t a = ear5:3 d .. t at . __ as esse . · - .-one 'Woc iet v , o ne wo rl,d . · It appear ed t hat=;=-rn-· act, the cosmos was o ne cit y . Mo r e concret ely, since t he Enlight e nment b eli eved that human nature was t he same t he world ov e r , it c onsidered societies a nd c ou n tries as a rtificial gr ou p s, parts of one humani t y whose p eculiarities were u nnatural . Th e man of the X p . 69 Enlightenment was a citizen of the world, a b r other to all those who served the ideals of science, nature , and humanity . Montesquieu (1689-1755), one of the philosophes, expressed this idea when he wrote : If I knew of something that was useful to myself, but injuriou s to my family, I would cast it from my mind . If I knew of something which was usefu l to my family but injurious to my country, I would try to forget it . If I knew of something that was useful to my country, but injuriou s to Eur ope and the human race, I should regard it as a cri.me . Thus the ideal of cosmopolitanism was closely linked to that of humanitarianism . The belief in one WEH? ld. 50C j ety forced a CQJJ. ke for the ~~ l §n, particularly for the races and societies that s u ffer ed from the policies of colonialism and slaver y . Cosmop olitanism also impli~d pacifism. How can citi zens of the one world fight with one another ? Suggestions were made for a wor ld government that would insur e international peace and cooperation . The final formulation of the principle of toleration as an i deal was due to the more fundamental belief in the right 2f free in uir , in science as the road to truth . Toleration was simply the necessary condition f he ursuit o f tru It ( was ecau se e n 1ghtenment believed so sincerely that science wou ld shortly demonstrate the truth in every s bject matter, and that men would embrace the truth once they knew it, that the philosophes demanded toleration for differ ences of opinion in the meantime . But this was not a conception of toleration of promot1n d1versit of ideas and ract1ces.

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