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The Enlightenment A. Voltaire

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The Enlightenment A. Voltaire MWH Unit 3: Revolutions Primary Sources: The Enlightenment A. Voltaire “Philosophical Dictionary: The English Model” 1764 The English constitution has, in fact, arrived at that point of excellence, in consequence of which all men are restored to those natural rights, which, in nearly all monarchies, they are deprived of. Those rights are, entire liberty of person and property; freedom of the press; the right of being tried in all criminal cases by a jury of independent men—the right of being tried only according to the strict letter of the law; and the right of every man to profess, unmolested, what religion he chooses, while he renounces offices, which the members of the Anglican or established church can hold. These are denominated privileges. And, in truth, invaluable privileges they are in comparison with the usages of most other nations of the world! What social, cultural or political issue is the author explicitly or implicitly addressing in the passage? What solution does he or she present? Has the solution brought the intended results by 2015? B. Immanuel Kant “ What is Enlightenment?” 1784 Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the Enlightenment. What social, cultural or political issue is the author explicitly or implicitly addressing in the passage? What solution does he or she present? Has the solution brought the intended results by 2015? C. John LocKe, “Second Treatise of Civil Government” 1690 The great end of men’s entering into society being the enjoyment of their properties in peace and safety, and the great instrument and means of that being the laws established in that society, the first and fundamental positive law of all commonwealths is the establishing of the legislative power . Itself is the preservation of the society and (as far as will consist with the public good) of every person in it. The legislative is not only the supreme power of the commonwealth, but sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community have once placed it. [the government] is to govern by promulgated established laws, not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one rule for rich and poor, for the favourite at Court, and the countryman at plough. these laws also ought not to be designed for no other end ultimately but the good of the people. What social, cultural or political issue is the author explicitly or implicitly addressing in the passage? What solution does he or she present? Has the solution brought the intended results by 2015? D. Marquis de Condorcet predicts the march of progress 1750 . what [my book] will prove, is that man by using reason and facts will attain perfection. Nature has set no limits to the perfection of the human faculties. The perfectibility of mankind is truly indefinite; and the progress of this perfectibility, henceforth to be free of all hindrances, will last as long as the globe on which nature has placed us . The sole foundations for belief in the natural sciences is the principle that universal laws, known or unknown, which regulate the universe are necessary and constant. Why then should this principle be less true for the development of the intellectual and moral faculties of man than it is for the other operations of nature? What social, cultural or political issue is the author explicitly or implicitly addressing in the passage? What solution does he or she present? Has the solution brought the intended results by 2015? E. Mary Wollstonecraft “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” 1792 Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate unless she knows why she ought to be virtuous? unless freedom strengthens her reason til she comprehends her duty, and sees in what manner it is connected with her real good. If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and situation of woman at present shuts her out from such investigations. What social, cultural or political issue is the author explicitly or implicitly addressing in the passage? What solution does he or she present? Has the solution brought the intended results by 2015? F. Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations 1776 . As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of a society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it . he intends only to his own gain, as he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention . By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. The natural advantages which one country has over another in producing particular commodities are sometimes so great, that it is acknowledged by all the world to be in vain to struggle with them. By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hotwalls, very good grapes can be grown in Scotland, and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at east equally good wine can be brought from foreign countries. [it would be an absurdity to promote this industry] . As long as the one country has those advantages, and the other wants them, it will always be more advantageous for the latter, rather to buy of the former than to make. What economic issues is the author addressing in this passage? .
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