DOCSLIB.ORG

The Age of Enlightenment: the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers by Isaiah Berlin (Already Published) the Age of Ideology: the Nineteenth-Century Philosophers by Henry D

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Age of Enlightenment: the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers by Isaiah Berlin (Already Published) the Age of Ideology: the Nineteenth-Century Philosophers by Henry D THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Francisco Goya’s 1799 etching ‘The Sleep of Reason’ Note on the online edition Isaiah Berlin’s anthology of the writings of selected eighteenth-century philosophers was first published in 1956, and is now out of print. This second edition was specially prepared by Henry Hardy for the Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library. It was first posted on 14 August 2017 and most recently revised on 4 March 2021. Page numbers in [ ] mark the beginning of the relevant page in the original publication, and are provided so that citations from the original and from the online PDF can use the same page numbering. See also p. xliv below. THE AGE OF ENLIGHT ENMENT ‘The intellectual power, honesty, lucidity, courage and disinterested love of the truth of the most gifted thinkers of the eighteenth century remain to this day without parallel. Their age is one of the best and most hopeful episodes in the life of mankind.’ These are the closing words of Isaiah Berlin’s introduction to his selection, with running commentary, from the major works of Locke, Berkeley, Hume and other leading eighteenth- century philosophers. These thinkers lived in a period when it seemed that philosophy might almost be converted into a natural science. Human omniscience was still thought to be an attainable goal: a science of nature had been created, and a parallel human science was believed to be possible. Even if misconceived, this was not an ignoble programme. To quote from the introduction once more: ‘A very great deal of good, undoubtedly, was done […] by the conscientious attempt to apply scientific methods to the regulation of human affairs. […] But the central dream, the demonstration that everything in the world moved by mechanical means, that all evils could be cured by appropriate technological steps, […] proved delusive.’ Both the dream and its effects, beneficent and otherwise, have their evident modern descendants. Isaiah Berlin, first President of Wolfson College, Oxford, from 1966 to 1975, was President of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978, and a Fellow of All Souls College. He was Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at New College from 1938 to 1950 and Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford from 1957 to 1967. Henry Hardy, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is one of Isaiah Berlin’s Literary Trustees. He has (co-)edited many other books by Berlin – including a four-volume edition of his letters – and by other authors. He is co-editor of The One and the Many: Reading Isaiah Berlin (2007), editor of The Book of Isaiah: Personal Impressions of Isaiah Berlin (2009), and author of In Search of Isaiah Berlin: A Literary Adventure (2018). Also by Isaiah Berlin * KARL MARX THE HEDGEHOG AND THE FOX THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMEN T RUSSIAN THINKERS CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES AGAINST THE CURRENT PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS THE CROOKED TIMBER OF HUMANITY THE SENSE OF REALITY THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND THE ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM THE POWER OF IDEAS THREE CRITICS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT FREEDOM AND I TS BETRAYAL LIBERTY THE SOVIET MIND POLITICAL IDEAS IN THE ROMANTIC AGE * FLOURISHING : LETTERS 1928–1946 ENLIGHTENING: LETTERS 1946–1960 BUILDING: LETTERS 1960–1975 AFFIRMING : LETTERS 1975–1997 With Beata Polanowska-Sygulska UNFINISHED DIALOGUE For more information on Isaiah Berlin visit https://isaiah-berlin.wolfson.ox.ac.uk http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk The Age of Enlightenment The Eighteenth-Century Philosophers Selected with introduction and commentary by ISAIAH BERLIN with the assistance of Marcus Dick Second edition Edited by Henry Hardy OXFORD THE ISAIAH BERLIN LITERARY TRUST 2017 Introduction, commentary and selection of texts © Isaiah Berlin 1956 Editorial matter and textual revision in second edition © Henry Hardy 2017 First edition published in paperback by The New American Library of World Literature Inc. 1956 First published in hardback by Houghton Mifflin Co. 1956 Reprinted by Oxford University Press 1979 simultaneously in paperback and hardback Second edition first published (online only) by The Trustees of theIsaiah Berlin Literary Trust 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust. Contents Editorial preface vi Author’s note xlii Acknowledgements xliii Textual note xliv THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Introduction 1 John Locke 21 Voltaire 105 George Berkeley 108 David Hume 153 Thomas Reid 247 Condillac 252 La Mettrie 255 Johann Georg Hamann 257 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 263 Index of names 265 Publisher’s advertisements for the series 268 Editorial Preface This anthology was first published in 1956 as the fourth volume in a six-volume series – called ‘The Great Ages of Western Philosophy’ in hardback and ‘The Mentor Philosophers’ in paperback – and went out of print in 2003. It was well received on first appearance, and sold extraordinarily well, as related below. Here are extracts from two reviews: Mr Berlin’s introduction to these readings and his commentaries upon them are remarkable for their expository clarity and the suggestive insights and acute observations they contain. Mr Berlin offers us concise and penetrating reflections on the fundamental ideas, some of the problems that generated them, and some of the difficulties engendered by them in Locke, Berkeley and Hume. Not much is missed here. H. S. Thayer, Journal of Philosophy Mr Berlin, by the selections he has made and even more by his introduction and running commentary, confers upon his reader a comfortable sense of grasping the great issues that beset the philosophers of the day. He is not content merely to choose and summarise, though he does the one with fine judgement and the other with great lucidity; he also criticises and compares. The result is excellent. Arthur M. Wilson, William and Mary Quarterly Berlin’s whole philosophical enterprise can be described as an examination of the contest between the Enlightenment and its critics. We have many of his essays on the critics (whom he found more engaging as subjects of study than their opponents), but vi EDITORIAL PREFACE nothing else of substance addressed directly to the movement they were attacking. This makes the book Berlin’s fullest statement of the position under fire from the Counter-Enlightenment figures he is famous for bringing to life, and, accordingly, a not insignificant ingredient in his oeuvre. It contains much that is not to be found in his essays, as well as interesting intimations of his later work, especially in the chapter on Hamann. In particular, in its close analysis of specific passages from the philosophers whose work it anthologises, it is quite unlike the rest of Berlin’s published writing, and gives us a window into the period from 1932 to 1950 (interrupted by the war) when Berlin was teaching philosophy to undergraduates, mainly at New College, Oxford. It is a strange book in some ways, especially because it gives pride of place to the three British empiricists Hume, Berkeley and Locke (in diminishing order of the space Berlin allocates them) at the expense of the philosophers from the Continent who feature more prominently in his essays on the history of ideas. Condorcet, d’Alembert, Diderot, Helvétius, Holbach, Kant, Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Montesquieu and others are notably absent; and Condillac, La Mettrie and Voltaire get very short shrift. Why is this? The exclusion of Kant is explained by Berlin himself,1 and he does appear in the successor volume, The Age of Ideology. The prominence of British thinkers (though Adam Smith is excluded) may in part be explained by their central role in philosophy teaching at Oxford in the mid twentieth century and beyond, and by the fact that Berlin contemplated writing books on both Berkeley and Hume, and indeed received a contract for the former from Penguin Books in 1949 (though this was cancelled in 1951). We have his full lecture notes on both thinkers, and it is reasonable to suppose that some of what he writes about them here would have appeared in the books that were never written. But he 1 pp. xxxviii and 24 below. (Cross-references to pages with arabic numbering are to the pagination of the first edition, inserted in this edition in square brackets. See textual note, p. xl below.) vii EDITORIAL PREFACE must also have believed that his choice of material could be defended on intrinsic grounds, and some inklings of these grounds can be gleaned from remarks within this volume,2 as well as from his correspondence with Victor Weybright3 and his colleagues at the New American Library (NAL), extensive extracts from which appear below. The story of the genesis of the book is in any case not undiverting for its own sake. I have omitted a good deal of mundane discussion of nuts and bolts that would be of more interest to historians of publishing, though it also contains various obiter dicta of wider appeal.4 Weybright was known to Berlin from at the latest 1945, when (on 6 October) Berlin’s colleague in the Ministry of Information in London, the politics don Herbert Nicholas of Exeter College, sends him this news: ‘Victor Weybright has abandoned his fortress of the Survey Graphic to become distributor in the USA for Allen Lane’s Penguins. A blood stock marriage if ever there was one.’5 Weybright’s original approach was made on 6 February 1953: 2 For example, on p. 18, where he writes that the work of the British empiricist philosophers ‘gradually came to dominate European thought’; and on p. 271, where he refers to ‘the triumph of the British empiricist philosophy […]; in particular that of the systematic materialism which the French philosophes had derived from it, and by means of which the most eminent among them, and in particular the contributors to the great encyclopedia edited by Diderot and d’Alembert, were successfully undermining the theological, political and moral foundations of the established order’.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Normative Perfectionism and the Kantian Tradition
    volume 19, no. 45 erfectionist ethical theories ground moral demands in the per- october 2019 fection or full realization of one’s essential nature.1 Perfection- P ism has a rich history. Perfectionist ideas can be found in Aristo- tle, the Stoics, Maimonides, Aquinas, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibniz, von Humboldt, J. S. Mill, F. H. Bradley, T. H. Green, Nietzsche, and Marx, among others. Though individual perfectionist figures have received significant attention, their perfectionism has not always enjoyed the Normative Perfectionism same focus. Perfectionism has not been studied thoroughly as a dis- tinctive tradition, and it remains a neglected option in contemporary moral and political philosophy.2 This neglect may reflect doubts about the justification, content, and implications of perfectionist ideals. and the Kantian Tradition Different conceptions of perfectionism result from different con- ceptions of human nature. Some perfectionists and their critics un- derstand human nature as a biological kind. However, that conception of perfectionism gives rise to legitimate foundational doubts about whether there is anything substantive that is essential to human na- ture and whether, if there is, it would be normatively compelling. A different strand in the perfectionist tradition grounds perfectionist ide- als in a normative conception of human nature as involving personal- ity or agency. Normative perfectionism is a distinctive conception within 1. An earlier version of this material was presented at Sheffield University as part of a 2014 conference on Post-Kantian Perfectionism; a 2015 University of Pennsylvania conference on Ancient and Modern Conceptions of Happiness; David O. Brink Ohio and St. Louis Universities; a 2016 UCSD conference, Perfectionism: Ancient and Modern; the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and the 2019 University of California San Diego Pacific Division Meetings of the APA.
    [Show full text]
  • Hedgehog and the Fox” Reconsidered 149
    The “Hedgehog and the Fox” Reconsidered 149 Chapter 9 The “Hedgehog and the Fox” Reconsidered: Unreconciled Religious Diversity in the Dialogue of Civilizations1 Philip L. Wickeri The theme for religions and the dialogue of civilizations, is a most important one for creating peace and harmony in our world and in our own communities. In this paper, I re-introduce the metaphor of “the hedgehog and the fox” as a way of speaking about inter-civilizational dialogue in a world of unreconciled religious diversity. By unreconciled diversity, I mean the inter-religious differ- ences that cannot be overcome or “harmonized” and therefore must be accepted and dealt with. 1 Part In 1953, Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) wrote an essay on Leo Tolstoy’s view of history entitled “The Hedgehog and the Fox.”2 This became one of the most influential essays ever written on Western intellectual history, and it is still in print today. Berlin takes his point of departure from an obscure philosophical fragment that has been attributed to the ancient Greek poet Archilochus: The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. There is no certain interpretation of this sentence. The fragment may mean no more than that the fox, in his cunning, is defeated by the hedgehog’s one sure defense. But Berlin reinterprets the fragment to elaborate a basic intellectual 1 China Social Science Forum (2013: Religious Studies) 中国社会科学论坛 (2013: 宗教学). Religions and the Dialogue of Civilizations [宗教与文明对话 Zongjiao yu wenming duihua], 2nd-5th November 2013. 2 Isaiah Berlin, “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” Russian Thinkers, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Life with Augustine
    Life with Augustine ...a course in his spirit and guidance for daily living By Edmond A. Maher ii Life with Augustine © 2002 Augustinian Press Australia Sydney, Australia. Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the following people: ► the Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, Australia, for support- ing this project, with special mention of Pat Fahey osa, Kevin Burman osa, Pat Codd osa and Peter Jones osa ► Laurence Mooney osa for assistance in editing ► Michael Morahan osa for formatting this 2nd Edition ► John Coles, Peter Gagan, Dr. Frank McGrath fms (Brisbane CEO), Benet Fonck ofm, Peter Keogh sfo for sharing their vast experience in adult education ► John Rotelle osa, for granting us permission to use his English translation of Tarcisius van Bavel’s work Augustine (full bibliography within) and for his scholarly advice Megan Atkins for her formatting suggestions in the 1st Edition, that have carried over into this the 2nd ► those generous people who have completed the 1st Edition and suggested valuable improvements, especially Kath Neehouse and friends at Villanova College, Brisbane Foreword 1 Dear Participant Saint Augustine of Hippo is a figure in our history who has appealed to the curiosity and imagination of many generations. He is well known for being both sinner and saint, for being a bishop yet also a fellow pilgrim on the journey to God. One of the most popular and attractive persons across many centuries, his influence on the church has continued to our current day. He is also renowned for his influ- ence in philosophy and psychology and even (in an indirect way) art, music and architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • 'The Supreme Principle of Morality'? in the Preface to His Best
    The Supreme Principle of Morality Allen W. Wood 1. What is ‘The Supreme Principle of Morality’? In the Preface to his best known work on moral philosophy, Kant states his purpose very clearly and succinctly: “The present groundwork is, however, nothing more than the search for and establishment of the supreme principle of morality, which already constitutes an enterprise whole in its aim and to be separated from every other moral investigation” (Groundwork 4:392). This paper will deal with the outcome of the first part of this task, namely, Kant’s attempt to formulate the supreme principle of morality, which is the intended outcome of the search. It will consider this formulation in light of Kant’s conception of the historical antecedents of his attempt. Our first task, however, must be to say a little about the meaning of the term ‘supreme principle of morality’. For it is not nearly as evident to many as it was to Kant that there is such a thing at all. And it is extremely common for people, whatever position they may take on this issue, to misunderstand what a ‘supreme principle of morality’ is, what it is for, and what role it is supposed to play in moral theorizing and moral reasoning. Kant never directly presents any argument that there must be such a principle, but he does articulate several considerations that would seem to justify supposing that there is. Kant holds that moral questions are to be decided by reason. Reason, according to Kant, always seeks unity under principles, and ultimately, systematic unity under the fewest possible number of principles (Pure Reason A298-302/B355-359, A645- 650/B673-678).
    [Show full text]
  • The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: from the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture
    Journal of International Politics Volume 2, Issue 3, 2020, PP 30-38 ISSN 2642-8245 The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: From the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture Sibuh Gebeyaw Tareke* Department of Political Science and International Studies, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia *Corresponding Author: Sibuh Gebeyaw Tareke, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. ABSTRACT Neoliberalism arose from classical liberalism, which was believed in individual liberty, equal opportunity, and private property should administer by individual ‘law of nature’ while the ‘law of state’ regarded as a ‘necessary evil’. When neoliberalism had emerged in 1970s, it replaced the theories of Keynesianism, which targeted state regulation on the economic policy; towards a more ‘monetarist’ individual self-regulating and ‘market law’ approach. This “Individual against all” approach of neoliberalism led the mass to live like slaves in slavery age and peasants in feudalism. Then economic crises aggravated and the ‘law of identity’ emerged or neoliberalism shifted towards all against all approaches of neo-populism. This paper explores the neoliberal law of the individual over the mass and its practical failure; next it discusses all against all laws of neo-populism and its threats. In the end, it provides the missing laws of both the ‘neo-neo’ approaches as a solution anda concluding remark. Keywords: Neo-liberalism; Neo-populism; Law-of-Nature; Law-of-market; Law-of-State; Law-of-Nurture INTRODUCTION revolutionary to modern liberalism-the trend towards big government and state intervention The private ownership of the means of production (law of the state) that had characterized much of was introduced as a distinct movement in the the twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Introduction
    A fox knows many things but a hedgehog one big thing Mark Aronoff Stony Brook University 1. Introduction Isaiah Berlin’s little book, The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953), takes its title from a line by the Greek poet Archilochus: πόλλ᾽ οἶδ᾽ ἀλωπηξ ἀλλ᾽ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα ‘many [things] knows [a] fox but [a] hedgehog one big [thing]’. Since it is impossible to do justice in a paraphrase to Berlin’s prose, I will quote the relevant passage in full: [T]aken figuratively, the words can be made to yield a sense in which they mark one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general. For there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think, and feel—a single, universal, organizing principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance—and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related by no moral or aesthetic principle; these last lead lives, perform acts, and entertain ideas that are centrifugal rather than centripetal, their thought is scattered or diffused, moving on many levels, seizing upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects for what they are in themselves, without, consciously or unconsciously, seeking to fit them into, or exclude them from, any one unchanging, all-embracing, sometimes self-contradictory and incomplete, at times fanatical, unitary vision.
    [Show full text]
  • What Was 'The Enlightenment'? We Hear About It All the Time. It Was A
    What Was ‘The Enlightenment’? We hear about it all the time. It was a pivotal point in European history, paving the way for centuries of history afterward, but what was ‘The Enlightenment’? Why is it called ‘The Enlightenment’? Why did the period end? The Enlightenment Period is also referred to as the Age of Reason and the “long 18th century”. It stretched from 1685 to 1815. The period is characterized by thinkers and philosophers throughout Europe and the United States that believed that humanity could be changed and improved through science and reason. Thinkers looked back to the Classical period, and forward to the future, to try and create a trajectory for Europe and America during the 18th century. It was a volatile time marked by art, scientific discoveries, reformation, essays, and poetry. It begun with the American War for Independence and ended with a bang when the French Revolution shook the world, causing many to question whether ideas of egalitarianism and pure reason were at all safe or beneficial for society. Opposing schools of thought, new doctrines and scientific theories, and a belief in the good of humankind would eventually give way the Romantic Period in the 19th century. What is Enlightenment? Philosopher Immanuel Kant asked the self-same question in his essay of the same name. In the end, he came to the conclusion: “Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!” This was an immensely radical statement for this time period. Previously, ideas like philosophy, reason, and science – these belonged to the higher social classes, to kings and princes and clergymen.
    [Show full text]
  • Leibniz on Whether the World Increases in Perfection
    LEIBNIZ ON WHETHER THE WORLD INCREASES IN PERFECTION Lloyd Strickland In a letter to Bourguet written on 5 August 1715, a little over a year before his death, Leibniz suggests that, on the question of the world’s perfection, ‘Two hypotheses can be formed – one that nature is equally perfect, the other that it always increases in perfection.’ (L664)1 He then proceeds to split the second option into two further 1 The abbreviations I use throughout when citing Leibniz are as follows: A = Sämtliche schriften und briefe, ed by Akademie der Wissenschaften, multiple volumes in 6 series, cited by series (reihe) and volume (band) (Berlin, 1923-). AG = Philosophical essays, trans & ed by Roger Ariew & Daniel Garber (Indianapolis, 1989). D = De summa rerum, trans by G. H. R. Parkinson (New Haven, 1992). DM = Discourse on metaphysics, cited by section number, various translations in AG, L, P, W etc. Dn = The philosophical works of Leibnitz, trans & ed George Martin Duncan (New Haven, 1908). E = Opera Philosophica, ed by J. E. Erdmann (Berlin, 1840). G = Die philosophiscen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, ed by C. I. Gerhardt, 7 vols (Berlin, 1875-1890). GM = G. W. Leibniz: Mathematische Schriften, ed by C. I. Gerhardt, 7 vols (Berlin, 1962). Gr = Textes inédits, ed by Gaston Grua, 2 vols with successive pagination (Paris, 1948). H = Theodicy, trans by E. M. Huggard (Chicago, 1990). L = Philosophical papers and letters, trans & ed Leroy E. Loemker (Dordrecht, 2ed 1969). Mon = Monadology, cited by section number, various translations in AG, L, P, W etc. NE = New essays concerning human understanding, trans & ed by Peter Remnant & Jonathan Bennett (Cambridge, 1996).
    [Show full text]
  • Age of Enlightenment Overview Students Will Explore the Age of Enlightenment Through a Power Point Presentation and Class Discussion
    The Age of Enlightenment Overview Students will explore the Age of Enlightenment through a Power Point presentation and class discussion. Students will then further explore this period of history and its prominent figures by designing a dinner party for 12 Enlightenment thinkers. This project will encourage students to learn more about the period and the philosophers associated with it, as well as synthesize what they have learned while utilizing higher order thinking, group work skills, and creativity. Essential Questions • What was the Age of Enlightenment/Age of Reason and what led to this shift in thought? • Who were the prominent historical figures during the Age of Enlightenment and in what ways were they similar and/or different in their philosophies? • What impact did the Age of Enlightenment have throughout various countries on society, culture, politics, etc.? • How did the Enlightenment philosophers influence American government? Materials • The Age of Enlightenment Power Point, available in the Database of K-12 Resources (in PDF format): https://k12database.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2014/03/EnlightenmentPPT.pdf o To view this PDF as a projectable presentation, save the file, click “View” in the top menu bar of the file, and select “Full Screen Mode” o To request an editable PPT version of this presentation, send a request to [email protected] • Notes for the Age of Enlightenment, handout attached • An Evening of Enlightenment assignment sheet, attached • An Evening of Enlightenment Guest List, attached • Sample Items for Party Planning, attached • Internet, textbooks, library access, and/or other research materials • Optional: Enlightenment Essay Assignment & Rubric, attached Duration • At least one class period for PowerPoint presentation and discussion • Additional class and homework time (teacher’s discretion) will be needed for the completion and presentation of the “An Evening of Enlightenment” project.
    [Show full text]
  • Wayne Local Schools World History 2015-2016 Nine Weeks: 1St Nine Weeks Historical Thinking and Skills Age of the Enlightenment Age of Revolutions
    Wayne Local Schools World History 2015-2016 Nine Weeks: 1st nine weeks Historical Thinking and Skills Age of the Enlightenment Age of Revolutions Economics and Financial Government X History X Geography X Literacy Essential Standard: HISTORICAL THINKING AND SKILLS (Throughout Nine Weeks) CONTENT STATEMENTS: 1. Historical events provide opportunities to examine alternative courses of action. 2. The use of primary and secondary sources of information includes an examination of the credibility of each source. TOPIC: AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (1600-1800) (4 Weeks) CONTENT STATEMENTS: 5. The Scientific Revolution impacted religious, political, and cultural institutions by challenging how people viewed the world. 6. Enlightenment thinkers applied reason to discover natural laws guiding human nature in social, political and economic systems and institutions. 7. Enlightenment ideas challenged practices related to religious authority, absolute rule and mercantilism. TOPIC: AGE OF REVOLUTIONS (1750-1914) (5 Weeks) CONTENT STATEMENTS: 8. Enlightenment ideas on the relationship of the individual and the government influenced the American Revolution, French Revolution and Latin American wars for independence. Key Vocabulary: Galileo, Hobbes, Kepler, Divine Right, Elliptical, Wollstonecraft, Heliocentric, Tabula Rasa, Geocentric, Ptolemaic System, Scientific Method, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Separation of Powers, Laissez Faire ,Social Contract ,Salon ,John Locke ,Montesquieu ,Voltaire , Adam Smith Rousseau, Diderot, Thomas Jefferson, Bill of Rights, No
    [Show full text]
  • Immanuel Kant: What Is Enlightenment?, 1784
    Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment?, 1784 Was ist Äufklarung? Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage s man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self- incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! "Have courage to use your own reason!"- that is the motto of enlightenment. Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay - others will easily undertake the irksome work for me. That the step to competence is held to be very dangerous by the far greater portion of mankind (and by the entire fair sex) - quite apart from its being arduous is seen to by those guardians who have so kindly assumed superintendence over them. After the guardians have first made their domestic cattle dumb and have made sure that these placid creatures will not dare take a single step without the harness of the cart to which they are tethered, the guardians then show them the danger which threatens if they try to go alone.
    [Show full text]
  • Benjamin Franklin
    THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN EDITED BY CARLA MULFORD CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS c·AM~=~.U~!L.sJ.ItlRES S Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8Ru, UK Published in the United Stares of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/978052I69I864 © Cambridge University Press 2008 This ·publicatiön is in copyright. Subiect to statutorv exceotion and .;. t~·;tbe1Wpri~ipns of relevant collective licensing agreements, 1 00,~eproduction of any part may take place without the; S't~t!;~ermission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2008 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British ·Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to Benjamin Franklin I edited by Carla Mulford. p. cm. - (Cambridge companions to American studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-o-52I-87I34-I (hardback) I. Franklin, Benjamin, I706-I790 - Political and social views. 2. Franklin, Benjamin, I706-I790 - Knowledge and learning. 3. Franklin, Benjamin, I706-I790 - Influence. 4. Statesmen - United States - Biography. 5. Scientists - United Stares - Biography. 6. United Stares - lntellectual life - I 8th century. 1. Mulford, Carla, I 9 5 5- II. Tide: Companion to Benjamin Franklin. III. Series. E302.6.F8C2I8 2008 973.3092-dc22 (B] 2008033470 ISBN 978-o-52I-87I34-I hardback ISBN 978-o-52I-69I86-4 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party interner websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
    [Show full text]