194
adherence to a faith. They argued
that “truths” about the tangible
world, which had been set down in
antiquity by Aristotle and others,
and upheld by the Church, should
be tested through experimentation
and observation, checked, and then
discussed in a rational way.
This radical mode of thinking
had its origins in the scientific
revolution of the 17th century.
Scientists and philosophers
including Francis Bacon, Johannes
Kepler, Isaac Newton, and Galileo
Galilei had transformed the study
of nature and the physical universe,
making it more observational. They
conducted careful experiments
and subjected their results to
mathematical analysis; in the
process they drastically updated
and expanded the fields of physics,
chemistry, biology, and astronomy.
Enlightenment scientists took
this investigation of reality further,
making possible, for example,
Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus’s
development of a proper, rational
biological classification in the early
18th century. The inquiring,
reason-based approach of the
Enlightenment also triggered
dramatic technological advances.
In the 1760s, the Scottish physician
Joseph Black discovered carbon
dioxide, while in 1769, ScotsmanDIDEROT PUBLISHES THE ENCYCLOPÉDIE
James Watt made improvements to
the steam engine that increased its
efficiency, thereby enabling the
improvement of factories. The
Encyclopédie helped to publicize
these, and other, achievements of
18th-century scientists, as well as
those of their precursors.
The work also found an
audience in the learned societies,
academies, and universities that
flourished in the Enlightenment
period. Although many teachers
and scholars at Europe’s older,
Church-dominated universities
remained deaf to the new scientific
way of thought, more progressive
ones helped to teach and promote it.Equality and freedom
The scientific revolution and the
Enlightenment also encouraged the
belief that reason could reveal
natural laws in human affairs.
Instead of drawing fact from faith,
Enlightenment thinkers believed
that politics should be separated
from religion, that neither should
curtail the rights of the individual,
and that people should be free to
express their opinions, worship in
their own way, and read what they
want to. This political doctrine,
which is often labeled liberalism,
had roots in the work of 17th-century
philosophers such as EnglishmanVoltaire
François-Marie Arouet, who
chose to be known publicly
by the name Voltaire, was
one of the greatest writers
and social activists of the
Enlightenment, renowned
for his wit and intelligence.
He was born in Paris in 1694,
and spent much of his long life
there, although he traveled
widely and spoke several
languages. He was a hugely
prolific writer, producing
works in almost every literary
genre: novels, plays, poems,
essays, historical studies, and
philosophical books as well as
countless pamphlets.
Voltaire was an outspoken
supporter of social reform,
including the defense of civil
liberties and freedom of
religion and speech; he also
denounced the hypocrisy of
the political and religious
establishment. This led to the
censorship of some of his
work, and also to short spells
of imprisonment and periods
of exile in England—after
which he converted his
experiences into an influential
book, Philosophical Letters on
the English—and Geneva,
Switzerland, where he wrote
his most famous work, the
philosophical novella Candide.Scepticism is the first
step towards truth.
Denis Diderot
Philosophical Thoughts (1746)In all the ages of the
world, priests have been
the enemies of liberty.
David HumeUS_192-195_Diderot_Encyclopedie.indd 194 15/02/2016 16:43
195
John Locke—the father of liberalism.
Locke asserted that there are
certain intrinsic human rights that
are not dependent on law or
custom—in other words, they exist
quite separately from what the
Church or monarch might decree.
These rights could be expressed in
different ways, but included the
right to life, the right to liberty,
and the freedom to own what one
has produced. These ideas were
central to Enlightenment thinkers,
following Locke, who felt that such
natural rights should form the basis
of any system of government.
Liberal ideas also found
expression in the work of
Enlightenment writers. For
example, Voltaire, in books such
as the Philosophical Dictionary,
highlighted the injustices and
abuses of the Catholic Church, and
espoused values such as tolerance,
freedom of the press, and the
promotion of reason over doctrine
and religious revelation. In his
Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu
advocated the separation of
governmental powers (legislature,
executive, judiciary) and pressed
for an end to slavery. In The Social
Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
rejected the power of the monarch
in favor of that of the people, who,he said, must balance rights with
duties, and should be able to decide
the laws that govern their lives. The
contributors to the Encyclopédie
also promoted liberal values in
economics. They were critical of
fairs—where goods were sold by
visiting dealers at the expense of
local traders, who often had to close
their businesses for the duration—
and favored markets, which allowed
local traders to meet the needs of
the local population.
Ideas such as these spread
across Europe. Conversations and
debates on philosophical, political,
and scientific subjects took place in
the coffee-houses that had sprung
up in English, French, German,
and Dutch cities a century earlier.
These coffee-houses now served as
information-sharing hubs where
men from all walks of life, including
writers, politicians, philosophers,
and scientists, could congregate
to exchange views.Into the light
In Europe, the Enlightenment
movement, and the Encyclopédie
itself, which helped promote its
ideals, had a profound impact on
social, political, and intellectual
life. Its proponents believed that
they were sweeping away an
oppressive medieval worldview
and ushering in a new era that they
hoped would be characterized by
freedom of thought, open-
mindedness, and tolerance.
The Enlightenment’s
questioning, rational approach, and
urgent demand for liberty, paved
the way for the granting of new
civil rights. The movement affected
the policies of monarchical rulers,
such as the freeing of serfs in the
Holy Roman Empire in the 1780s.
Monarchs who accepted
Enlightenment values took on
the movement’s name, titlingTHE EARLY MODERN ERA
themselves Enlightened Despots.
Enlightenment thought also
provided the intellectual fuel for
the French Revolution of 1787–99—
begun by citizens inspired by
Enlightenment notions of individual
freedom and equality—and the
campaign to abolish the Atlantic
slave trade in the 19th century.
Liberalism and other aspects of
Enlightenment political philosophy
began to influence leaders in many
parts of the world when they came
to draw up legal systems and to
establish rights for their citizens—
most notably in the fledgling
United States, whose Constitution
(1789) adopted Montesquieu’s idea
of the separation of power into
branches of government.
More generally, the movement
promoted the pursuit of knowledge
for its own sake and recognized
that one person’s quest for
understanding could benefit the
entire human race. ■To renounce
liberty is to renounce
being a man.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract (1762)In 1783, France’s Montgolfier brothers
gave the first demonstration of their
new invention, the hot-air balloon,
bringing science to the forefront of
public attention in a spectacular way.US_192-195_Diderot_Encyclopedie.indd 195 15/02/2016 16:43