(^112) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
Originally, the term salon had referred to the room in aristocratic homes where the family
and its guests gathered for leisure activities. During the Enlightenment, however, aristocratic
and, eventually, upper middle-class women transformed such rooms (and the term) by turn-
ing them into a place where both men and women gathered to educate themselves about
and discuss the new ideas of the age in privacy and safety. In the more prestigious houses,
the leading philosophes were often invited to give informal lectures and to lead discussions.
It was through the salons that women made their most direct contribution to the
Enlightenment. As hostesses, they controlled the guest list and enforced the rules of polite
conversation. They were, therefore, in control of what ideas were discussed in front of which
influential men, and were somewhat able to affect the reception that those ideas were given.
Additionally, they controlled an extensive international correspondence network, as they
decided which letters from philosophes in other cities were to be read, discussed, and replied to.
Another eighteenth-century home of Enlightenment thought was the Masonic lodge.
The lodges were established and run by Freemasons, whose origins dated back to the Medieval
guilds of the stonemasons. By the eighteenth century, the lodges had become fraternities of
aristocratic and middle-class men (and occasionally women) who gathered to discuss alterna-
tives to traditional beliefs. Following the customs of the old guilds, the Masonic fraternities
were run along democratic principles, the likes of which were new to continental Europe.
Linked together by membership in the Grand Lodge, the lodges formed a network of com-
munication for new ideas and ideals that rivaled that of the salons. Some of the most influen-
tial men of the eighteenth century were Masons, including the Duke of Montagu in England,
Voltaire and Mozart in France, and Benjamin Franklin in America. In Berlin, Frederick the
Great cultivated the Masonic lodges as centers of learning.
Skepticism, Religion, and Social Criticism
Skepticism
Skepticism, or the habit of doubting what one has not learned for oneself, was also a key ele-
ment of the Scientific Revolution that was developed more widely during the Enlightenment.
A particular target of Enlightenment skeptics was religion. In his Historical and Critical
Dictionary (1697), the French religious skeptic Pierre Bayle included entries for numerous
religious beliefs, illustrating why they did not, in his opinion, stand the test of reason. More
generally, Bayle argued that all dogmas, including those based on scripture, should be con-
sidered false if they contradicted conclusions based on clear and natural reasoning.Deism
The most prevalent form of religious belief among the philosophes was deism. The deists
believed that the complexity, order, and natural laws exhibited by the universe were reason-
able proof that it had been created by a God. But reason also told them that once God
had created the universe and the natural laws that govern it, there would no longer be any
further role for Him in the universe. A typical deist tract was John Toland’s Christianity
Not Mysterious (1696). There, Toland argued that the aspects of Christianity that were not
compatible with reason should be discarded and that Christians should worship an intel-
ligible God.Hume
Some philosophes went further with their skepticism. The Scottish philosopher David
Hume rejected Christianity, arguing that Christianity required a belief in miracles and that15_Bartolini_Ch15_099-118.indd 112 27/04/18 1:54 PM