Medieval Europe (500 CE – 1500 CE)

Holy Roman Empire

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a new system of feudalism was established in Europe.

Charlemagne, successor of Pepin, took control of the Frankish kingdom and founded an empire in 800 CE. Pope himself crowned Charlemagne in the same year and declared his empire as Holy Roman Empire.

This Holy Roman Empire took part in the crusades and became the sole protector of the Roman Catholic Church.

Features of Feudalism

• • Political/Administrative:
  • ◦ German tribes were settled in different parts of Europe and tribal chief started to rule as a regional patriarch. Then, as the result of conflict and coordination a hierarchy was created.
  • ◦ The power and influence of the ruler diminished in this period. He was nominal head, but real power was exercised by feudal lords.
  • ◦ The ruler was assisted by the feudal lords who were given land (manor).
  • ◦ Hierarchical structure: King → Feudal lords → barons → knights → Peasants (Serfdom)
• • Economic:
  • ◦ Decline in urbanization, trade & commerce.
  • ◦ Agriculture became the means of living.
    • ■ Manorialism
    • ■ Guild
  • ◦ Serfdom was the unique characteristic of feudalism.
• • Social:
  • ◦ Broadly divided into three classes – nobility, clergy, and common people.
    • ■ Feudal nobility (uppermost class) controlled vast track of land and also had special privileges.
    • ■ Clergy had privileges and also became big landlords in the name of church, but they did not pay any tax.
    • ■ Peasants, craftsmen, artisans (common people) with inadequate land but maximum tax burden.
  • ◦ So, there was clear socio-economic and political inequality. There was no space for any kind of change.
  • ◦ Feudalism was anti-individual freedom. It was based on formalism, patriarchy, elitism, and social stratification where there was no scope for individual freedom and rights.
• • Religious: Roman Catholic Church system
  • ◦ Earlier, Christianity was simple and free from rituals.
  • ◦ During 8th century CE, Roman Catholic Church adopted a new form.
    • ■ It was based on the teachings of Mediaeval Christian saints Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. They emphasized on priestly culture and 7 Sacraments for salvation which could be presided over by the clergy only.
  • ◦ Thus, started Universal/Catholic Church System which came to dominate socio-cultural life of European people.
    • ■ It gave guidelines to every Christian. It did not advocate for humanism and individualism, but it focused on salvation. Individuals had no identity, and nobody could speak against the Church. If anyone did so, an inquisition was issued against him.
    • ■ Under this system, the headquarters of the Church was established at Rome while its branches were spread to different parts of Europe.
    • ■ It started imposing tax on people (tithe) and part of such money was spent on the local Church while the remaining amount was transferred to Rome. Apart from that, church came to own landed properly as well. So, the Church was like a feudal lord.
    • ■ As a junior lord kneeled before senior lord/baron/king and give reverence, such oblations and postures also prevailed within the Church system.

Thus, Mediaeval Age had certain characteristics – feudalism in the political sphere, guild system and trade in the economic sphere, feudalistic value system in the social structure, the Holy Roman Empire and the Universal Church System in the field of religion, conservative logic in the field of philosophy, romantic approach based on feudalistic values in the area of literature, Gothic architecture in the field of architecture etc.

It was thus considered as the period between the decline. Only in the 15th century, their disintegration created possibilities for the changes in socio-economic and political sphere. It was brought by the Renaissance, the Reformation Movement, geographical exploration, and scientific inventions. This change is called the ‘Rise of Modern West’.

Medieval Period: Rise and spread of Islam

Rise of Islam:

Islam had originated in the tribal region of Arab. These tribal people had a fighting instinct and always indulged in battles. The genesis of Islam also witnessed battles and wars.

Rise of Islam was a product of the socio-economic changes of the time:

On one side of Arabian Peninsula there was Sassanian empire in Persia while on the other side, there was Eastern Roman Empire.

• ◦ Due to the continuous war between the two, there was diversion of trade traffic from Persian Gulf towards Red Sea. It was the region of Mecca and warring nomadic Bedouin tribe. They now got involved in the trade.
• ◦ Among Arabian tribes, there was sectarianism, idol-worship and priesthood. Thus, there was social and religious strife also.

In this context, continuation of the internecine warfare would have created hurdles. In this context, the rise of Islam helped people come together. Prophet Muhammad produced a new sect called Islam – total surrender to one God (tawhid, monotheism) – with one of the objectives to create brotherhood and keep unity in tribal regions.

The geo-political condition of Arabian region which made Islam aggressive from the beginning:

• ◦ Hijrat: There were various vested interests in various tribes who opposed him, there was an attempt at his life as well. So, he left Mecca and moved to Madina in Hijri era started.
• ◦ In Medina, he acquired political power, started tax on local people, started mediation in case of conflict. In one sense, the establishment of Islamic state happened at Madina.
• ◦ After a long fight, he eventually conquered Mecca which became the centre of Islamic state.

Spread of Islam:

• • Rashidun Caliphate (631-661):
  • ◦ Prophet Muhammad passed away in 632. He didn’t nominate any successor. There appeared 4 elected caliphs – Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali (son-in-law of Muhammad)
  • ◦ They ruled between 632 and 661. In these three decades, there was a rapid expansion.
    • ■ It was particularly under Caliph Umar there was a larger expansion of Islam.
    • ■ Under Usman, it reached its maximum extent.
  • ◦ Expansion:
    • ■ First: Syria and Egypt
    • ■ Then: Iraq and Iran.
    • ■ Later: Central Asia

• • Shia-Sunni Sectarianism (leadership succession issue)
  • ◦ After Prophet Muhammad’s death, there was a dispute among his followers about who should succeed him as the leader of the Muslim community (ummah).
  • ◦ By the end of Rashidun, there was a civil war in which Ali was assassinated in the battle of Siffin.
  • ◦ In the battle of Karbala (680), Ali’s sons Hasan and Husain were also assassinated.
• • Umayyad Dynasty (661-750)
  • ◦ It was founded by Muawiyah I, who triumphed over the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali, to become the fifth caliph.
  • ◦ Capital: Damascus
  • ◦ Rapid expansion of territory, from Spain to India.
  • ◦ Abdul Malik
    • ■ Centralized authority within the Islamic civilization
    • ■ Policy of Arabization – language, administrators, coinage
    • ■ The post of Caliph became hereditary.
  • ◦ Their decline began with a defeat by the Byzantine Empire in 717; inter-tribal feud, discontent among non-Arab Muslim converts, and the failure of financial reforms eventually led to their unseating by the Abbasid dynasty.

• • Abbasids (750-1259)
  • ◦ Capital: Baghdad (founded by Al-Mansur in 762)
  • ◦ Features
    • ■ A formidable global empire stretching from Spain, Africa to Asia.
    • ■ Golden Age of Islam (science, trade, culture)
    • ■ Dependence on Persian culture of governance, absorption of Persian customs by elites
  • ◦ In 1258, Halaku Khan, the grandson of Changez Khan, assassinated the Caliph.
    • ■ Now the post of Caliph started to move, and different seats came into being and now this post became controversial.
• • Change in ethnic composition:
  • ◦ Earlier only Arabs were Muslims.
  • ◦ Then West Asians and Persians.
  • ◦ Gradually the Central Asian warrior classes like Turks and Mongols were converted to Islam.

Medieval Period: Crusades and Geographical Exploration

Crusades:

The annexation of Jerusalem was the motive behind the crusades.

• ◦ Religious factor:
  • ■ In Islam, it is considered as third holiest place after Mecca and Medina. It is believed that this city had an association with Prophet Mohammad.
  • ■ This place also had very close association with Jesus.
• ◦ Economic factor:
  • ■ It was the center of world trade in the contemporary period.
  • ■ It is the meeting point for merchants from Eastern and Western world.

Therefore, both Islam and Christianity wanted to establish their suzerainty on Jerusalem. This struggle was called Crusades. There were three crusades between 1095 CE and 1291 CE.

• • France was ardent supporter of Catholic Church. So was Holy Roman Empire from German region. All these armies moved into West Asia.
• • It remained indecisive but it was destructive. However, even this destructive event could produce some progressive results: a trade route was opened between NW Europe and West Asia.

Geographical Exploration:

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE, the European trade route with the eastern world was blocked. On the other hand, Italian merchants began to take advantage of this blockade.

The Christian states of Europe were very dissatisfied with this situation. Therefore, Portugal and Spain started making efforts to find alternative routes.

• ◦ The ruler of Portugal Henry the Navigator
• ◦ The ruler of Spain Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
• ◦ Ideological support from the Pope for this campaign.

These efforts came up with positive results:

• ◦ Asia
  • ■ P: Bartholomew Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 CE
  • ■ P: Vasco Da Gama discovered India in 1498 CE.
• ◦ West
  • ■ S: Columbus discovered America in 1492 CE.
  • ■ S: Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513 CE
  • ■ S: Ponce de León discovered Florida in 1513 CE
• ◦ Globe
  • ■ S: Magellan circumnavigated the globe in 1519-22 CE.

Although Portugal and Spain took major initiatives for the geographical exploration, later British, French and Dutch etc. also joined these exploratory missions.

These geographical explorations produced long lasting results in world history.

• ◦ It made possible the exchange of ideas between the west and the east → Renaissance.
• ◦ It inspired the commercial revolution.
• ◦ It gave impetus to European colonialism.

Early Modern Europe: Renaissance

The Renaissance is considered as the genesis of the modern age. ‘Renaissance’ is a French term meaning ‘revival/rebirth/reawakening’ etc. It reflects attitudinal/ideological change of European people.

• ◦ It was a period in European civilization that was marked by a revival of Classical learning and wisdom.
• ◦ It saw many contributions to different fields, including new scientific laws, new forms of art and architecture, and new religious and political ideas.
• ◦ It was an intellectual and artistic movement that brought major change in the attitude of the people towards the problems of human life.
• ◦ It marked the transition from mediaeval to the modern period in Europe.

The Renaissance begun in Italy during the 14th century and reached its height in the 15th century. It spread to the rest of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Now on the threshold of this Mediaeval Age, a new consciousness was developed which is known as the Renaissance.

Elements of Renaissance:

• • Curiosity and spirit of enquiry: it encouraged scientific inventions/discoveries.
• • Rise in spirit of adventure: sea voyages
• • Humanism: Recognize dignity of man
  • ◦ There was an emphasis on the study of Greek and Latin classical literature which were full of humanism.
  • ◦ General meaning: It is an ideology. It glorifies man and Nature instead of the divinity and the other world.
  • ◦ There was a preference for the study of those subjects which were characterized as humanities.
  • ◦ In the view of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, an Italian humanist during 15th century, ‘man is a great miracle’.
  • ◦ This new spirit of humanity was also expressed in new art and literature.
• • Individualism: Composition of autobiography. (eg by Cellini)
  • ◦ Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe - in their plays one sees the assertion of humanism and individualism.
  • ◦ It was very disturbing to Church – which considered the very birth of a man as sinful and then recording the story of that sinful life now.
  • ◦ Human beings started to assert themselves. Self-satisfaction and a feeling of pride in one’s achievements are the essence of individualism.
• • Secularism: To expose hypocrisy of priests.
  • ◦ Secularism means – first, taking more interest in worldly activities and second, criticism of such priests who talk about renunciation but do not follow themselves.
• • Historical Self-Consciousness:
  • ◦ This was a sign of changing attitude towards history.

So, on all these three fronts, Renaissance was a challenge to prevalent medieval worldview of Europe.

Causes:

• • Economic Prosperity:
  • ◦ Economic prosperity supported the Renaissance in many ways:
    • ■ New/progressive ideas were brought back by merchants traveling to various countries back to Europe. (eg famous libraries of Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba)
    • ■ Trade and commerce → urbanization (e.g. Venice, Milan, Florence, Nuremberg) facilitated exchange of ideas and development of knowledge.
    • ■ Accumulation of wealth → spare time for learning to common people.
  • ◦ In the 13th- 14th centuries CE, commercial towns transformed into powerful city-states and began to dominate politically and economically in the surrounding countryside region.
    • ■ Newly wealthy merchants, who were called ‘Bourgeoisie’ in later period, attempted to get the aristocratic status. (rise of middle class)
      • ■ The Florentine family of the Medici had made a huge profit in the banking business, and successfully got aristocratic status in the 15th century CE.
    • ■ The Italian nobles also became associated with the urban life.
    • ■ Both these new classes gave impetus to the new ideas.
      • ■ New style in Literature, art and architecture were patronized by the merchant class in Italy.
      • ■ They gave more emphasis on the study of those subjects which had practical utility.
  • ◦ In this way, a strong base had been prepared for the emergence of new ideology in Italy.
• • Geographic advantage to Italy: A natural gateway between the East and the West.
  • ◦ Cities like Venice, Genoa, Milan, Pisa, and Florence had uninterrupted trade relations with Asian countries and thus, Italian society was very dynamic & progressive.
  • ◦ Additionally, Italy was closer with the Classical past due to proximity with ancient Roman monuments.
• • The crusades played a very important role in the genesis of the Renaissance.
  • ◦ Europeans came in closer contact with the peoples of the East, who were enlightened.
    • ■ At this time Arab race had a special status in the countries of the East who led the foundation of a prosperous civilization after coming in contact with Greek and Indian civilizations.
  • ◦ The Crusades gave impetus to geographical explorations.
  • ◦ This resulted in the intellectual development of Europeans. Aristotle’s texts, Arabic language, arithmetic, algebra, paper, compass etc., came to Europe during the crusades.
• • In 1453 CE, Turks captured Constantinople. It led to the migration of scholars, intellectuals, artists, philosophers, and architects to Western Europe.
• • In the mediaeval period, Europeans learned the art of paper making through their contacts with the Arabs. In the middle of the 15th century CE, John Gutenberg, from Germany, invented a printing machine. The development of the printing machine paved the way for intellectual development. The invention of paper and printing machines led to the development of the publication system.
• • The patronage to scholars of various backgrounds by the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan’s court can also be considered for promoting the new consciousness.
• • Universities began to be established in Europe in the 12th century and onwards.
  • ◦ Bologna, Paris, Oxford etc. were prominent among the early universities.
  • ◦ These universities are believed to have encouraged innovative and progressive ideas.

The Renaissance in various walks of life:

• • Literature
  • ◦ With the development of renaissance, European languages achieved their literary form, although Latin language remained in use for some time in the fields of philosophy and science. This change was closely associated with the national consciousness emerging at that time.
  • ◦ The following writers provided expression to the Renaissance consciousness through their works.
    • ■ Italy: Petrarch (father of Italian Renaissance literature) and Boccaccio
    • ■ Spain: Cervantes (satire of feudalist values in his composition ‘Don Quixote’.)
    • ■ English: William Shakespeare
    • ■ William Shakespeare
• • Art
  • ◦ With the development of Renaissance consciousness, an important change took place in the field of art.
  • ◦ By this time, art was largely freed from religion due to economic prosperity and the partial victory of secular spirit. Most of the art was now inspired by secular themes.
  • ◦ Artists got their own individual identity in the renaissance period. The painters of the Renaissance period took the painting as a form of life.
  • ◦ More emphasis was placed on the physical aspect than the religious aspects.
    • ■ They studied optics and geometry and started using projections in pictures.
    • ■ They gave emphasis on the study of anatomy to understand the internal system of human gestures.
    • ■ Achieving sensual pleasure became the just objective of art.
  • ◦ Painting
    • ■ There was a substantial development in the field of painting in Italy.
    • ■ Giotto was very prominent among the early painters of Renaissance art.
    • ■ Renaissance consciousness achieved its complete expression by the works of Leonardo da Vinci (The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa), Michelangelo and Raphael.
  • ◦ Sculptures
    • ■ Sculpture was freed from the subjugation of architecture and established as an independent art.
    • ■ The first important sculptor of this era was Donatello.
    • ■ Gothic architecture came to an end under the influence of Renaissance consciousness. Vaulted roofs, pointed arches and flying buttresses were the basic features of this architectural style. A new architecture style developed first in Italy and later in other parts of Europe.
• • Science: Modern science began with the Renaissance.
  • ◦ The thinkers of this era believed that ‘knowledge could be obtained not by merely contemplating but through exploring and reading the book based on the nature’
  • ◦ Astronomy
    • ■ Copernicus led a revolution in the field of astronomy when he declared that the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun.
    • ■ Giordano Bruno was burnt alive on stake on charges of heresy by the Inquisition.
    • ■ This new notion was justified by Galileo with the invention of the telescope, but he was forced to withdraw his views.
    • ■ The German scientist, Kepler, with the help of mathematic calculation, confirmed that the planets revolve around the Sun.
    • ■ Isaac Newton proved that all celestial bodies behave under the influence of gravity.

• ◦ Human body and blood circulation.
  • ■ Belgian scientist Andreas Vesalius published his work ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’ with images. (1543 CE)
  • ■ A complete demonstration of the blood circulation was presented by the English scientist Harvey. (circa 1610)
• ◦ The development of science introduced new methods of investigations which began to be used in the study of other disciplines too.

• • Philosophy
  • ◦ The development of rationality encouraged merchants and philosophers.
    • ■ Intellectuals of the Italian renaissance expressed the view that the world is not an accidental event. It is controlled by the divine laws of nature.
  • ◦ The early humanists of the Renaissance period criticized conservative logic and orthodox philosophy. They considered Cicero as their ideal instead of Aristotle and laid great emphasis on moral philosophy. Ficino and Mirandola were the most prominent among the early philosophers.
  • ◦ Later, many philosophers became Platonists, and the Platonic Society was established in Florence. But not all Italian philosophers were Platonists. Lorenzo Valla, Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli were prominent philosophers among the non-Platonists.
    • ■ Valla condemned the philosophy of self-renunciation and declared that it was foolish to sacrifice one’s life for the nation.
    • ■ Vinci said that there was no need to be dependent on any entity to obtain the knowledge of the truth. He emphasized the deductive method.
    • ■ Machiavelli was a practical political philosopher. He had expressed his views in his texts, such as ‘The Prince’ and ‘Discourses’. He criticized the political concept of the mediaeval period. He presented the concept of state in the modern form. According to him, the end is the determinant of the means. He declared that all people are basically governed by self-interest. Therefore, the ruler should not expect loyalty from them.
  • ◦ Erasmus and Bacon were important thinkers in Northern Europe.
    • ■ Erasmus, who has also been called the Prince of Humanists, criticized the religious rituals of the Church in his text ‘In Praise of Folly.
    • ■ Francis Bacon emphasized inductive philosophy.

Spread of Renaissance:

The Renaissance didn’t remain the same throughout Europe. The manifestation of renaissance consciousness came with different forms in the different countries of north and north-western Europe.

Italy had a special place among the European countries. Renaissance consciousness manifested itself in a specific form in Italy. All the elements of the Renaissance were not equally present everywhere in Europe. Individualism, secularism, and humanism were particularly associated with the Italian Renaissance.

Renaissance in Northern Europe:

• • The socio-economic conditions of this region were different from those in Italy in many ways.
  • ◦ South emerging capitalist enterprise, republicanism, and urban society
  • ◦ North: feudalism, court culture and rural areas
• • In the northern region:
  • ◦ Renaissance consciousness got its original form in literature and philosophy.
  • ◦ Renaissance got combined with the Christianity. Humanism of Renaissance merged with ‘compassion’ of Christianity and then ‘Christian humanism’ was born.
  • ◦ Humanist influence was mixed with valor and superstitions.
  • ◦ Didn’t remain as just a utopian concept, but it began to be implemented in actual sense, and then it brought the reformation process within the Christianity.
• • The pace of the end of the mediaeval period was relatively slow in Northern Europe.

Impact of the Renaissance

• • The individualism arising out from the renaissance consciousness stirred the European mindset.
  • ◦ In the economic field, individualism was related to the capitalist consciousness.
• • It challenged the paramountcy of the Church and promoted the reformative attitude within the mass.
• • The Renaissance paved the way for the formation of many modern institutions and one of them was the rise of the modern nation state.
• • It prepared the background for the scientific & intellectual movements.
  • ◦ The scientists of the Renaissance era invented the method of doubt, observation and experiment, which is being followed even in the modern era.

Early Modern Europe: Reformation Movement

(Transition phase of the European history between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment)

• • Protestant movement was initiated by Martin Luther who was a local priest at the Church of Wittenberg. In 1517 on the wall of the Church, he nailed 95 questions/thesis to be answered by the Pope.
• • As he protested the authority of the Church, it is known as the Protestant movement.
  • ◦ He challenged the whole Church system itself, the precepts of Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. He tried to bring Christians close to the precepts of earlier saints like Saint Paul and Saint Augustine.
  • ◦ He emphasized the individual’s direct relationship with God and the authority of scripture over the authority of the Pope.
• • Later he was followed by other reformers like Calvin in France and Zwingli in Switzerland.
  • ◦ It led to the rejection of teaching and practices of Catholic Church and establishment of Protestant Denominations.
  • ◦ Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Puritans, Baptists, Methodists, Huguenots.

Causes:

(1) Religious factors: Corrupt/evil religious practices

• • Church-State synergy
  • ◦ Mediaeval Catholic Church introduced mandatory membership and called it as Universal Christian Society.
  • ◦ It was a synergy of both church and state, in principle ruled by two powers – the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire.
• • The clergy
  • ◦ Enjoyed a special position within this society as an intermediary. It was necessary to organize Seven Sacraments for salvation which could be presided over by the clergy only.
• • Many evils and irrelevant rituals had become an integral part of the mediaeval church system.
  • ◦ Priests and Cardinals used to have illegitimate wives and children. Not to speak of common priests, even the Pope Innocent VIII had 8 illegitimate children.
  • ◦ ‘Sale of indulgences’ was the climax of these evils.

So, Protestant leaders stood up against these religious evils, but the target of the Protestant movement was not only these religious evils but the mediaeval church system.

However, as far as religious evils are concerned, the process of ‘Counter Reformation’ had started within the Roman Catholic Church system too.

Counter-Reformation

• • Counter-Reformation was a response by the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation.
  • ◦ Actually, it started a little bit before the beginning of Protestant Movement as a result of Renaissance consciousness and scientific ideas.
  • ◦ However, when Protestant reformation started, the counter-reformation became more severe.
    • ■ Council of Trent (1545-1563)
      • • Sought to clarify Catholic doctrine and reform Church practices.
      • • Reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s teachings, the authority of the Pope, and the importance of good works in salvation.
    • ■ Establishment of new religious orders, such as the Jesuits, to spread Catholicism throughout the world.

So, since religious reform had already begun, then why need to have Protestant movement? Critics believe that it was because the political and social factors were also active behind it and not only religious factors.

(2) Political factor: Ambitious rulers of Europe used the Protestant movement to establish national monarchy in their concerned countries.

• • Question of dual-authority: Insofar as the Universal Church existed, national monarchies could not come into existence.
• • Protestant movement gave opportunity to ambitious monarchs to assert the authority. By making use of upheaval, they could make the local church subordinate to the state and strengthen their national boundary.

(3) Economic factor:

• • The local Church owned the land under the Manorial system. With the disintegration of feudalism, the aristocratic class was almost impoverished and thus had its eye over Church property and looked for an opportunity to grab it.
• • Local church was authorized to impose tithe, other taxes and sell indulgences and earn money. With the growing nationalist consciousness among the European people, there started some opposition to it. They started to treat it as if it was drain of local wealth to Rome.
• • The interest of the newly emerging mercantile class:
  • ◦ Money lending and profit making are the backbone of commerce, which was considered immoral by the Roman Catholic Church.
  • ◦ Weber (German sociologist) - Protestant Ethics and Spirit of Capitalism.

Consequences:

The Reformation movement played a significant role in the rise of the modern West:

• • It created a rift in the two important mediaeval institutions – the Universal Church system and the Holy Roman Empire.
• • Through this way, it paved the way for the emergence of nation states.
• • It gave a major boost to capitalism by providing legitimacy to money lending and profit making.

Early Modern Europe: Commercial Revolution

The commercial revolution played a major role in the economic transformation of Europe.

Three factors which could have given a serious jolt to status quoism in Europe and prepared the way for change and progress: (two out of three were destructive factors yet all of them produced constructive outcome)

The 16^th c. marked a major event in the history of Europe – several significant changes in trade and commerce. As a result, the nature of European trade changed. These important changes were –

• • Widespread and growing influence of the market
• • Increase in inter-regional trade.
  • ◦ End of localism
  • ◦ Surge in overseas trade
• • Creation of Money economy
  • ◦ By the end of 13th century CE, coins like Venetian Ducat and Lorraine’s Lorraine had gained acceptance in Italy and in the international market of Northern Europe.
• • Changes in the mode of production.
  • ◦ Guild system → ‘Putting-Out System’ or the domestic system.
  • ◦ Increased economic specialization.
• • Development of new types of business organisations.
  • ◦ Chartered Company, Joint Stock Company
  • ◦ State banks
  • ◦ Bourses (stock market) and future market
• • Acceptance of principle of mercantilism

Causes behind the Commercial Revolution:

• • Crusades opened new routes between Europe and West Asia, thus paving the way for greater commercial activities (boost to economy)
• • Geographical factors: Fall of Constantinople → Era of sea voyages and geographical discovery.
  • ◦ Establishment of the Ottoman Empire in the 15^th c., Western Europe lost its Eastern land trade routes.
  • ◦ Italy established relationship with Ottomans and started to make huge profit
  • ◦ It led Western European nations (Spain, Portugal, Britain, Netherland) to search alternative trade routes. etc.
  • ◦ Technological change also made sea voyages easier: new shipbuilding, advanced navigational instruments, charts & maps
• • Rise of Yeoman class:
  • ◦ Decline in feudalism → Rise of Yeoman class (intermediaries between feudal lords and land labourers)
  • ◦ They encouraged technological advancement in agriculture and became richer by producing surplus production.
  • ◦ It led to two major changes in the rural areas – production for the market and demand for luxurious goods. It also destroyed serfdom and manorial system.
• • Emergence of Protestant religious sect:
  • ◦ Reformation movement → new liberal religious sect in form of Protestant religion → supported trade & commerce.
    • ■ It gave importance to individual efforts to achieve God/salvation.
    • ■ It motivated people to earn more profit to live prosperous lives.
    • ■ It paved the way for religious harmony and democratic values.
• • Development of Banking, Insurance & Joint Stock Companies:
  • ◦ Money lending was recognized as a valid source of income.
  • ◦ Great Bullion Famine (15^th c): created challenges for Italian merchants → established modern banking system:
    • ■ Florentine family of the Medici
    • ■ Fugger family of Germany.
  • ◦ Establishment of joint stock companies & insurance companies came with large scale of trade and bearing minimum risk.
• • Role of State:
  • ◦ A new, ambitious nationalist monarchy favoured/promoted it. Because the state needed popular and monetary support of the rising aspirational middle class.
  • ◦ Strong and stable political regime was also favorable for the growth of trade and commerce.

Once there was money and commercialization, the feudal economy could not bear its brunt. These all factors led to the commercial revolution and emerged as the grave-diggers of static, regional, and feudal Europe.

This commercial revolution further supported changes in the socio-economic & political scenario.

• • Decline of feudalism
• • Rise of capitalism & mercantilism
• • Establishment of nationalist monarchy
• • Genesis of middle class
• • Background for the Industrial Revolution.

Early Modern Europe: Mercantilism

In the later period, the commercial revolution adopted a new dimension and new principles. It is called ‘mercantilism’. This ideology was prevalent in Europe from 16^th-18^th c.

In a broad sense, mercantilism was an economic system based on government intervention and its aim was to bring economic growth in the nation and increase the power of the state.

Even though it is considered an economic programme, its objectives were political. The mercantilist policies were implemented by the nation-states/nationalist monarchy.

These monarchical-states took following steps:

• • Bullionism: Emphasized inflow of bullion into the state.
• • Balance of Trade: Wanted favourable balance of trade. So, they followed discriminatory taxation policy.
• • Self-reliance in the matter of production - state support - to curtail import.
• • Colonialism: Started colonising new areas to establish their control for more resources for their faster growth.

Active participation of the state in the trade expansion and the need to reduce trade difficulties brought both the state and the merchant class closer.

Thus, mercantilism met the economic expectations of the emerging nation state. It strengthened the economic base of the nation-state. It paved the way for colonialism.

Early Modern Europe: Nationalist Monarchy

Alongside commercial revolution and mercantilism, there was the ‘Rise of Nation State and the Autocratic Monarchy’.

The emergence of the modern state system was the result of some fundamental politico-economic developments in Europe between 15^th-17^th c.

• • Decline of feudalism:
  • ◦ Economic
    • ■ The flow of silver gave birth to the price revolution. This meant that the condition of the classes which were associated with commerce and trade improved, on the other hand, the economic and social condition of the aristocracy went through a blow.
    • ■ The land became freed from feudal control and transformed into a market commodity. Thus, a capitalist class came into light.
  • ◦ Socio-Religious
    • ■ The Renaissance encouraged a new consciousness in Europe and weakened the ‘Manor system’.
    • ■ With Reformation, the unity of the Roman Catholic world was broken and the power and prestige of the Holy Roman Empire, the guardian of the Roman Catholic Church, came under threat. It enabled the kings to bring local Church under the state authority through demarcation of the national boundaries.

In this way, economic, political, and religious issues were all closely connected to each other.

The ambitious rulers of Europe took some concrete steps to strengthen their position.

• • They implemented mercantile policies to make ends meet the economic requirements of the nation-states.
• • They gained the support of the newly emerging middle class against the feudal lords.
• • They introduced the system of regular taxation.
• • Direct centralized Rule: They formed a standing army and an independent bureaucracy.
• • They adopted the Roman legal system which gave emphasis to the powerful monarchy.
• • Another powerful tool of centralization in the modern state system was the promotion of cultural homogeneity among the people of the state. As a result of this, concepts like nation and nationalism developed.
• • Propaganda by the king and ideological support by scholars
  • ◦ The ambitious European rulers themselves propagated the concept of a powerful monarchy.
  • ◦ Some contemporary thinkers like Hobbes, Grotius, Bodin etc. also provided an ideological basis to the autocratic monarchy.

There were some leading nationalist rulers of Europe:

• • Henry VIII and Elizabeth in Britain
• • Louis XIV in France
• • Maria Theresa and Joseph I in Austria
• • Frederick William I and Frederick William the Great in Prussia
• • Peter the Great and Catherine the Great in Russia.

Treaty of Westphalia

At the global level, an important issue of that period was the competition between the Bourbon dynasty and the Habsburg dynasty. This issue combined with some other issues gave rise to the Thirty Years’ War.

Thirty Years’ War completed the process that had begun with the geographical exploration and Reformation Movement. It proved to be a great landmark in the history of Europe as it is with the treaty of Westphalia (1648) that the modern state system came into existence.

Causes:

• • Conflict between Protestant and Roman Catholic in Germany and reprisals to Protestants by Holy Roman emperor.
• • Dynastic rivalry between Bourbon Dynasty and Habsburg dynasty.
• • Division of European countries on religious line and their involvement in this war. Therefore, the war took the form of the all-European war.

Consequences:

It changed the very basis for the future battles. Although this war was fought with religious issues, secular issues influenced events from beginning to end.

This war ended with the Treaty of Westphalia (1648).

• • Although the war remained indecisive, the power and prestige of the Holy Roman Empire received a major blow. It ended the political hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire. This resulted in the emergence of small German states.
• • The importance lies in the fact that it laid the foundation stone of the modern political system.
  • ◦ Defined geographical boundary.
  • ◦ Irrespective of their size, the principle of equality of all states was accepted.
  • ◦ Each nation had the right to formulate its foreign policy, to join a bloc of nations and to declare war for its own benefit.
• • This treaty introduced the concept of international law first time and stated that all European states, regardless of their size and their power, were equal according to international law and the nation states had the right to full control over their people and their territory.
  • ◦ Use of diplomacy as an alternative to wars.
  • ◦ It was the first European Congress, and, in a sense, it was also a precursor to the Congress of Vienna and the Paris Peace Conference.
  • ◦ Grotius drafted international law for the first time.
• • The concept of Balance of Power came into existence, and it started to guide the relations between European nations.
  • ◦ This concept was based on that of a nation-state with a clear geographical boundary and a fully sovereign status.
  • ◦ In a sense, even the First World War and the Second World War were fought to maintain a balance of power.
  • ◦ After the Second World War and the decolonization, Westphalia system expanded to Afro-Asian regions as well.

Thus, the process of the Rise of modern West was completed till 17^th century CE.

The Age of Enlightenment: Part 1

“All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings.”
Diderot in Encyclopaedia

Sapere Aude (Dare to Know)
Immanuel Kant

“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.”
Article 51(h), Constitution of India

Meaning of the Enlightenment

The term enlightenment refers to real Awakening. The Age of Enlightenment in European history was the age of a cultural, intellectual, and philosophical movement.

Enlightenment symbolized intellectual awakening of mankind and emancipation of human consciousness from immature state of ignorance and error. It was a project to examine the impediments holding the society back and an attempt to free humanity from historical baggage.

As an intellectual movement, it marked a significant departure from previous centuries’ reliance on religious and traditional authority to explain the world and shape society. Enlightenment philosophers began to re-evaluate old notions/beliefs/principles of society (e.g., divine right of monarchs, the union of church and state, and the existence of unequal social classes) in the wake of the scientific revolution. On the touchstone of reason, they found the traditional values and institutions oppressive, divisive, and inefficient, and thus in need of reform, or replacement by rational values and institutions.

It was a modernising force, keen to review and regenerate culture and society. Enlightenment thinkers critiqued existing government, religion, society, education and economic development and strongly emphasized human rights, liberty, and the separation of church and state. In all the aspects, they emphasized reason and frequently embraced notions of the perfectibility of people and progress. Thus, ideas of Enlightenment were all-encompassing and touched every aspect of human life.

The movement reached its height in the mid-1700s and brought great change to many aspects of Western civilization. Though most intense in Paris (France), enlightenment thought affected most parts of Europe to some degree. Because of it, 18^th century is known as the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason in the history of Europe.

Enlightenment Thinkers:

• • France: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Quesnay
• • Britain: John Lock, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon
• • Germany: Kant

Three stages of Enlightenment:

Before 1748	1748-1778	After 1778
Early Enlightenment	High Enlightenment	Late Enlightenment
Most directly reflects the influence of the Scientific Revolution	Begins with the publication of The Spirit of Laws (1748) by Montesquieu and ends in 1778 with the deaths of Voltaire and Rousseau	• Influence of Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Emmanuel Kant • Enlightened Despotism • Grub Street Literature

Fundamental Philosophy of Enlightenment

1. Rationalism is the basis of knowledge. Like nature, even political, economic, and social institutions should work according to their own eternal laws and there should be no scope for outside intervention.
   • ◦ Enlightenment thinkers developed a critical spirit of analysis not to accept routine tradition.
2. Natural Laws
   • ◦ It is a set of ethical/moral principles, that are inherent in human nature (and thus common to all humans), derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law. They are accessible to human reason.
   • ◦ The concept of natural law was a powerful tool for the Enlightenment thinkers. It helped them to challenge the old order and to build a new world based on reason and justice. It provided a framework for critiquing existing social and political structures while advocating for more rational and just alternatives. These principles were believed to provide a foundation for just governance, individual rights, and societal order.
3. Humanism was crux of enlightenment.
   • ◦ It undermined the role of religion and emphasize on the power of man. It argues that human beings are capable of using reason to understand the world and to improve their lives.
4. Importance of the Individual:
   • ◦ Faith in science and in progress led to the rise of individualism (the idea of individualism and individual freedom).
   • ◦ The philosophes encouraged people to use their own ability to reason in order to judge what was right or wrong.
   • ◦ They also emphasized the importance of the individual in society. Government, they argued, was formed by individuals to promote their welfare.
5. Belief in idea of progress
   • ◦ Belief that, in general, history proceeds in the direction of improved material conditions and a better (i.e., healthier, happier, more secure, more comfortable) life for more and more people. (More simply: In the long run, most things get better).
   • ◦ They were convinced that France had a special role to play in this. Paris particularly played a central role in that.
6. Perfectibility of human nature
   • ◦ The idea of the perfectibility of man emerged with Enlightenment. In Enlightenment writers, human perfectibility was realizable.
   • ◦ With the arrival of the theory of evolution it was possible to see successive economic and cultural history as a progress of increasing fitness, from primitive and undeveloped states to a potential ideal.

These ideas started to influence human life in every field. In politics, it gave a challenge to absolutist government support constitutionalism, in economy it advocated free trade, in society, Rousseau supported the idea of community, there was focus on modern laws and individual rights, separation of church and state etc.

The Enlightenment reached its height in France in the mid-1700s. Paris became the meeting place for people who wanted to discuss politics and ideas. The social critics of this period in France were known as philosophes.

Factors behind the rise of Enlightenment

• • Renaissance Legacy: The Renaissance (14th-17th centuries) laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment by reviving interest in classical Greek and Roman texts. This intellectual revival encouraged critical thinking, humanism, and a focus on individual potential.
• • Scientific revolution of the 17^th c laid the intellectual foundation of the Enlightenment.
  • ◦ Enlightenment was deeply indebted to the technique of science – rationalism and science became the basis. It emerged as a response to Catholic Counter-Reformation which tried to strengthen traditional religious authority and discourage free-thinking.
  • ◦ Progress in science removed the veil of mystery from nature.
    • ■ Rise of Empiricism: Enlightenment thinkers advocated for the application of empirical observation to all areas of human knowledge, including philosophy, politics, and society.
    • ■ Rise of Rationalism: Rationalism emphasized the importance of human reason as a means to attain knowledge and understanding.
  • ◦ Four 17^th c thinkers specifically linked Scientific Revolution with Enlightenment:
    • ■ Francis Bacon: Empiricism to gain true knowledge and understand nature
    • ■ John Locke started to apply scientific principles to the analysis of political/social domain. He is considered as the father of liberalism.
    • ■ Spinoza: Pantheism to reject the prevalent notion of God and advocate religious freedom.
    • ■ Comte de Buffon: application of scientific principles to study natural sciences and thus challenge religious beliefs.
• • Change in attitude of Europeans during the 17^th-18^th century:
  • ◦ Travel and Exchange of Ideas: Increased travel, exploration, and trade exposed Europeans to new cultures and perspectives. This cross-cultural exchange of ideas contributed to the diversity of thought during the Enlightenment.

Montesquieu published the Persian Letters (1722), in which he gave a brilliant satirical portrait of French and particularly Parisian civilization, supposedly seen through the eyes of two Persian travellers. This exceedingly successful work mocks the reign of Louis XIV, which had only recently ended, and pokes fun at all social classes. The message was that both easterners and Europeans were imperfect.

• • Change in attitude of Europeans during the 17^th-18^th century (cont.):
  • ◦ Due to commercial revolution: Increasing abundance and novelty creeping into the everyday lives of Europeans It led to the change in mindset: The world didn’t have to be perpetually on the brink of starvation and catastrophe.
  • ◦ Urbanization-led Societal Changes: The growth of cities contributed to the exchange of ideas and cultures. Urban centers became hubs of intellectual activity, facilitating the interaction of diverse thinkers and fostering an environment conducive to the Enlightenment ideals.
  • ◦ Print Culture: The invention of the printing press allowed ideas to be disseminated more widely and rapidly. This facilitated the spread of Renaissance/Reformation/Scientific ideas and facilitated open discussions among intellectuals across different regions.
  • ◦ Reduced influence of Catholic Church
    • ■ Rise of Protestantism: Luther and Calvin asked questions to the Church.
    • ■ 30 years’ war (1618-48) and Treaty of Westphalia: Influence of Church diminished.
  • ◦ The Enlightenment took place during a period of social and political change, including the rise of absolute monarchies and the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Enlightenment thinkers critiqued these systems and explored ideas about natural rights, government legitimacy, and the social contract.
• • A powerful middle class put a question mark to the hegemony of monarchy, aristocracy, and Church. Newly discovered ideas about God, nature and universe came to be applied in political, economic, social, and religious spheres as well.
  • ◦ Changes between 14^th–18^th c (commercial revolution, renaissance, decline of feudalism, rise of nation-state, mercantilism, rise of capitalism) ––> led to the rise of a powerful monarchy, and another was the ambitious middle class.
  • ◦ As an intellectual movement, Enlightenment strongly represented the worldview of the middle class.

Enlightenment Ideas

(A) Political Field:

• ◦ The political and social system of France prior to the French Revolution was called as ancien regime.
• ◦ Divine Right of Kings was used as a political doctrine to defend monarchical absolutism/despotism.

To limit the power of absolute monarchies, several theories came forward.

Liberalism	An individual must be from the clutches from institutions like state, society, and church. It believes that no control of any kind must be imposed on free thinking.
Individualism	Institutions like state, society and church exist for benefit of individuals and not vice versa.
Constitutionalism	The king must exercise his authority in accordance with constitution.
Republicanism	Emphasized self-rule, rather than a rule by monarchy. It emphasized popular sovereignty, as against monarchical rule.

Thus, the idea of government was changing during Enlightenment. People began to imagine an alternate sense of sovereignty in the nation. The notion of Divine right → Consent of the governed, which was further delineated in the Enlightenment.

Specific Reforms:

• • Separation of Power:
  • • Montesquieu, in his famous text ‘On the Spirit of Laws’ (1748), pleaded for separation among three organs of the government to end despotism and preserve individual freedom.
    • • He applied the principles of empiricism and rational inquiry to analyze social and political structures. He subjected laws to critical inquiry.
    • • He differentiated absolutism from despotism.
    • • Montesquieu believed that Britain was the best-governed and most politically balanced country of his own day.
  • • In this way, the seeds of republican/democratic ideas were sown during the period of Enlightenment. It became reality in American constitution.
• • Different approaches:
  • • Montesquieu: Use of nobility to check the power of the monarchy.
  • • Voltaire: supported Enlightened despotism.
  • • Rousseau: supported democracy. believed that the only good government was one that was freely formed by the people and guided by the “general will” of society—a direct democracy. In 1762, he explained his political philosophy in a book called The Social Contract.
    • • Rousseau’s ideas inspired many of the leaders of the French Revolution who overthrew the monarchy in 1789.
• • Freedom of thought and expression:
  • • Voltaire fought for tolerance, reason, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of speech. He used his pen against intolerance, prejudice, and superstition. He summed up his staunch defense of liberty in one of his most famous quotes: “I do not agree with a word you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire made fun of overweening rulers and their endless corruptions. His discourtesy to aristocrats eventually got him sent to the Bastille prison. In his satirical novel Candide (1759), he supported newly desirable traits of the Enlightenment, like being honest, and inquisitive, and open.

• • Criminal Justice Reform
  • • Beccaria (Italian philosophe) believed that laws existed to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes.
    • • He argued that a person accused of a crime should receive a speedy trial, and that torture should never be used. Moreover, the degree of punishment should be based on the seriousness of the crime.

(There was also a radical enlightenment whose thinkers demanded equality for men, and sometimes women, in political and economic terms.)

(B) Economic Field: Laissez Faire Capitalism

• • In the economic field, it was opposed to mercantilism and instead it advocated for free trade.
  • • Mercantilism advocated active role of the state in economy.
  • • Laissez faire (let do in French) = economic policy of letting owners of industry and business set working conditions without interference. This policy favours a free market unregulated by the government.
• • Francois Quesnay published the “Tableau économique” (Economic Table) in 1758, and provided the foundations to the Physiocrats (rule of nature).

	Mercantilists	Physiocrats
Government interference in market	Each nation must regulate trade/manufacture to increase its wealth and power	Contended that labour and commerce should be freed from all restraint.
Land is the source of all wealth.	Claimed that coins and bullion were the essence of wealth.	Asserted that wealth consisted solely of the products of the soil.

• • By the 1770s, the Physiocracy was in decline.
• • Adam Smith, one of the great economists of the time. In his magnum opus ‘The wealth of Nations’ (1776), he attacked mercantilism and proved how wealth of nations grew better through the policy of free trade. Thus, the government should not interfere.
  • • Smith’s arguments rested on the three natural laws of economics:
    • • Law of self-interest—People work for their own good.
    • • Law of competition—Competition forces people to make a better product.
      • • Thus, freedom of profession, as against guilds-controlled production.
    • • Law of supply and demand—Enough goods would be produced at the lowest possible price to meet demand in a market economy.
  • • The fundamental message: wealth of any nation was determined not by the gold in the monarch’s coffers, but by its national income. This income was in turn based on the labor of its inhabitants, organized efficiently by the division of labour and the use of accumulated capital.
• • Emergence of Classical Economics
  • • Adam Smith is characterized as the father of classical economics. His Wealth of Nations is the foundation of Laissez Faire economics.
  • • Other thinkers: Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, JS Mill.
  • • These economists produced a theory of market economy.
    • • Market: self-regulating systems, governed by natural laws
    • • Domestic: No state interference
    • • International: free trade

(C) Religious Field:

• • Secularisation: Enlightenment weakened the hold of traditional religion, particularly the role of the Catholic Church as a public institution in France. An important outcome of the Enlightenment thought was the rise of a more secular, or non-religious, outlook.
  • • Open questioning of religious beliefs and the teachings of the church.
  • • View of Philosophes
    • • Attacked intolerance and bigotry of Church.
    • • Wanted to rid religious faith of superstition and fear.
    • • Promotion of tolerance of all religions.
    • • Reduced role of religion in public affairs: Religion to become a personal affair of people, and not a public policy of a state.
  • • Examples:
    • • Voltaire attacked superstition of Church by giving a call of écrasez l’infâme
      • • French thinkers generally had stronger anti-Church views. It became one of the reasons behind France being truly secular state.
    • • In England, Edward Gibbon in The History of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire criticized organized religion of Christianity.
    • • In Scotland, philosopher David Hume promoted reason above religion, concluding that belief in God was mere superstition. He promoted atheism.
• • Deism
  • • It believes that God created the world and then let it evolve itself. (Creator who doesn’t intervene).
  • • It is a natural religion.
  • • It accepts religious knowledge inborn in every person or acquired by reason. It rejects of religious knowledge through revelation or the teaching of any church.
  • • For deists, the best form of worship is to do good to others.
  • • Thus, as scientific thought gained acceptance, deism gained prominence.

• • This-worldly attitude
  • • In general, Enlightenment aims were more worldly than spiritual. Enlightenment did not necessarily deny the meaning or emotional hold of religion, but it gradually shifted attention away from religious questions toward secular ones.
  • • Enlightenment thinkers taught a secular code of ethics, one that was divorced from religious beliefs. That they were engaged with humanity. They thought people were basically good.

(D) Social sphere:

• • Egalitarianism: Discrimination based on birth and other artificial inequalities were condemned.
  • • John Locke argued that all men were created equal and that no one should be born into more power than another.
  • • Rousseau distinguished between two types of inequality: natural (physical) and moral (social).
    • • Natural inequality arises from differences in physical attributes such as strength and intelligence, which are inherent to individuals.
    • • Moral/social inequality arises from social factors such as wealth, power, and social status, which are the products of societal structures. (against concentration of wealth)
• • Anti-Slavery:
  • • Slavery was considered against natural law as all men were considered born free by Enlightenment thinkers. Enlightenment views fed into rising movements in Britain, France, the Netherlands, and their colonies to abolish slavery.

Voltaire wrote Candide (1759) “When we’re working at the sugar mill and catch our finger in the grinding-wheel, they cut off our hand. When we try to run away, they cut off a leg. I have been in both of these situations. This is the price you pay for the sugar you eat in Europe…” “The Dutch fetishes [i.e., missionaries] who converted me [to Christianity] tell me every Sunday that we are all the sons of Adam, Whites and Blacks alike. I’m no genealogist, but if these preachers are right, we are all cousins born of first cousins. Well, you will grant me that you can’t treat a relative much worse than this.”

In 1770, the French Catholic abbé (clergyman) Guillaume Raynal talked about the violent devastation of native peoples by colonizing Europeans in his Histoire des deux Indes (History of the East and West Indies), a 6-volume history of the European colonies in India and America. It denounced European cruelty to colonial peoples, which it blamed on religious intolerance and arbitrary authority. He denounced slavery and atrocities committed by Europeans on native people.

Freed slave Olaudah Equiano (born in Nigeria, enslaved) wrote a riveting autobiography (1788) highlighting his intellectual journey and the struggle for human rights. It captured the inhumanity of whites towards blacks, advocated Enlightenment freedom and human rights for all. It also stirred freedmen and slaves to struggle for abolition. It was a bestseller.

Spread of Enlightenment

The thinkers mainly lived in the world of ideas. They formed and popularized new theories. They supported free public examination of religion or legislation. Such knowledge could spread across political boundaries and could rival the state power. The philosophes spent a great deal of energy disseminating their ideas among educated men and women in cosmopolitan cities. Their views often got them in trouble. Nevertheless, the Enlightenment spread throughout Europe with the help of books, magazines, and word of mouth. In time, Enlightenment ideas influenced everything from the artistic world to the royal courts across the continent.

• • Republic of letters: a long-distance intellectual community in the 18^th century Europe/America, which fostered communication among the intellectuals.
• • Institutions of sociability: Salons, Coffee houses, Debating societies, Academies and Mesonic Lodges
  • ◦ The buzz of Enlightenment ideas was most intense in the mansions of several wealthy women of Paris. There, in their large drawing rooms, the hostesses held regular social gatherings called salons where a small get-together/gathering of intellectual: at these events, philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, and other great intellects met to discuss/hear the latest idea, learn about the latest book, or meet the latest philosopher-influencer.
  • ◦ Coffeehouses were especially important to the spread of knowledge because people from many different walks of life gathered and shared ideas.
  • ◦ Academies and Debating societies enlarged the public sphere where Enlightenment ideas were discussed and exchanged. (An academy was a group of erudites, sometimes including clergy, many nobles, many people of education.)
  • ◦ Masonic lodges. They are secularizing institution. Masonic lodges talked about these ideas of Rousseau, Diderot, and Montesquieu etc.
• • Print Culture
  • ◦ Science and natural histories were made popular during Enlightenment era.
  • ◦ Writings of Philosophes
    • ■ Montesquieu: Spirit of Laws, Persian Letters
    • ■ Voltaire: Candide, Treatise on Tolerance, Letters on the English, Dictionnaire Philosophique.
    • ■ Rousseau: Discourse on Origin of Inequality, The Social Contract, Emile, Confessions, Discourses on Art and Science
    • ■ Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations
  • ◦ Pamphlets like Common Sense by Thomas Paine
  • ◦ Encyclopaedia
    • ■ Diderot’s Encyclopédie

• • Diderot created a large set of books to which many leading scholars of Europe contributed articles and essays. He called it Encyclopedia and began publishing the first volumes in 1751.
  • • Published over a period of more than twenty years beginning in 1751, it consisted of 60,000 articles and 2,885 illustrations in 28 volumes.
  • • John Merriman: It was the greatest monument of the Enlightenment.
  • • The Encyclopedia implicitly challenged monarchical authority. JeanJacques Rousseau wrote enthusiastically about representative government and even popular sovereignty, and came close to espousing a republic.

• • George Buffon
  • • Natural History: 44 volume encyclopaedia describing everything known in the natural world.
• ◦ Grub street literature
  • ■ The Grub Street hacks heaped abuse against what they considered to be unearned, unjustified privilege, and disrespected the monarchy and the nobles who hung around the king.

• • Reading Revolution
  • ◦ Reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century, from being intensive to extensive.
• • Newspapers and Journals also spread ideas of enlightenment in Europe and outside.
  • ◦ Although the circulation of newspaper were not very high, these were popular among members of middle class that were quite educated.
  • ◦ Tabloid journalism
    • ■ Sarah Maza: Private Lives and Public Affairs
• • Additional ways:
  • ◦ In the 1700s, Paris was the cultural and intellectual capital of Europe. Young people from around Europe—and also from the Americas—came to study, philosophize, and enjoy the culture of the bustling city. The brightest minds of the age gathered there. From their circles radiated the ideas of the Enlightenment.
  • ◦ Reforms initiated by kings.
  • ◦ Travelling merchants
  • ◦ Success of Revolutions: The revolutions played the most important role in the spread of ideas of enlightenment.

Significant Impact of Enlightenment

• • The spread of ideas of Enlightenment resulted in growth of awakening among people. Scientific outlook was fostered among the people. It emphasized on logic, Reason, and critical thinking.
• • The spread of ideas of enlightenment doomed the fate of medievalism (feudalism, aristocracy, dominance of Church) in Europe and opened the doors of modern age. It paved the way for several changes in politico-admin, social, religious & economic life.
• • Enlightenment thinkers criticized absolute monarchies and advocated for more accountable and just forms of government. Their writings influenced some political change.
  • ◦ Enlightened/Benevolent Despotism: Fredrick the great of Prussia, Joseph II of Austria, and Catherine the great of Russia initiated several reforms.
  • ◦ Revolutions: In those countries where the rulers failed to appreciate the urges and aspirations of people, revolutions erupted time and again.
    • ■ The American revolution (1776), French revolution (1789), Irish revolution (1798), Spanish revolution (1820), European revolution (19^th century)

Political	• Ideas like Church-state separation, natural rights of life, liberty, property (Locke), Separation of power (Montesquieu), freedom of thought and expression (Voltaire), democracy and rule of law → Fundamental to US constitution, French declaration of rights of men
Economic	• Laissez Faire (Adam Smith): British economic policy during the 19th c. • Empirical inquiry, technological advancement: Industrial Revolution.     ◦ James Watt (steam engine)
Social	• Social Reform to align society with reason, justice, and human dignity. • Changing the penal codes. (Prisoners treated humanely) • Criticism of slavery (abolished in later period) • Critique of Inequality: advocating for more just and equitable societies.
Science, and Education	• Birth of various natural and social sciences. • Establishment of public schools and libraries
Public Health	• Scientific discoveries → reduction in mortality. • Maternity homes began to be established. • Smallpox was controlled by vaccination. • Personal hygiene and cleanliness given special emphasis.
Religious	• Secularism and religious pluralism. • Deism
Art and Culture	• Emergence of new literature: Montesquieu, Rousseau & Diderot etc. • Growth of print culture: newspapers, magazines, and books. • Neoclassicism, that drew inspiration from classical antiquity.

The Enlightenment also generated a legacy of debates which continues to shape contemporary political and ethical discussions.

Specific Topic (1): Enlightened Despotism

• • Having been inspired by enlightenment (and perhaps with personal friendship), many of the 18^th c. European monarchs adopted certain progressive ideas of Enlightenment. They took personal interest in the study of political science and philosophy. Therefore, they came to be known as enlightened monarchs.
  • ◦ Frederick II of Prussia
  • ◦ Joseph II of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor
  • ◦ Catherine the Great of Russia
• • The enlightened monarchy was different from despotic monarchy in the sense that the monarchs now took care of public interest also, along with their dynastic interest.
  • ◦ They held that royal power emanated not from divine rights but from social contract. And thus, tried to bring some reforms in governance.
  • ◦ Some European rulers of this period felt that the state should be ruled for the protection of the subjects. They established a check on administration’s oppressive policies and tried to create more inclusive and progressive policy atmosphere.
• • Reforms under the influence of enlightenment:
  • ◦ Codification of laws
  • ◦ Administrative reforms: eg Land registration
  • ◦ Economy: Encouraged ‘laissez-faire’ policy to promote commerce.
  • ◦ Supported technological upgradation and medical research.
    • ■ eg Pox could be eliminated
  • ◦ Socio-cultural: Religious tolerance, Attack on slavery, Education reforms

Frederick the Great of Prussia (1740 to 1786)

• • Though he was engaged in a lot of military campaigns, but he also took steps to improve economic conditions of Prussia. During his reign Prussia made a lot of progress and became a leading power in Europe.
• • Reforms
  • ◦ Codification of laws: Landrecht
    • ■ Religious freedoms.
    • ■ Reduced press censorship
    • ■ Reformed the justice system and abolished the use of torture.
  • ◦ Improved education: Opened lots of schools for the spread of knowledge.
  • ◦ Expanded agriculture by making unusable land available for cultivation.
  • ◦ Encouraged industries and set up an efficient banking system.
• • However, Frederick’s changes only went so far. He never tried to change the existing social order.
• • Most important contribution was his attitude toward being king. He called himself “the first servant of the state.”

Joseph II of Austria (1765-1790)

• • He was influenced by Frederick II. Although he was a competent ruler, but his ideas were too radical to succeed at the time.
• • Introduced legal reforms:
  • ◦ Abolished feudal courts and death penalty
  • ◦ Uniform code of justice
  • ◦ Freedom of the press, curtailed censorship.
• • Curtailing power of Church
  • ◦ Abolished Tithes
  • ◦ Secular modern syllabus in school
  • ◦ He ordered the officials not to implement instructions of pope without his prior permission.
  • ◦ Religious freedom to Protestants, Orthodox Christians, atheists and Jews…!
• • Foundation of schools
• • Encouragement of trade and industries
• • In his most radical reform, Joseph abolished serfdom and ordered that peasant be paid for their labor with cash.
• • He tried to unite his country by abolishing the division of race, religion and language. But this turned out to be a failure as he ignored the age-old customs, traditions and prejudices of Austrian people.

Catherine the Great of Russia (1762-1796)

• • She was well-educated and a prolific writer of history and drama. She was influenced by philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot.
• • She continued the policy of Peter the Great and resumed the westernization of Russia.
  • ◦ She patronized western education and she founded schools
  • ◦ Confiscated property of church to set up schools and colleges.
  • ◦ Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe.
• • She wrote Nakaz (instructions) to codify the laws and formed a commission to reform entire legal system based on the ideas of Montesquieu and Beccaria.
  • ◦ Religious toleration
  • ◦ Abolishing torture and capital punishment.
  • ◦ Her commission, however, accomplished none of these lofty goals.
• • Governance Reforms
  • ◦ Centralization of power – permanent council of states
  • ◦ Reforms in local government
• • She did little to improve the life of the Russian peasants. Serfdom was not abolished. Her views about enlightened ideas changed after a massive uprising of serfs in 1773. With great brutality, Catherine’s army crushed the rebellion.
• • Although the economic condition of the serfs deteriorated during her period, she transformed Russia into a leading power and added much to its territorial expansion.

Specific Topic (2): Enlightenment & French Revolution:

The Enlightenment has been considered as one among the major reasons for the French Revolution of 1789, but it needs to be understood carefully that it was not the real cause of the revolution.

Most of the thinkers were reformers, not revolutionaries:

• • Almost all the thinkers came from the upper class and wanted to establish an enlightened/constitutional monarchy through the reforms in the system. But they were not in favour of the establishment of representative or democratic government.
• • These thinkers were not activists: they didn’t form any political party or revolutionary organization, nor did they present any radical policy or program.
• • None of them directly participated in the French Revolution of 1789.

However, it is equally true that their ideas inspired revolutionaries, so they became the unconscious catalyst behind the revolution. Enlightenment helped prepare the way for the French Revolution.

• • Enlightenment gave ideological support to French Revolution
• • “Desacralization of the French monarchy”: they helped break down this sense of automatic respect for the monarchy as an institution.
• • The people who received the power after the French Revolution were very influenced by the Enlightenment. The classic example is Maximilian Robespierre, who in many ways was a child of the philosophes.

Napoleon Bonaparte declared ‘if there were no Rousseau, no revolution in France’.

Enlightenment – PYQs

• • Meaning and Causes:
  • • “The Enlightenment represented alternative approaches to modernity, alternative habits of mind and heart, of conscience and sensibility.” Discuss. [2008, 60 Marks]
  • • “…he (Voltaire) was living in the Age of Enlightenment …. The age itself was not enlightened.” — E. Kant. Critically evaluate. [2010, 20 Marks]
  • • Explain the major ideas of Enlightenment. Discuss the contribution of Rousseau in Enlightenment. [2018, 20 Marks]
  • • “The principles of Enlightenment were in some ways a continuation of the discoveries and theories of the Scientific Revolution.” Critically examine. [2020, 10 Marks]
  • • What was “enlightened” about the Age of Enlightenment? [2021, 20 Marks]
• • Enlightened Despots:
  • • “The despotic rulers of Europe were influenced by the philosophy of Enlightenment and begun to follow a benevolent policy towards their subjects.” Critically examine. [2012, 20 Marks]
  • • “Enlightened despots (Europe) were not necessarily politically liberal.” Critically examine. [2014, 10 Marks]

The Age of Enlightenment: Part 1

“All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings.”
Diderot in Encyclopaedia

Sapere Aude (Dare to Know)
Immanuel Kant

“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.”
Article 51(h), Constitution of India

Meaning of the Enlightenment

The term enlightenment refers to real Awakening. The Age of Enlightenment in European history was the age of a cultural, intellectual, and philosophical movement.

Enlightenment symbolized intellectual awakening of mankind and emancipation of human consciousness from immature state of ignorance and error. It was a project to examine the impediments holding the society back and an attempt to free humanity from historical baggage.

As an intellectual movement, it marked a significant departure from previous centuries’ reliance on religious and traditional authority to explain the world and shape society. Enlightenment philosophers began to re-evaluate old notions/beliefs/principles of society (e.g., divine right of monarchs, the union of church and state, and the existence of unequal social classes) in the wake of the scientific revolution. On the touchstone of reason, they found the traditional values and institutions oppressive, divisive, and inefficient, and thus in need of reform, or replacement by rational values and institutions.

It was a modernising force, keen to review and regenerate culture and society. Enlightenment thinkers critiqued existing government, religion, society, education and economic development and strongly emphasized human rights, liberty, and the separation of church and state. In all the aspects, they emphasized reason and frequently embraced notions of the perfectibility of people and progress. Thus, ideas of Enlightenment were all-encompassing and touched every aspect of human life.

The movement reached its height in the mid-1700s and brought great change to many aspects of Western civilization. Though most intense in Paris (France), enlightenment thought affected most parts of Europe to some degree. Because of it, 18^th century is known as the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason in the history of Europe.

Enlightenment Thinkers:

• • France: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Quesnay
• • Britain: John Lock, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon
• • Germany: Kant

Three stages of Enlightenment:

Before 1748	1748-1778	After 1778
Early Enlightenment	High Enlightenment	Late Enlightenment
Most directly reflects the influence of the Scientific Revolution	Begins with the publication of The Spirit of Laws (1748) by Montesquieu and ends in 1778 with the deaths of Voltaire and Rousseau	• Influence of Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Emmanuel Kant • Enlightened Despotism • Grub Street Literature

Fundamental Philosophy of Enlightenment

1. Rationalism is the basis of knowledge. Like nature, even political, economic, and social institutions should work according to their own eternal laws and there should be no scope for outside intervention.
   • ◦ Enlightenment thinkers developed a critical spirit of analysis not to accept routine tradition.
2. Natural Laws
   • ◦ It is a set of ethical/moral principles, that are inherent in human nature (and thus common to all humans), derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law. They are accessible to human reason.
   • ◦ The concept of natural law was a powerful tool for the Enlightenment thinkers. It helped them to challenge the old order and to build a new world based on reason and justice. It provided a framework for critiquing existing social and political structures while advocating for more rational and just alternatives. These principles were believed to provide a foundation for just governance, individual rights, and societal order.
3. Humanism was crux of enlightenment.
   • ◦ It undermined the role of religion and emphasize on the power of man. It argues that human beings are capable of using reason to understand the world and to improve their lives.
4. Importance of the Individual:
   • ◦ Faith in science and in progress led to the rise of individualism (the idea of individualism and individual freedom).
   • ◦ The philosophes encouraged people to use their own ability to reason in order to judge what was right or wrong.
   • ◦ They also emphasized the importance of the individual in society. Government, they argued, was formed by individuals to promote their welfare.
5. Belief in idea of progress
   • ◦ Belief that, in general, history proceeds in the direction of improved material conditions and a better (i.e., healthier, happier, more secure, more comfortable) life for more and more people. (More simply: In the long run, most things get better).
   • ◦ They were convinced that France had a special role to play in this. Paris particularly played a central role in that.
6. Perfectibility of human nature
   • ◦ The idea of the perfectibility of man emerged with Enlightenment. In Enlightenment writers, human perfectibility was realizable.
   • ◦ With the arrival of the theory of evolution it was possible to see successive economic and cultural history as a progress of increasing fitness, from primitive and undeveloped states to a potential ideal.

These ideas started to influence human life in every field. In politics, it gave a challenge to absolutist government support constitutionalism, in economy it advocated free trade, in society, Rousseau supported the idea of community, there was focus on modern laws and individual rights, separation of church and state etc.

The Enlightenment reached its height in France in the mid-1700s. Paris became the meeting place for people who wanted to discuss politics and ideas. The social critics of this period in France were known as philosophes.

Factors behind the rise of Enlightenment

• • Renaissance Legacy: The Renaissance (14th-17th centuries) laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment by reviving interest in classical Greek and Roman texts. This intellectual revival encouraged critical thinking, humanism, and a focus on individual potential.
• • Scientific revolution of the 17^th c laid the intellectual foundation of the Enlightenment.
  • ◦ Enlightenment was deeply indebted to the technique of science – rationalism and science became the basis. It emerged as a response to Catholic Counter-Reformation which tried to strengthen traditional religious authority and discourage free-thinking.
  • ◦ Progress in science removed the veil of mystery from nature.
    • ■ Rise of Empiricism: Enlightenment thinkers advocated for the application of empirical observation to all areas of human knowledge, including philosophy, politics, and society.
    • ■ Rise of Rationalism: Rationalism emphasized the importance of human reason as a means to attain knowledge and understanding.
  • ◦ Four 17^th c thinkers specifically linked Scientific Revolution with Enlightenment:
    • ■ Francis Bacon: Empiricism to gain true knowledge and understand nature
    • ■ John Locke started to apply scientific principles to the analysis of political/social domain. He is considered as the father of liberalism.
    • ■ Spinoza: Pantheism to reject the prevalent notion of God and advocate religious freedom.
    • ■ Comte de Buffon: application of scientific principles to study natural sciences and thus challenge religious beliefs.
• • Change in attitude of Europeans during the 17^th-18^th century:
  • ◦ Travel and Exchange of Ideas: Increased travel, exploration, and trade exposed Europeans to new cultures and perspectives. This cross-cultural exchange of ideas contributed to the diversity of thought during the Enlightenment.

Montesquieu published the Persian Letters (1722), in which he gave a brilliant satirical portrait of French and particularly Parisian civilization, supposedly seen through the eyes of two Persian travellers. This exceedingly successful work mocks the reign of Louis XIV, which had only recently ended, and pokes fun at all social classes. The message was that both easterners and Europeans were imperfect.

• • Change in attitude of Europeans during the 17^th-18^th century (cont.):
  • ◦ Due to commercial revolution: Increasing abundance and novelty creeping into the everyday lives of Europeans It led to the change in mindset: The world didn’t have to be perpetually on the brink of starvation and catastrophe.
  • ◦ Urbanization-led Societal Changes: The growth of cities contributed to the exchange of ideas and cultures. Urban centers became hubs of intellectual activity, facilitating the interaction of diverse thinkers and fostering an environment conducive to the Enlightenment ideals.
  • ◦ Print Culture: The invention of the printing press allowed ideas to be disseminated more widely and rapidly. This facilitated the spread of Renaissance/Reformation/Scientific ideas and facilitated open discussions among intellectuals across different regions.
  • ◦ Reduced influence of Catholic Church
    • ■ Rise of Protestantism: Luther and Calvin asked questions to the Church.
    • ■ 30 years’ war (1618-48) and Treaty of Westphalia: Influence of Church diminished.
  • ◦ The Enlightenment took place during a period of social and political change, including the rise of absolute monarchies and the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Enlightenment thinkers critiqued these systems and explored ideas about natural rights, government legitimacy, and the social contract.
• • A powerful middle class put a question mark to the hegemony of monarchy, aristocracy, and Church. Newly discovered ideas about God, nature and universe came to be applied in political, economic, social, and religious spheres as well.
  • ◦ Changes between 14^th–18^th c (commercial revolution, renaissance, decline of feudalism, rise of nation-state, mercantilism, rise of capitalism) ––> led to the rise of a powerful monarchy, and another was the ambitious middle class.
  • ◦ As an intellectual movement, Enlightenment strongly represented the worldview of the middle class.

Enlightenment Ideas

(A) Political Field:

• ◦ The political and social system of France prior to the French Revolution was called as ancien regime.
• ◦ Divine Right of Kings was used as a political doctrine to defend monarchical absolutism/despotism.

To limit the power of absolute monarchies, several theories came forward.

Liberalism	An individual must be from the clutches from institutions like state, society, and church. It believes that no control of any kind must be imposed on free thinking.
Individualism	Institutions like state, society and church exist for benefit of individuals and not vice versa.
Constitutionalism	The king must exercise his authority in accordance with constitution.
Republicanism	Emphasized self-rule, rather than a rule by monarchy. It emphasized popular sovereignty, as against monarchical rule.

Thus, the idea of government was changing during Enlightenment. People began to imagine an alternate sense of sovereignty in the nation. The notion of Divine right → Consent of the governed, which was further delineated in the Enlightenment.

Specific Reforms:

• • Separation of Power:
  • • Montesquieu, in his famous text ‘On the Spirit of Laws’ (1748), pleaded for separation among three organs of the government to end despotism and preserve individual freedom.
    • • He applied the principles of empiricism and rational inquiry to analyze social and political structures. He subjected laws to critical inquiry.
    • • He differentiated absolutism from despotism.
    • • Montesquieu believed that Britain was the best-governed and most politically balanced country of his own day.
  • • In this way, the seeds of republican/democratic ideas were sown during the period of Enlightenment. It became reality in American constitution.
• • Different approaches:
  • • Montesquieu: Use of nobility to check the power of the monarchy.
  • • Voltaire: supported Enlightened despotism.
  • • Rousseau: supported democracy. believed that the only good government was one that was freely formed by the people and guided by the “general will” of society—a direct democracy. In 1762, he explained his political philosophy in a book called The Social Contract.
    • • Rousseau’s ideas inspired many of the leaders of the French Revolution who overthrew the monarchy in 1789.
• • Freedom of thought and expression:
  • • Voltaire fought for tolerance, reason, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of speech. He used his pen against intolerance, prejudice, and superstition. He summed up his staunch defense of liberty in one of his most famous quotes: “I do not agree with a word you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire made fun of overweening rulers and their endless corruptions. His discourtesy to aristocrats eventually got him sent to the Bastille prison. In his satirical novel Candide (1759), he supported newly desirable traits of the Enlightenment, like being honest, and inquisitive, and open.

• • Criminal Justice Reform
  • • Beccaria (Italian philosophe) believed that laws existed to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes.
    • • He argued that a person accused of a crime should receive a speedy trial, and that torture should never be used. Moreover, the degree of punishment should be based on the seriousness of the crime.

(There was also a radical enlightenment whose thinkers demanded equality for men, and sometimes women, in political and economic terms.)

(B) Economic Field: Laissez Faire Capitalism

• • In the economic field, it was opposed to mercantilism and instead it advocated for free trade.
  • • Mercantilism advocated active role of the state in economy.
  • • Laissez faire (let do in French) = economic policy of letting owners of industry and business set working conditions without interference. This policy favours a free market unregulated by the government.
• • Francois Quesnay published the “Tableau économique” (Economic Table) in 1758, and provided the foundations to the Physiocrats (rule of nature).

	Mercantilists	Physiocrats
Government interference in market	Each nation must regulate trade/manufacture to increase its wealth and power	Contended that labour and commerce should be freed from all restraint.
Land is the source of all wealth.	Claimed that coins and bullion were the essence of wealth.	Asserted that wealth consisted solely of the products of the soil.

• • By the 1770s, the Physiocracy was in decline.
• • Adam Smith, one of the great economists of the time. In his magnum opus ‘The wealth of Nations’ (1776), he attacked mercantilism and proved how wealth of nations grew better through the policy of free trade. Thus, the government should not interfere.
  • • Smith’s arguments rested on the three natural laws of economics:
    • • Law of self-interest—People work for their own good.
    • • Law of competition—Competition forces people to make a better product.
      • • Thus, freedom of profession, as against guilds-controlled production.
    • • Law of supply and demand—Enough goods would be produced at the lowest possible price to meet demand in a market economy.
  • • The fundamental message: wealth of any nation was determined not by the gold in the monarch’s coffers, but by its national income. This income was in turn based on the labor of its inhabitants, organized efficiently by the division of labour and the use of accumulated capital.
• • Emergence of Classical Economics
  • • Adam Smith is characterized as the father of classical economics. His Wealth of Nations is the foundation of Laissez Faire economics.
  • • Other thinkers: Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, JS Mill.
  • • These economists produced a theory of market economy.
    • • Market: self-regulating systems, governed by natural laws
    • • Domestic: No state interference
    • • International: free trade

(C) Religious Field:

• • Secularisation: Enlightenment weakened the hold of traditional religion, particularly the role of the Catholic Church as a public institution in France. An important outcome of the Enlightenment thought was the rise of a more secular, or non-religious, outlook.
  • • Open questioning of religious beliefs and the teachings of the church.
  • • View of Philosophes
    • • Attacked intolerance and bigotry of Church.
    • • Wanted to rid religious faith of superstition and fear.
    • • Promotion of tolerance of all religions.
    • • Reduced role of religion in public affairs: Religion to become a personal affair of people, and not a public policy of a state.
  • • Examples:
    • • Voltaire attacked superstition of Church by giving a call of écrasez l’infâme
      • • French thinkers generally had stronger anti-Church views. It became one of the reasons behind France being truly secular state.
    • • In England, Edward Gibbon in The History of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire criticized organized religion of Christianity.
    • • In Scotland, philosopher David Hume promoted reason above religion, concluding that belief in God was mere superstition. He promoted atheism.
• • Deism
  • • It believes that God created the world and then let it evolve itself. (Creator who doesn’t intervene).
  • • It is a natural religion.
  • • It accepts religious knowledge inborn in every person or acquired by reason. It rejects of religious knowledge through revelation or the teaching of any church.
  • • For deists, the best form of worship is to do good to others.
  • • Thus, as scientific thought gained acceptance, deism gained prominence.

• • This-worldly attitude
  • • In general, Enlightenment aims were more worldly than spiritual. Enlightenment did not necessarily deny the meaning or emotional hold of religion, but it gradually shifted attention away from religious questions toward secular ones.
  • • Enlightenment thinkers taught a secular code of ethics, one that was divorced from religious beliefs. That they were engaged with humanity. They thought people were basically good.

(D) Social sphere:

• • Egalitarianism: Discrimination based on birth and other artificial inequalities were condemned.
  • • John Locke argued that all men were created equal and that no one should be born into more power than another.
  • • Rousseau distinguished between two types of inequality: natural (physical) and moral (social).
    • • Natural inequality arises from differences in physical attributes such as strength and intelligence, which are inherent to individuals.
    • • Moral/social inequality arises from social factors such as wealth, power, and social status, which are the products of societal structures. (against concentration of wealth)
• • Anti-Slavery:
  • • Slavery was considered against natural law as all men were considered born free by Enlightenment thinkers. Enlightenment views fed into rising movements in Britain, France, the Netherlands, and their colonies to abolish slavery.

Voltaire wrote Candide (1759) “When we’re working at the sugar mill and catch our finger in the grinding-wheel, they cut off our hand. When we try to run away, they cut off a leg. I have been in both of these situations. This is the price you pay for the sugar you eat in Europe…” “The Dutch fetishes [i.e., missionaries] who converted me [to Christianity] tell me every Sunday that we are all the sons of Adam, Whites and Blacks alike. I’m no genealogist, but if these preachers are right, we are all cousins born of first cousins. Well, you will grant me that you can’t treat a relative much worse than this.”

In 1770, the French Catholic abbé (clergyman) Guillaume Raynal talked about the violent devastation of native peoples by colonizing Europeans in his Histoire des deux Indes (History of the East and West Indies), a 6-volume history of the European colonies in India and America. It denounced European cruelty to colonial peoples, which it blamed on religious intolerance and arbitrary authority. He denounced slavery and atrocities committed by Europeans on native people.

Freed slave Olaudah Equiano (born in Nigeria, enslaved) wrote a riveting autobiography (1788) highlighting his intellectual journey and the struggle for human rights. It captured the inhumanity of whites towards blacks, advocated Enlightenment freedom and human rights for all. It also stirred freedmen and slaves to struggle for abolition. It was a bestseller.

Spread of Enlightenment

The thinkers mainly lived in the world of ideas. They formed and popularized new theories. They supported free public examination of religion or legislation. Such knowledge could spread across political boundaries and could rival the state power. The philosophes spent a great deal of energy disseminating their ideas among educated men and women in cosmopolitan cities. Their views often got them in trouble. Nevertheless, the Enlightenment spread throughout Europe with the help of books, magazines, and word of mouth. In time, Enlightenment ideas influenced everything from the artistic world to the royal courts across the continent.

• • Republic of letters: a long-distance intellectual community in the 18^th century Europe/America, which fostered communication among the intellectuals.
• • Institutions of sociability: Salons, Coffee houses, Debating societies, Academies and Mesonic Lodges
  • ◦ The buzz of Enlightenment ideas was most intense in the mansions of several wealthy women of Paris. There, in their large drawing rooms, the hostesses held regular social gatherings called salons where a small get-together/gathering of intellectual: at these events, philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, and other great intellects met to discuss/hear the latest idea, learn about the latest book, or meet the latest philosopher-influencer.
  • ◦ Coffeehouses were especially important to the spread of knowledge because people from many different walks of life gathered and shared ideas.
  • ◦ Academies and Debating societies enlarged the public sphere where Enlightenment ideas were discussed and exchanged. (An academy was a group of erudites, sometimes including clergy, many nobles, many people of education.)
  • ◦ Masonic lodges. They are secularizing institution. Masonic lodges talked about these ideas of Rousseau, Diderot, and Montesquieu etc.
• • Print Culture
  • ◦ Science and natural histories were made popular during Enlightenment era.
  • ◦ Writings of Philosophes
    • ■ Montesquieu: Spirit of Laws, Persian Letters
    • ■ Voltaire: Candide, Treatise on Tolerance, Letters on the English, Dictionnaire Philosophique.
    • ■ Rousseau: Discourse on Origin of Inequality, The Social Contract, Emile, Confessions, Discourses on Art and Science
    • ■ Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations
  • ◦ Pamphlets like Common Sense by Thomas Paine
  • ◦ Encyclopaedia
    • ■ Diderot’s Encyclopédie

• • Diderot created a large set of books to which many leading scholars of Europe contributed articles and essays. He called it Encyclopedia and began publishing the first volumes in 1751.
  • • Published over a period of more than twenty years beginning in 1751, it consisted of 60,000 articles and 2,885 illustrations in 28 volumes.
  • • John Merriman: It was the greatest monument of the Enlightenment.
  • • The Encyclopedia implicitly challenged monarchical authority. JeanJacques Rousseau wrote enthusiastically about representative government and even popular sovereignty, and came close to espousing a republic.

• • George Buffon
  • • Natural History: 44 volume encyclopaedia describing everything known in the natural world.
• ◦ Grub street literature
  • ■ The Grub Street hacks heaped abuse against what they considered to be unearned, unjustified privilege, and disrespected the monarchy and the nobles who hung around the king.

• • Reading Revolution
  • ◦ Reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century, from being intensive to extensive.
• • Newspapers and Journals also spread ideas of enlightenment in Europe and outside.
  • ◦ Although the circulation of newspaper were not very high, these were popular among members of middle class that were quite educated.
  • ◦ Tabloid journalism
    • ■ Sarah Maza: Private Lives and Public Affairs
• • Additional ways:
  • ◦ In the 1700s, Paris was the cultural and intellectual capital of Europe. Young people from around Europe—and also from the Americas—came to study, philosophize, and enjoy the culture of the bustling city. The brightest minds of the age gathered there. From their circles radiated the ideas of the Enlightenment.
  • ◦ Reforms initiated by kings.
  • ◦ Travelling merchants
  • ◦ Success of Revolutions: The revolutions played the most important role in the spread of ideas of enlightenment.

Significant Impact of Enlightenment

• • The spread of ideas of Enlightenment resulted in growth of awakening among people. Scientific outlook was fostered among the people. It emphasized on logic, Reason, and critical thinking.
• • The spread of ideas of enlightenment doomed the fate of medievalism (feudalism, aristocracy, dominance of Church) in Europe and opened the doors of modern age. It paved the way for several changes in politico-admin, social, religious & economic life.
• • Enlightenment thinkers criticized absolute monarchies and advocated for more accountable and just forms of government. Their writings influenced some political change.
  • ◦ Enlightened/Benevolent Despotism: Fredrick the great of Prussia, Joseph II of Austria, and Catherine the great of Russia initiated several reforms.
  • ◦ Revolutions: In those countries where the rulers failed to appreciate the urges and aspirations of people, revolutions erupted time and again.
    • ■ The American revolution (1776), French revolution (1789), Irish revolution (1798), Spanish revolution (1820), European revolution (19^th century)

Political	• Ideas like Church-state separation, natural rights of life, liberty, property (Locke), Separation of power (Montesquieu), freedom of thought and expression (Voltaire), democracy and rule of law → Fundamental to US constitution, French declaration of rights of men
Economic	• Laissez Faire (Adam Smith): British economic policy during the 19th c. • Empirical inquiry, technological advancement: Industrial Revolution.     ◦ James Watt (steam engine)
Social	• Social Reform to align society with reason, justice, and human dignity. • Changing the penal codes. (Prisoners treated humanely) • Criticism of slavery (abolished in later period) • Critique of Inequality: advocating for more just and equitable societies.
Science, and Education	• Birth of various natural and social sciences. • Establishment of public schools and libraries
Public Health	• Scientific discoveries → reduction in mortality. • Maternity homes began to be established. • Smallpox was controlled by vaccination. • Personal hygiene and cleanliness given special emphasis.
Religious	• Secularism and religious pluralism. • Deism
Art and Culture	• Emergence of new literature: Montesquieu, Rousseau & Diderot etc. • Growth of print culture: newspapers, magazines, and books. • Neoclassicism, that drew inspiration from classical antiquity.

The Enlightenment also generated a legacy of debates which continues to shape contemporary political and ethical discussions.

Specific Topic (1): Enlightened Despotism

• • Having been inspired by enlightenment (and perhaps with personal friendship), many of the 18^th c. European monarchs adopted certain progressive ideas of Enlightenment. They took personal interest in the study of political science and philosophy. Therefore, they came to be known as enlightened monarchs.
  • ◦ Frederick II of Prussia
  • ◦ Joseph II of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor
  • ◦ Catherine the Great of Russia
• • The enlightened monarchy was different from despotic monarchy in the sense that the monarchs now took care of public interest also, along with their dynastic interest.
  • ◦ They held that royal power emanated not from divine rights but from social contract. And thus, tried to bring some reforms in governance.
  • ◦ Some European rulers of this period felt that the state should be ruled for the protection of the subjects. They established a check on administration’s oppressive policies and tried to create more inclusive and progressive policy atmosphere.
• • Reforms under the influence of enlightenment:
  • ◦ Codification of laws
  • ◦ Administrative reforms: eg Land registration
  • ◦ Economy: Encouraged ‘laissez-faire’ policy to promote commerce.
  • ◦ Supported technological upgradation and medical research.
    • ■ eg Pox could be eliminated
  • ◦ Socio-cultural: Religious tolerance, Attack on slavery, Education reforms

Frederick the Great of Prussia (1740 to 1786)

• • Though he was engaged in a lot of military campaigns, but he also took steps to improve economic conditions of Prussia. During his reign Prussia made a lot of progress and became a leading power in Europe.
• • Reforms
  • ◦ Codification of laws: Landrecht
    • ■ Religious freedoms.
    • ■ Reduced press censorship
    • ■ Reformed the justice system and abolished the use of torture.
  • ◦ Improved education: Opened lots of schools for the spread of knowledge.
  • ◦ Expanded agriculture by making unusable land available for cultivation.
  • ◦ Encouraged industries and set up an efficient banking system.
• • However, Frederick’s changes only went so far. He never tried to change the existing social order.
• • Most important contribution was his attitude toward being king. He called himself “the first servant of the state.”

Joseph II of Austria (1765-1790)

• • He was influenced by Frederick II. Although he was a competent ruler, but his ideas were too radical to succeed at the time.
• • Introduced legal reforms:
  • ◦ Abolished feudal courts and death penalty
  • ◦ Uniform code of justice
  • ◦ Freedom of the press, curtailed censorship.
• • Curtailing power of Church
  • ◦ Abolished Tithes
  • ◦ Secular modern syllabus in school
  • ◦ He ordered the officials not to implement instructions of pope without his prior permission.
  • ◦ Religious freedom to Protestants, Orthodox Christians, atheists and Jews…!
• • Foundation of schools
• • Encouragement of trade and industries
• • In his most radical reform, Joseph abolished serfdom and ordered that peasant be paid for their labor with cash.
• • He tried to unite his country by abolishing the division of race, religion and language. But this turned out to be a failure as he ignored the age-old customs, traditions and prejudices of Austrian people.

Catherine the Great of Russia (1762-1796)

• • She was well-educated and a prolific writer of history and drama. She was influenced by philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot.
• • She continued the policy of Peter the Great and resumed the westernization of Russia.
  • ◦ She patronized western education and she founded schools
  • ◦ Confiscated property of church to set up schools and colleges.
  • ◦ Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe.
• • She wrote Nakaz (instructions) to codify the laws and formed a commission to reform entire legal system based on the ideas of Montesquieu and Beccaria.
  • ◦ Religious toleration
  • ◦ Abolishing torture and capital punishment.
  • ◦ Her commission, however, accomplished none of these lofty goals.
• • Governance Reforms
  • ◦ Centralization of power – permanent council of states
  • ◦ Reforms in local government
• • She did little to improve the life of the Russian peasants. Serfdom was not abolished. Her views about enlightened ideas changed after a massive uprising of serfs in 1773. With great brutality, Catherine’s army crushed the rebellion.
• • Although the economic condition of the serfs deteriorated during her period, she transformed Russia into a leading power and added much to its territorial expansion.

Specific Topic (2): Enlightenment & French Revolution:

The Enlightenment has been considered as one among the major reasons for the French Revolution of 1789, but it needs to be understood carefully that it was not the real cause of the revolution.

Most of the thinkers were reformers, not revolutionaries:

• • Almost all the thinkers came from the upper class and wanted to establish an enlightened/constitutional monarchy through the reforms in the system. But they were not in favour of the establishment of representative or democratic government.
• • These thinkers were not activists: they didn’t form any political party or revolutionary organization, nor did they present any radical policy or program.
• • None of them directly participated in the French Revolution of 1789.

However, it is equally true that their ideas inspired revolutionaries, so they became the unconscious catalyst behind the revolution. Enlightenment helped prepare the way for the French Revolution.

• • Enlightenment gave ideological support to French Revolution
• • “Desacralization of the French monarchy”: they helped break down this sense of automatic respect for the monarchy as an institution.
• • The people who received the power after the French Revolution were very influenced by the Enlightenment. The classic example is Maximilian Robespierre, who in many ways was a child of the philosophes.

Napoleon Bonaparte declared ‘if there were no Rousseau, no revolution in France’.

Enlightenment – PYQs

• • Meaning and Causes:
  • • “The Enlightenment represented alternative approaches to modernity, alternative habits of mind and heart, of conscience and sensibility.” Discuss. [2008, 60 Marks]
  • • “…he (Voltaire) was living in the Age of Enlightenment …. The age itself was not enlightened.” — E. Kant. Critically evaluate. [2010, 20 Marks]
  • • Explain the major ideas of Enlightenment. Discuss the contribution of Rousseau in Enlightenment. [2018, 20 Marks]
  • • “The principles of Enlightenment were in some ways a continuation of the discoveries and theories of the Scientific Revolution.” Critically examine. [2020, 10 Marks]
  • • What was “enlightened” about the Age of Enlightenment? [2021, 20 Marks]
• • Enlightened Despots:
  • • “The despotic rulers of Europe were influenced by the philosophy of Enlightenment and begun to follow a benevolent policy towards their subjects.” Critically examine. [2012, 20 Marks]
  • • “Enlightened despots (Europe) were not necessarily politically liberal.” Critically examine. [2014, 10 Marks]

Specific Topic (3): Spread of Enlightenment to Colonies

While the Enlightenment was cantered in Europe, its ideas found their way to the colonies in Asia, America and Africa through various channels, contributing to the development of new perspectives on governance, rights, and society.

• • Print culture
• • Colonial Elite Engagement
• • Christian clergy
• • Western education
• • Intellectual networks
• • Reforms in political, admin, socio-religious & cultural spheres
• • Western institutions

The Enlightenment then played an important role in emergence of nationalist thinking because it enabled by people to comprehend the exploitative character of colonial rule. The ideas therefore not only challenged the traditional authorities in the colonies, but also become the inspiration for independence movements.

(a) Enlightenment & American Revolution:

• • The American Revolution was seen as first instance for the implementation of the Enlightenment ideas. It was against the mercantile policy of Britain, however it clearly gave the slogan ‘No Taxation Without Representation’.
• • Enlightenment gave ideological support to the American Revolution.
  • ◦ American scholars were widely attracted to enlightenment even for the fact that the enlightened scholars of Europe praised American society highly.
  • ◦ American thinkers were attracted to European enlightenment that at least two scholars, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson visited Europe as well.
  • ◦ Thomas Paine, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams etc. were the major contributors in the development of intellectual consciousness in America during 18th century.
• • The expression of the Enlightenment in America was slightly different. On the American soil, some ideas gained more importance. The European Enlightenment was shaped and re-organized by the American intellectuals in their own way. This American political theory was different from the British theory which believed that the power of Parliament was infinite, and later it became the reason for differences between the two.

(b) Latin America

The influence of the European Enlightenment was also seen in Latin American countries in the beginning of the 19th century.

Simon Bolivar (“The Liberator”)

• • Thinkers like John Locke and Rousseau influenced him deeply and so did Napoleon.
• • At the same time, Bolivar was also influenced by indigenous elements.
  • ◦ Complexity in circumstances, he modified the ideas of liberty and equality propounded by the Enlightenment and linked these ideas with militarism and totalitarianism.
• • Bolivar began his campaign in early 1800’s against the Spanish rule which lasted for 12 years.
  • ◦ His military campaigns brought independence for Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
  • ◦ He also joined forces with Jose de San Martin who defeated the Spanish in Argentina and Chile in the 1810s.
• • Bolivar, however, couldn’t fulfil his dreams of uniting Latin America. Instead, Latin America became a group of independent states with problems of instability, social inequality and economic issues.

(c) India - Reform movements, economic nationalism

Socio-religious reform movement in the 19th century laid the development of modern nation building in India. Blind faith, superstitious beliefs and other social ills were condemned by the intellectuals.

• • Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his associates advocated for rationalism, universal religion free of idolatry and priestcraft and women-specific reforms like abolition of sati.
• • Radhakant Deb, B.G. Tilak, M.M Malviya represented conservative elements of the time. They opposed the west-induced change in religion and society.

Nevertheless, the new western ideas of equality, fraternity and freedom slowly propagated among the masses and surfaced in the form of freedom struggle which resulted in country’s freedom in 1947.

(d) China

• • Exposure
  • ◦ Late 19th c. Chinese newspapers and magazines began to introduce the European Enlightenment movement to China.
  • ◦ Many Chinese travelling abroad at this time began to pay greater attention to Enlightenment thinkers. The ideas of Rousseau and Voltaire began to influence them.
  • ◦ After the first Sino-Japanese war, China’s intellectuals and scholars began to be exposed to European Enlightenment through the translated works of Japanese scholars.
  • ◦ From here on, more Chinese students began to travel to U.S., Europe and particularly Japan to study.
• • Westernization: Self-strengthening movement
  • ◦ Chinese intellectuals were eager to revitalise their nation, which they saw as declining. China viewed the strength of European power as being linked to the role of Enlightenment.
  • ◦ It included modernisation and economic development of China.
    • ■ Transport and communication were improved. New ports were developed.
    • ■ Improvement in military structure was done.
  • ◦ All this was done to counter western imperialism.
• • Opposition against this westernisation can be seen in the form of Boxer revolt.

Three influential modern Chinese Enlightenment thinkers during Qing dynasty:

• • Kang Youwei (1858–1927):
  • ◦ A reformer who sought to modernize China’s political and social systems.
  • ◦ He drew inspiration from Enlightenment ideals and proposed radical reforms, including a constitutional monarchy and greater civic participation.
• • Liang Qichao (1873–1929):
  • ◦ Heavily influenced by Western thought, including Enlightenment ideas.
  • ◦ He advocated for constitutionalism, political reform, and modernization in China.
  • ◦ His writings often incorporated concepts of democracy, science, and individual rights.
• • Lu Xun (1881–1936):
  • ◦ While Lu Xun is often associated with literary and cultural movements, his works also contained social and political critiques influenced by Enlightenment ideas. His writings exposed societal issues and called for social change and modernization.

(e) Japan - Meiji restoration

The Meiji restoration (1868) ended the medieval Tokugawa period and set the stage for the first major bid of modernisation in Japan. The driving force behind the program was the determination to secure a rich country and a strong army. Japan started progress in all spheres of society.

• • Political westernisation: Constitutional monarchy:
  • ◦ Japan adopted a western style constitution in 1890 based primarily on conservative German legal precedent.
  • ◦ Also established an elective Diet (parliament) that lay the ground for more generally elected representatives.
• • Economic modernization:
  • ◦ Improvement in science and technology resulted in modernisation of navy.
  • ◦ New bridges were built and Railways was introduced in the 1870s.
  • ◦ Telegraph appeared around the same time.
  • ◦ Even the architecture of the period was influenced by the new western ideas.
  • ◦ Small scale cottage industries turned into modern factories employing western machinery.
• • Socio-cultural westernization

But irrespective of all this new development, Japan didn’t completely break away from its past and traditions. The influence of Enlightenment on Japan was partial. It adopted more of the technical aspects but maintained a traditional attitude. The militarism prevalent in Japan during the period can be traced back to its Samurai tradition.

Some prominent thinkers and societies:

• • Rangaku Scholars: Rangaku = Dutch learning
  • ◦ It refers to the study of Western knowledge, primarily through Dutch texts acquired through the Dutch East India Company’s presence in Nagasaki.
  • ◦ These scholars played key roles in translating and disseminating Western scientific and medical knowledge in Japan.
• • Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901):
  • ◦ Prominent Meiji-era intellectual and educator who embraced Enlightenment ideals.
  • ◦ Founded Keio University
• • Yoshida Shoin (1830–1859):
  • ◦ An influential scholar and political thinker who advocated for the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and the restoration of imperial rule.
  • ◦ He was influenced by Enlightenment ideas and sought to strengthen Japan through the acquisition of Western knowledge.
• • Ito Hirobumi (1841–1909):
  • ◦ A key figure in the Meiji Restoration and played a significant role in shaping Japan’s modernization.
  • ◦ He studied in Europe and was exposed to Western political thought and governance systems, contributing to Japan’s adoption of constitutional monarchy.
• • Meirokusha (Meiji Six Society):
  • ◦ Meirokusha was a literary and intellectual society founded in 1874 during the early Meiji period.
  • ◦ It aimed to promote rational and scientific thinking, drawing inspiration from Enlightenment ideas.

Historiography of Spread of Enlightenment

Conventional Dominant Narrative	Global History Perspective
Enlightenment = modernity. • Modernity began with their writing. • It transformed the world, which was now characterized by an individual, human rights, rationalization secularization. • Linearity of ideas: Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific revolution, Enlightenment	Modern? • Every era was modern. Enlightenment didn’t start modernity.
Euro-centric origin mythology: It emerged in cultural tradition of Europe and thus it is unique. It was the original product of the Occident.	European Origin: Shift away from exclusiveness and singularity to plurality of authors and places.
Diffusion: Its global outreach was energized by Europe. These ideas were diffused to rest of the world because these ideas were Universal with innate charm. Willaim McNeill says: “We, and all the world of the 20th c, are peculiarly the creatures and heirs of a handful of geniuses of early modern Europe.”	Diffusion: Rise of colonization • The same ideas were used to justify the conquest. • The element of progress attached to Enlightenment is not because of the inherent strength of the ideas but because of increasing power of imperialism, which suppressed vanquish other parts of the world. Diffusion: Passive recipient? • People in different regions modified it, re-defined it, accorded new meanings. • As the ideas that travelled, were not immutable and universal but rather malleable and context-specific. • Cultural Exchange and Hybridization: While some local traditions resisted European influence, others engaged with Enlightenment ideals and blended them with their own belief systems. • The colonial thinkers incorporated these ideas into debates about colonial self-governance and resistance to imperial control.

Limitations/Criticism

Despite its unique character, the Enlightenment had some limitations as well.

• • Was it really scientific in approach? (Criticism from viewpoint of scientific theory)
  • ◦ No empirical evidence gathered.
  • ◦ No holistic analysis: Every structure is criticized/studied in isolation from each other by various thinkers.
• • Uneven spread:
  • ◦ Enlightenment left its impact only on the urban area and the elite classes. It could not influence the common people.
  • ◦ The Enlightenment did not affect the whole of Europe equally. It had deep impact in Western Europe, especially in Britain and France, while its influence in Eastern Europe was very limited.
• • A strong patriarchal (rights of men only), paternalistic, elitist (rights of middle class only) and white racist flavor (only Europeans and not of all people):
  • ◦ The philosophes challenged many assumptions about government and society. But they often took a traditional view toward women, lower class, and other races.
  • ◦ Gender equality was missing in ideas of enlightenment because the philosophers associated with this movement emphasized only on rights of Men, while the rights of women were not part of their calculations. Because of this half of the population got no real benefit from enlightenment in immediate sense.
  • ◦ Simone de Beauvoir argued that the Enlightenment’s neglect of women contributed to sexism.

• • Being the promoter of middle-class interest, enlightened scholars emphasized the dictum that the government should be for the people but not by the people. The enlightened thinkers generally demanded the limited monarchy, not democracy.
  • ◦ The ideas of enlightenment were largely in accordance with urges and aspirations of educated middle class. It couldn’t bring significant benefit to vast majority of population.
• • The modernism of enlightenment has been questioned from time to time. Not all thinkers were convinced with worship of reason as the mainstay. Few such personalities include:
  • ◦ Rousseau was the first to question Enlightenment rationalism.
    • ■ He rejected rationalism, science and civilization and presented an alternative modernization based on emotions. He argued that Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason and rationality resulted in a reductionist approach to human experience, neglecting the emotional, intuitive, and spiritual aspects of life.
    • ■ He also argued that the Enlightenment’s emphasis on the individual led to a neglect of community and social ties. He believed that these are essential for human well-being, and that they should not be sacrificed in the name of progress.
    • ■ Romantic Criticism of Enlightenment: Emotions and morality (over reason), nature (over individualism and industrialization), spirituality (over secularism), cultural heritage (over present and future), particular experience (over universalism).
  • ◦ Edmund Burke: He saw the atrocities committed during the French revolution because of excessive stress on ‘reason’. He argued that the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason led to a neglect of tradition and authority. He believed that these are important sources of wisdom and stability, and that they should not be discarded lightly. Its neglect could undermine social cohesion and disrupt established social orders.
  • ◦ Nietzsche: He rejected the entire ideological legacy of western civilization right from the period of Plato. He declared that no entity could make a claim over truth as there is neither any single truth nor any single path leading to the truth.
  • ◦ Post Modernism: It developed disillusionment with modernism based on the ideas of enlightenment. They have rejected Enlightenment rationality. (Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Zizek)
    • ■ Enlightenment was “self-destructive” and even “totalitarian” because
      • ■ Enlightenment’s claim to ensure human beings reach the final truth bred dictatorial tendency among different authorities. Its belief in reason led not to freedom but to greater bureaucratic control.
      • ■ Violence: World wars, devastation, lethal weapons of mass destruction like chemical and nuclear weapons.
      • ■ PoMo: There is neither any single truth nor any single path leading to the truth. There are multiple truths which can be reached in multiple ways, so don’t try to universalize means and goals.
    • ■ Growth of materialistic culture
      • ■ The emergence of industrial capitalism triggered by the direct and indirect effects of enlightenment resulted in extreme exploitation of the working class in factories.
      • ■ Enlightenment’s focus on conquering nature through science and technology contributed to the exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation.
    • ■ Martin Heidegger:
      • ■ Enlightenment’s belief in progress led to a forgetfulness of the past and a devaluation of human experience. He believed that we need to learn from the past and to appreciate the richness of human existence, even its dark side.
      • ■ The individualism promoted by the Enlightenment, while contributing to personal freedoms, has also been criticized for eroding traditional communal ties and fostering isolation and alienation in modern societies.
  • ◦ Enlightenment thinkers often held a Eurocentric view that marginalized the contributions of non-Western cultures.
    • ■ This perspective reinforced a sense of cultural superiority and failed to appreciate the diversity of human thought and experience.
    • ■ These biases undermine the Enlightenment’s claims to universal values.
    • ■ Enlightenment ideas were used to justify colonialism and imperialism, as the quest for knowledge and progress sometimes led to the exploitation and domination of other societies.

Enlightenment thought was nonetheless transformative, and seeking worldly explanations for inequality and injustice did have significant real-world consequences. Enlightenment challenges the idea that we already were living in the best of all possible worlds would help us to imagine, and eventually live in, better worlds—albeit ones that are still profoundly imperfect.

What Is Enlightenment?

Immanuel Kant

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one’s own mind without another’s guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) “Have the courage to use your own understanding,” is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives, long after nature has freed them from external guidance. They are the reasons why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor. If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on--then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me. Those guardians who have kindly taken supervision upon themselves see to it that the overwhelming majority of mankind--among them the entire fair sex--should consider the step to maturity, not only as hard, but as extremely dangerous. First, these guardians make their domestic cattle stupid and carefully prevent the docile creatures from taking a single step without the leading-strings to which they have fastened them. Then they show them the danger that would threaten them if they should try to walk by themselves. Now this danger is really not very great; after stumbling a few times they would, at last, learn to walk. However, examples of such failures intimidate and generally discourage all further attempts.

Thus it is very difficult for the individual to work himself out of the nonage which has become almost second nature to him. He has even grown to like it, and is at first really incapable of using his own understanding because he has never been permitted to try it. Dogmas and formulas, these mechanical tools designed for reasonable use--or rather abuse--of his natural gifts, are the fetters of an everlasting nonage. The man who casts them off would make an uncertain leap over the narrowest ditch, because he is not used to such free movement. That is why there are only a few men who walk firmly, and who have emerged from nonage by cultivating their own minds.

It is more nearly possible, however, for the public to enlighten itself; indeed, if it is only given freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable. There will always be a few independent thinkers, even among the self-appointed guardians of the multitude. Once such men have thrown off the yoke of nonage, they will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable appreciation of man’s value and of his duty to think for himself. It is especially to be noted that the public which was earlier brought under the yoke by these men afterwards forces these very guardians to remain in submission, if it is so incited by some of its guardians who are themselves incapable of any enlightenment. That shows how pernicious it is to implant prejudices: they will eventually revenge themselves upon their authors or their authors’ descendants. Therefore, a public can achieve enlightenment only slowly. A revolution may bring about the end of a personal despotism or of avaricious tyrannical oppression, but never a true reform of modes of thought. New prejudices will serve, in place of the old, as guide lines for the unthinking multitude.

This enlightenment requires nothing but freedom--and the most innocent of all that may be called “freedom”: freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters. Now I hear the cry from all sides: “Do not argue!” The officer says: “Do not argue--drill!” The tax collector: “Do not argue--pay!” The pastor: “Do not argue--believe!” Only one ruler in the world says: “Argue as much as you please, but obey!” We find restrictions on freedom everywhere. But which restriction is harmful to enlightenment? Which restriction is innocent, and which advances enlightenment? I reply: the public use of one’s reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment to mankind.

On the other hand, the private use of reason may frequently be narrowly restricted without especially hindering the progress of enlightenment. By “public use of one’s reason” I mean that use which a man, as scholar, makes of it before the reading public. I call “private use” that use which a man makes of his reason in a civic post that has been entrusted to him. In some affairs affecting the interest of the community a certain [governmental] mechanism is necessary in which some members of the community remain passive. This creates an artificial unanimity which will serve the fulfillment of public objectives, or at least keep these objectives from being destroyed. Here arguing is not permitted: one must obey. Insofar as a part of this machine considers himself at the same time a member of a universal community--a world society of citizens--(let us say that he thinks of himself as a scholar rationally addressing his public through his writings) he may indeed argue, and the affairs with which he is associated in part as a passive member will not suffer. Thus it would be very unfortunate if an officer on duty and under orders from his superiors should want to criticize the appropriateness or utility of his orders. He must obey. But as a scholar he could not rightfully be prevented from taking notice of the mistakes in the military service and from submitting his views to his public for its judgment. The citizen cannot refuse to pay the taxes levied upon him; indeed, impertinent censure of such taxes could be punished as a scandal that might cause general disobedience. Nevertheless, this man does not violate the duties of a citizen if, as a scholar, he publicly expresses his objections to the impropriety or possible injustice of such levies. A pastor, too, is bound to preach to his congregation in accord with the doctrines of the church which he serves, for he was ordained on that condition. But as a scholar he has full freedom, indeed the obligation, to communicate to his public all his carefully examined and constructive thoughts concerning errors in that doctrine and his proposals concerning improvement of religious dogma and church institutions. This is nothing that could burden his conscience. For what he teaches in pursuance of his office as representative of the church, he represents as something which he is not free to teach as he sees it. He speaks as one who is employed to speak in the name and under the orders of another. He will say: “Our church teaches this or that; these are the proofs which it employs.” Thus he will benefit his congregation as much as possible by presenting doctrines to which he may not subscribe with full conviction. He can commit himself to teach them because it is not completely impossible that they may contain hidden truth. In any event, he has found nothing in the doctrines that contradicts the heart of religion. For if he believed that such contradictions existed he would not be able to administer his office with a clear conscience. He would have to resign it. Therefore the use which a scholar makes of his reason before the congregation that employs him is only a private use, for no matter how sizable, this is only a domestic audience. In view of this he, as preacher, is not free and ought not to be free, since he is carrying out the orders of others. On the other hand, as the scholar who speaks to his own public (the world) through his writings, the minister in the public use of his reason enjoys unlimited freedom to use his own reason and to speak for himself. That the spiritual guardians of the people should themselves be treated as minors is an absurdity which would result in perpetuating absurdities.

But should a society of ministers, say a Church Council, . . . have the right to commit itself by oath to a certain unalterable doctrine, in order to secure perpetual guardianship over all its members and through them over the people? I say that this is quite impossible. Such a contract, concluded to keep all further enlightenment from humanity, is simply null and void even if it should be confirmed by the sovereign power, by parliaments, and the most solemn treaties. An epoch cannot conclude a pact that will commit succeeding ages, prevent them from increasing their significant insights, purging themselves of errors, and generally progressing in enlightenment. That would be a crime against human nature whose proper destiny lies precisely in such progress. Therefore, succeeding ages are fully entitled to repudiate such decisions as unauthorized and outrageous. The touchstone of all those decisions that may be made into law for a people lies in this question: Could a people impose such a law upon itself? Now it might be possible to introduce a certain order for a definite short period of time in expectation of better order. But, while this provisional order continues, each citizen (above all, each pastor acting as a scholar) should be left free to publish his criticisms of the faults of existing institutions. This should continue until public understanding of these matters has gone so far that, by uniting the voices of many (although not necessarily all) scholars, reform proposals could be brought before the sovereign to protect those congregations which had decided according to their best lights upon an altered religious order, without, however, hindering those who want to remain true to the old institutions. But to agree to a perpetual religious constitution which is not publicly questioned by anyone would be, as it were, to annihilate a period of time in the progress of man’s improvement. This must be absolutely forbidden.

A man may postpone his own enlightenment, but only for a limited period of time. And to give up enlightenment altogether, either for oneself or one’s descendants, is to violate and to trample upon the sacred rights of man. What a people may not decide for itself may even less be decided for it by a monarch, for his reputation as a ruler consists precisely in the way in which he unites the will of the whole people within his own. If he only sees to it that all true or supposed [religious] improvement remains in step with the civic order, he can for the rest leave his subjects alone to do what they find necessary for the salvation of their souls. Salvation is none of his business; it is his business to prevent one man from forcibly keeping another from determining and promoting his salvation to the best of his ability. Indeed, it would be prejudicial to his majesty if he meddled in these matters and supervised the writings in which his subjects seek to bring their [religious] views into the open, even when he does this from his own highest insight, because then he exposes himself to the reproach: Caesar non est supra grammaticos. 2 It is worse when he debases his sovereign power so far as to support the spiritual despotism of a few tyrants in his state over the rest of his subjects.

When we ask, Are we now living in an enlightened age? the answer is, No, but we live in an age of enlightenment. As matters now stand it is still far from true that men are already capable of using their own reason in religious matters confidently and correctly without external guidance. Still, we have some obvious indications that the field of working toward the goal [of religious truth] is now opened. What is more, the hindrances against general enlightenment or the emergence from self-imposed nonage are gradually diminishing. In this respect this is the age of the enlightenment and the century of Frederick [the Great].

A prince ought not to deem it beneath his dignity to state that he considers it his duty not to dictate anything to his subjects in religious matters, but to leave them complete freedom. If he repudiates the arrogant word “tolerant”, he is himself enlightened; he deserves to be praised by a grateful world and posterity as that man who was the first to liberate mankind from dependence, at least on the government, and let everybody use his own reason in matters of conscience. Under his reign, honorable pastors, acting as scholars and regardless of the duties of their office, can freely and openly publish their ideas to the world for inspection, although they deviate here and there from accepted doctrine. This is even more true of every person not restrained by any oath of office. This spirit of freedom is spreading beyond the boundaries [of Prussia] even where it has to struggle against the external hindrances established by a government that fails to grasp its true interest. [Frederick’s Prussia] is a shining example that freedom need not cause the least worry concerning public order or the unity of the community. When one does not deliberately attempt to keep men in barbarism, they will gradually work out of that condition by themselves.

I have emphasized the main point of the enlightenment--man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage--primarily in religious matters, because our rulers have no interest in playing the guardian to their subjects in the arts and sciences. Above all, nonage in religion is not only the most harmful but the most dishonorable. But the disposition of a sovereign ruler who favors freedom in the arts and sciences goes even further: he knows that there is no danger in permitting his subjects to make public use of their reason and to publish their ideas concerning a better constitution, as well as candid criticism of existing basic laws. We already have a striking example [of such freedom], and no monarch can match the one whom we venerate.

But only the man who is himself enlightened, who is not afraid of shadows, and who commands at the same time a well disciplined and numerous army as guarantor of public peace--only he can say what [the sovereign of] a free state cannot dare to say: “Argue as much as you like, and about what you like, but obey!” Thus we observe here as elsewhere in human affairs, in which almost everything is paradoxical, a surprising and unexpected course of events: a large degree of civic freedom appears to be of advantage to the intellectual freedom of the people, yet at the same time it establishes insurmountable barriers. A lesser degree of civic freedom, however, creates room to let that free spirit expand to the limits of its capacity. Nature, then, has carefully cultivated the seed within the hard core--namely the urge for and the vocation of free thought. And this free thought gradually reacts back on the modes of thought of the people, and men become more and more capable of acting in freedom. At last free thought acts even on the fundamentals of government and the state finds it agreeable to treat man, who is now more than a machine, in accord with his dignity.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)

“Without Rousseau, the French Revolution would not have taken place”. Napoleon

He was a radical thinker of his time. Born in the 18^th century, he was far ahead of his time. Compared to all other Enlightenment thinkers, like Locke, Diderot, Voltaire etc., he was different. All others were talking for Rationality and individualism, but Rousseau believed in emotions and community.

(A) Rousseau as a father of Romanticism (counter-Enlightenment):

Romanticism 1800-1850: was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature.

Enlightenment	Romanticism
• Science and rationalism • Civilization • Support to industrialisation • Urbanity • Individual • Present and future • Secularism/Deism	• Emotions • Primitive • Suspicuion of industrialization • Nature • Community • Glorification of past, esp medieval • Paganism

• • Discourse on Science and Arts (1750): Criticism of the Enlightenment movement.

State of Nature	Civilization
Forests/nature	Cities, artificial
People were good and happy, more easily understood their own minds.	Rational progress of civilization is not a progress. It has corrupted people who were now plagued by sin and vice, stopped thinking about what they wanted/felt.
Amour de soi: Natural self-love due to existence • A love of a family, • Respect for nature • An awe at the beauty of the universe • Curiosity about others • Taste for music and simple entertainments Guided by spontaneous pity, empathy for others and their suffering. Innocent and moral – Noble Savage	Amour-propre: self-love in comparison with others. Unhealthy form of self-love (amour-propre) → pride, jealousy, and vanity. Modern decadence

• • Civilization and progress had not improved people. Instead, they had a terrible destructive influence our morality.
• • According to him, attainment of material happiness is not progress. This modern progress is taking man towards the downfall. Real progress is concerned with development of morality.
• • Other enlightened scholars gave priority to the method of science and rationalism as well as praised human civilization. Rousseau preferred ‘Noble savage’. For him, empathy was more important factor in creating morality, rather than reason.
• • Social Contract (1762): Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.
• • Thus, while almost all contemporary thinkers gave emphasis to rationalism, Rousseau emphasized human emotions.

(B) Rousseau as a father of Democracy:

• • Rousseau’s concept of democracy makes him a very radical thinker of the time.
• • During the Enlightenment, other scholars were talking about the freedom of the individual, but Rousseau talked about the freedom of the community.
• • Social Contract (1762)
  • ◦ Rousseau proposed that individuals, in their natural state, are free and equal, but they face challenges and conflicts. To overcome these challenges and create a stable society, individuals come together and form a social contract.
  • ◦ In this contract, individuals agree to surrender some of their natural freedoms and submit to the authority of a ‘general will’ that represents the collective interests of the community.
    • ■ This general will is meant to reflect what is best for the entire society, rather than catering to individual interests.
  • ◦ Rousseau emphasized:
    • ■ Social contract is a mutual agreement among the members of community.
    • ■ Legitimacy of political authority is derived from the consent of the governed (popular sovereignty) ensuring that the actions of the government are in line with the common good as perceived by the collective body of citizens.
    • ■ This concept challenges the divine right of kings, as it creates distinction between sovereign and government.
• • At a practical level, he believed in an extreme form of democracy - ie direct democracy and not representative democracy.

(C) Rousseau as a father of modern Nationalism:

• • Rousseau, while emphasizing the power of community, unconsciously emphasized the power of the nation.
• • His concept of General Will and contractual theory brought a radical shift in the prevailing concept of the nation. In his scheme, sovereignty lay with the people, not in the institution of monarchy. He converted the nation of monarch (absolutism era) into the nation of people. So, he became the father of modern nationalism.
• • This concept of modern nationalism came to the fore after American Revolution and French Revolution, when the epicenter of power shifted from the king to the people.

(D) Father of Socialism: (proto-socialist)

• • Equality
  • • Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754): Rousseau talks about two types of inequalities – natural and moral. (Thought experiment - State of Nature)
    • • Natural inequalities arise from one’s health conditions, age, or physical features. These cannot be prevented. It is largely functional, and it does not result in exploitation or suffering of any person.
    • • Moral inequality is established by society. It is created by an unequal control over resources and unequal material progress. Thus, it is unnatural, results in exploitation and suffering of common masses.
  • • In, an ideal society, no hereditary ruler & no privileged nobility and nobody has the power to impose orders on others. Rousseau clearly declared that ‘all are equal as all are descendants of nature’.
• • Private property:
  • • Rousseau was one of the first modern writers to seriously attack the institution of private property.
  • • ‘No man should be so rich that he could buy another, and no man should be so poor that he could sell himself.’
  • • Rousseau demanded that materialism should be abandoned, and people should go back to nature to live a life of happiness.
• • General Will
  • • Rousseau’s emphasis on the concept of the “general will” and the idea that individuals should participate in the formulation of laws that benefit the entire community can be seen as a precursor to socialist ideals.
• • Revolution:
  • • Rousseau emphasized that if the ruler does not abide by the provision of social contract, then community enjoys the right to overthrow such as exploitative regime. In this way Rousseau justifies the mass revolution against an exploitative ruler.
• • Some of his views would inspire the socialist theories of Karl Marx, but there are certain differences:
  • • Form of government: Rousseau didn’t recommend socialism but direct, non-representative democracy.
  • • Religion: Rousseau was not atheist like Marx.

(E) In Rousseau’s ideas the seeds of absolute government: ideological support to dictatorship

• • In his view, all the laws should be passed unanimously. But practically, it was not possible. To overcome this problem, he introduced the concept of ‘General Will’.
• • According to him, we all have more than one desire
  • ◦ Inferior desire driven by personal grievances.
  • ◦ A superior desire (sublime will) for the community welfare → ‘General Will’.
• • If any law is in conformity with this general will, then we must accept it.
  • ◦ By respecting General Will, we respect our own wishes. In this way, we can achieve our freedom.
  • ◦ If we disregard this General will, we can lose our freedom. Those who reject this general will, should be compelled by force.
• • Importance of Community
  • ◦ He proposed that true liberty could only be achieved through participation in the formation of laws that reflect the common interest. This required individuals to set aside their personal desires in favor of what is best for the community as a whole.
  • ◦ While Rousseau recognized the importance of individual will, he argued that true freedom could only be attained within a just and harmonious society, where the general will prevails over individual desires.
• • Thus, Rousseau questioned the assumption that the majority will is always correct.
  • ◦ He argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority.
• • Rousseau also believed that an individual could also be a carrier of general will if he was capable to express general will of that community. So, Rousseau favoured to authorise the people for framing the constitution who were the representatives of the ‘General Will’. Such perception benefited future dictators.
  • ◦ Later, autocratic leaders like Robespierre took advantage of this concept of ‘General Will’ to unleash Jacobin Terror.

As Karl Marx should not be held guilty for Stalin’s cruelty, similarly Rousseau should not be held responsible for Robespierre’s cruelty. Even though Rousseau’s ideas played a role unwillingly in the development of authoritarianism, he also played an important role in the development of democratic ideas.

Aspects of Rousseau’s ‘General Will’
Democracy	• Legitimate political authority should arise from the consent of the governed. (Focus: Popular Sovereignty) • Decisions are made for the benefit of the whole community.
Socialism	• Individuals should participate in the formulation of laws that benefit the entire community (Focus: Common Good)
Absolutism	• Collective and indivisible sovereign authority of the people, and individuals who oppose this general will should be “forced to be free.” (Focus: Authority of State)

Thus, interpretations of Rousseau’s ideas can vary, and his work has been used to support a wide range of political viewpoints over time.

Social Contract: Additional Information

The doctrine that the state originated in a contract was a favourite home of political speculation during the 17^th-18^th centuries. All thinkers agree that some sort of social contract is necessary to create a civil society.

	Hobbes	Locke	Rousseau
State of Nature	People were equal and free. Man is brutish, selfish and nasty. State of war, fear and due to equality.	People were equal and free. Man is rational, follows natural law (life, liberty and property) Not good or bad but chaotic. If the natural law broken then state of war.	People were equal and free. Man is good. Noble savage. No war due to equality. Civilization corrupted them.
Social Contract → Purpose of government	People given up individual liberty to secure common security. Thus, government is to impose law and order, and to protect life.	To secure natural rights like liberty and property, people enter social contract.	People join social contract to bring harmony and unity, while preserving individual freedom. Individual will is subordinated to “general will”
Nature of contract	Single contract between society and government	Two contracts – between people and between people and government	Single contract between individuals to create society and government
Type of government	Absolutist government to protect people from themselves. (Leviathan)	Limited government to protect the people from government. (Representative democracy)	Popular sovereignty. Government must act as per General will. Mere representation is not enough, citizen cannot delegate civic duties, they must be actively involved. (self-government)

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

“The greatest human evils are not to be found in poverty and want, but in the variously combined indigence in our minds.”

“I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith.”

“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”

Immanuel Kant was a living form of the Enlightenment. He is recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of modern times, and left a deep impact on his era. He was born in the present city of Kaliningrad (Russia). His major contribution is in the field of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, although he contributed to other fields as well. He was greatly influenced by Newton.

Immanuel Kant is considered central to the Enlightenment because his philosophy helped to define the key ideas of the movement. These ideas include:

• • The use of reason to understand the world and to solve problems.
• • The importance of individual freedom and autonomy.
• • The belief in progress and the possibility of improving human society.

(A) Analysis of an essay titled What is Enlightenment?

• • Definition of Enlightenment
  • ◦ In Kant’s view, the greatest weakness of man was intellectual slavery. He believed that the meaning of enlightenment was to set free man from self-caused immaturity.
    • ■ He believed that the ability to reason was essential for the liberation of man.
    • ■ ‘dare to know’ (sapere aude) to come out of ‘self-imposed immaturity’.
  • ◦ Causes of Immaturity: Immaturity means the inability to exercise his own discretion without the direction of others.
    • ■ Kant attributes immaturity to laziness and cowardice.
      • • Laziness: willingness to let others think for us.
      • • Cowardice: fear of using reason and facing the challenges that come with independent thinking.
• • Morality with freedom:
  • ◦ Kant believed that the unique quality of man is to have desire for moral choice. Here Kant seems close to Rousseau. In his view having desire for moral choice, man is different from other creatures and is worthy to attain freedom.
• ◦ Freedom of Thought: Kant believed that a time would come when all people would enlighten themselves, but for this it is very necessary for all of them to be set free. Thus, Kant argues for the importance of freedom of thought and expression. He believes that enlightenment can only thrive in an atmosphere where individuals are free to express their ideas and challenge prevailing norms without fear of censorship or punishment.
• ◦ There should be no Religious and Political Constraints: Kant challenges religious and political institutions that seek to limit or control the freedom of thought and expression. He argues that these institutions should not infringe upon an individual’s right to question and seek knowledge.
• ◦ Enlightened Despotism: Kant discusses the concept of “enlightened despots,” rulers who promote some aspects of enlightenment in their domains while maintaining absolute power. He is skeptical of this approach, as it doesn’t fully empower individuals to think and act independently.
• • Public and Private use of Reason: There should be essential freedom but with some limits on the use of rationalism. He divided the use of the rationalist method into two parts:
  • ◦ The public use of reason: When a person, as an intellectual, expresses his or her view based on logic in a public meeting, it is called public use of rationalism and this kind of use of rationalism enhances the freedom of the person. (extra-vocational domain)
  • ◦ Private use of reason: When he uses logic as an officer/servant/employee to question the instruction of a senior officer, then it is called personal use of logic. This impedes the freedom of the person. (Vocational domain)
  • ◦ Limits of Public Expression:
    • ■ While Kant advocates for the responsible use of reason, he also acknowledges that certain restrictions on public expression are necessary to prevent disorder.
    • ■ In a nutshell, one can apply public use of reason, but not private use. Freedom of speech should be exercised within the boundaries of civility and without promoting harmful actions.
• • Progress of Enlightenment:
  • ◦ Kant envisions enlightenment as an ongoing process of self-improvement and societal advancement. He emphasizes that the pursuit of knowledge, freedom, and moral development should be continuous.
  • ◦ Enlightenment is a gradual process: Kant does not believe that enlightenment will happen overnight. He believes that it is a gradual process that will take place over time.
  • ◦ Education: Kant emphasizes the role of education in fostering enlightenment. He believes that education should focus on cultivating individuals’ capacity for independent thought and rationality, rather than merely imparting information.
  • ◦ Civic Responsibility: Kant underscores the idea that enlightenment brings with it a sense of civic responsibility. As individuals become more enlightened, they are better equipped to participate in public discourse and contribute positively to the advancement of society.

(B) Reason and Knowledge

He was one of the first philosophers to systematically explore the nature of reason and knowledge, and his work had a profound impact on the way people thought about these topics.

Empiricism	Rationalism
Empiricists: John Locke, Berkley, David Hume It emphasized the role of sensory experience and observation as the primary sources of knowledge. Mind at birth is a tabula rasa and all knowledge is derived from sensory impressions.	Rationalists: René Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz It believed that reason and innate ideas were the primary sources of knowledge. Rationalists often held that the mind possessed inherent concepts that provided a framework for understanding the world, and that reason could uncover universal truths.

This debate had a significant influence on various fields, including epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of science. It also laid the groundwork for discussions about the role of observation, reason, and the limitations of human understanding in shaping our knowledge of the world.

Resolution:
Immanuel Kant, in his famous Critique of Pure Reason (1781) attempted to reconcile these diametrically opposite views of empiricism and rationalism. He bridged the gap between the extreme rationalism of Leibniz and the extreme empiricism of Hume.
He argued that our knowledge of the world is limited by the way our minds work. He argued that:

• • We can only know things that are in accordance with the categories of our understanding. Human knowledge is limited to the realm of appearances, or phenomena.
• • We cannot know anything about things that are beyond these categories. We cannot know the world as it is in itself, or noumena.

Thus, mind’s structure and categories shape our experience of the world.

Kant argued that our knowledge of the world is limited by our own mental faculties, and that we cannot know things as they are in themselves, but only as they appear to us. The world as it appears to us the phenomenal world, and the world as it is in itself the noumenal world. He argued that we can never know the noumenal world, because it is beyond the reach of our senses and our understanding.

This was a radical departure from the prevailing view, which held that reason could know everything about the world.

(C) Rationalism and Morality

As a rationalist, Kant argued that morality is not based on emotions, but on reason. Kant’s rationalism and his moral philosophy are closely related. He believed that morality is based on reason because reason is the only faculty that can give us universal and objective moral principles. He also believed that morality is based on freedom because we can only be morally responsible for our actions if we are free to choose them.

His moral philosophy is based on categorical imperative. The categorical imperative means that we should act in a way that we would be willing to have everyone else act in (universal law). It also means that we should treat all people as ends in themselves, not as means to our own ends (kingdom of ends).

Kant argued that only by living according to this categorical imperative could men and women enjoy true freedom. For him, freedom is the self-imposed duty, rather than the absence of restraint.

Kant was against extreme materialism. Material progress didn’t represent true progress. He believed that moral progress is true progress.

(D) Rationality and Religion

He was a deist, which means that he believed that God created the universe but does not intervene in its affairs. He also believed that religion is a matter of faith, not reason.

Kant argued that pure reason cannot provide knowledge about metaphysical truths, like God. It is the practical reason, which tells us about necessity of God. As the moral truths to be objective and universal, existence of God is necessary to create/uphold them. He called this argument the moral argument for God. So, God is a necessary assumption for moral and practical purposes. The moral argument for God goes like this:

• • We have a moral duty to act in certain ways, even if it is not in our own self-interest.
• • We can only have a moral duty to act in certain ways if there is a moral lawgiver who commands us to act in those ways.
• • The moral lawgiver is God.

(E) Kantian conception of the government

• • Kant considered the state as necessary evil.
  • ◦ Kant believed that the purpose of government is to to protect the rights of individuals and to promote the common good.
  • ◦ In the absence of a state, there would be anarchy everywhere & in that situation every nation of freedom would become meaningless.
• • State law must be in accordance with the universal moral law, which is highest. The universal moral law protects freedom and expands the scope of freedom. He believed if the law of state is not based on universal moral law, then the people are not bound to follow it. Thus, he argued that the government should be based on the consent of the governed because people have right to self-determination.
  • ◦ Kant’s concept of consent respects individual autonomy and rationality.
  • ◦ This consent is not necessarily an explicit agreement. But, it is based on the idea that rational citizens with moral autonomy would endorse it.
  • ◦ He emphasized that individuals should only consent to laws and governments that are in line with universal moral principles. Consent is not merely a utilitarian choice, but a reflection of a duty to uphold moral laws.
• • Kant believed that the government should be limited in its power (rule of law, separation of power etc). It should not have the power to interfere in the private lives of individuals or to restrict their freedom of speech or religion.
  • ◦ He was opposed to the absolutist government and divine monarchy.
  • ◦ He preferred such a government in which the government had to work with the support of an elected assembly. However, the assembly was to be formed based on limited franchise.

Kant’s view of government has been influential in the development of liberal democracy.

(F) International relations based on the Kantian concept of peace:

Kant’s ideas, as presented in his essay “Perpetual Peace,” propose a vision for a more harmonious and cooperative world order. Kant’s concept of “perpetual peace” does not imply the absence of all conflicts, but rather the establishment of a framework that minimizes the likelihood of large-scale wars and allows for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

• • Avoidance of War:
  • • Kant believed that states should adopt a principle of “defensive war only,” meaning that military actions are only justified in response to an immediate threat.
• • Democratic Peace Theory: Kant argued that republican and democratic states are less likely to go to war with each other.
  • • Democratic governments are accountable to their citizens, and people generally do not want to bear the burdens of war unless absolutely necessary.
  • • Additionally, democratic states tend to have common values and peaceful means of resolving disputes, fostering a sense of mutual trust and cooperation.
• • International Cooperation:
  • • Kant emphasized the importance of international institutions and mechanisms for resolving disputes and promoting cooperation. He believed that nations should engage in diplomatic negotiations and arbitration to address conflicts without resorting to violence.
• • Federation of Free States:
  • • Kant envisioned a federation or league of free states that would work together to maintain peace and resolve conflicts through diplomacy rather than warfare. This federation would be based on the principles of mutual respect, cooperation, and collective security.
• • Cosmopolitan Law and World Citizenship:
  • • Kant proposed the idea of a “cosmopolitan law” or a set of universal laws that would govern interactions between nations.
  • • He also envisioned a world in which individuals possess a sense of “world citizenship,” prioritizing their identity as global citizens over narrow nationalistic views.
  • • This cosmopolitan perspective could reduce the tendency towards conflict based on national interests.

UPSC CSE PYQs

• • JJ Rousseau
  • ◦ “Rousseau’s political philosophy contains the seeds of Socialism, Absolutism and Democracy.” Comment. [2004, 20 Marks]
  • ◦ “The promptings of the heart are more to be trusted than the logic of the mind.” — Rousseau. Critically evaluate. [2011, 20 Marks]
  • ◦ “Rousseau strove to reconcile the liberty of the individual and the institution of Government through a new vision of the Contract - Theory of Government.” Critically examine. [2014, 10 Marks]
  • ◦ ‘Rousseau kindled a hope which became the spirit of Enlightenment.’ Critically examine. [2022, 10m]
• • Immanuel Kant
  • ◦ “For Kant, enlightenment is mankind’s final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error.” Critically examine. [2013, 20 Marks]
  • ◦ “Kant’s redefinition of reason and his rehabilitation of conscience marked a high point in the intellectual reaction against dominant rationalism of the Enlightenment.” Critically examine. [2017, 10 Marks]