Michael Furgiuele

HIST 616

First Examination

Dr. R. Luehrs, Instructor

January 25, 2005

 

Discuss the outlook, ideas, and concerns of the Enlightenment, indicating the relationship between the Enlightenment and the “new” sciences of the 17^th century.  How might Voltaire be seen as a representative of Enlightenment thought? Give specific examples of Enlightenment concepts found in all three of Voltaire’s stories assigned in this course.

 

From our video lectures, study guides, and interpreting the images and concepts outlined by Voltaire in our reading assignments, we are able to identify the meaning and concepts of the Enlightenment and how the scientific advancements of the seventieth-century changed the perception of intellectuals from considering religion as the source of all knowledge and opened the path toward enlightened thought.

 

As Dr. Krammer points out, the period of Enlightenment during the eighteenth- century was conceived from the expansion of scientific revelations and experimentations (lecture 2).  During the Enlightenment, solid, verifiable, and explainable scientific formulas and laws combined with empirical evidence to provide answers to many of the questions relating to the nature of the world and to human nature.  As scientific thought replaced religion as the main factor in understanding the natural world (lecture 2), intellectuals embraced “a remarkable intellectual confidence in science, which was seen as the foundation of truth” (Kramer, 2001, p.7).  As the confidence in science grew, “it created both new knowledge and a method for creating knowledge” (Kramer, 2001, p.8) which was used as a basis for understanding the areas of social sciences, human nature, and politics.

 

Defining some of the basics of thought during the Enlightenment were men like Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Charles-Louis de Sedcondat, Baron of Montesquieu, Sir Isaac Newton and most predominately, the satirical writings of Voltaire.

 

Both Descartes and Bacon rejected “the classical Christian view of truth and stress that ultimately truth comes from divine intervention” (Kramer, 2001, p.8).  Bacon highlighted the use of empiricism as a means of understanding knowledge.  Bacon's concept taught that all truth can be proven through scientific methods and that “we must accumulate observed facts” (Kramer, 2001, p.8) in order to understand nature.

 

While Bacon believed in the scientific method of understanding knowledge, Rene Descartes believed that truth was evident through mathematics.  Scientific laws, models, formulas and theorems provided that “knowledge was cumulative and that general laws could be known” (Kramer, 2001, p.8). 

 

Combining both mathematical and scientific thought in his experiments, Sir Isaac Newton was able to explain gravity and how it affected the rotation of planets in our solar system.  With his experiments showing clear, albeit, difficult understanding of how both science and mathematics can explain truth beyond that of divine intervention, his work epitomized the age of Enlightenment and his work “became the basis for a new faith in science and an almost sacred text for Enlightenment writers of the eighteenth century” (Kramer, 2001, p.9).

 

With Newtonian science providing a basis for understanding concepts in the natural world, intellectuals, philosophers, and writers began to use this new found freedom of thought as a means of understanding societal issues (lecture 2).  This new thought inspired John Locke, who like Bacon and Descartes believed that truth can be found in empirical evidence.  Locke, however, moved past the ideas of Descartes and Bacon and believed in radical empiricism, or that “All knowledge comes from sensory experience and from observation” (Kramer, 2001, p.9) and that only through this radical approach does man gain understanding (lecture 2).  Locke’s view of tabula rasa, or blank slate (lecture 2), predisposes that man enters the world with no knowledge or social conscience and that only through experience and actions – or observation and experimentation – do we gain truth and understanding.  As such, Locke took the basics of the Enlightenment, or a faith in science as a means of understanding, and concluded that man’s own social behavior is based on observation, experience and exposure.  These ideas would allow Locke to purport that “our social environment shapes our beliefs, actions, and knowledge” (Kramer, 2001, p.9).  His works would later become the basis for identifying a correlation between man’s society and the natural world (lecture 2) and would spawn the ideas of social conscience and equality which were included in the American and French Revolutions.

 

Writers of the eighteenth-century supported the ideas of the “Enlightenment (its faith in science, reason and progress)” (Kramer, 2001, p.2) and expanded on the theories identified by Locke, Bacon and Descartes.  Writers of the period who expounded the view of “change in the world by using reason, knowledge, social criticism, and public commentary to alter public opinion and policies” (Kramer, 2001, p.11) were considered philosophes (lecture 3).  These men used the power of words to identify inequities in the social, religious and political systems. Many of these writers, like Voltaire, would come to use their words as “the message of reform, no matter how carefully hidden behind jokes, sarcasm, and satire” (Luehrs, 2005, p.4).  They concentrated on three main areas of discourse – “reason, progress, and nature” (Kramer, 2001, p.12).  Reason provided a methodical, systematic approach to understanding that was not based on religious beliefs (lecture 3).  Through reason came progress.  Progress was more of an idea of intellectual freedom and to educate oneself on the issues of politics and society.  Nature provided a balance.  Like the ideas of Newton who provided the basis for understanding nature through scientific means, through reason and progress, man could achieve a balance between human nature and the natural world through the development of “orderly, clear laws that were as rational as the laws of nature” (Kramer, 2001, p.13).

 

By understanding the concepts and concerns of the philosophes in the eighteenth century, we can relate to the developing political conscience of the period and how writers such as Charles-Louis de Secondat and Denis Deiderot proposed the problems of society – especially political problems could be solved through the understanding of reason, progress and nature (lecture 3). 

 

Montesquieu used the ideas of the Enlightenment to approach political issues in France.  His works and theories provided him with the title as the world’s first sociologist (lecture 3).  Montesquieu used the scientific method as the basis for understanding and relaying his thoughts on social issues.  He wanted to create a method for others to understand and accept his theories along the lines of Newton, through standard laws which were applied to a number of situations and conditions (lecture 3).  Like other philosophes, Montesquieu believed that England held a model that provided for equality in politics based on a representational government with multiple branches to provide a system of checks-and-balances (lecture 3).  This model would be in direct conflict to the French government which was run by the divine right of kings through an absolute monarchy (lecture 3).

 

Just as Montesquieu drew his assumptions from the scientific world, Denis Diederot drew his ideas from understanding science and education as a means of obtaining the goal of progress and “harmony with nature” (Kramer, 2001).  Diederot is credited with assimilating the Encyclopedia which combined the theories and ideas of various philosophes.

 

Like Montesquieu, Voltaire believed in the English system of government as a means of identifying progress in politics and used “his cutting wit, brilliant intelligence, engaging literary style, and incisive social criticism” (Luehrs, 2005, p3) in identifying the ills of eighteenth century society – particularly in France.  John Iverson in his introduction to Voltaire’s Candide, Zadig and Selected Stories described Voltaire as a man who “denounced prejudice and injustice, particularly religious intolerance; ridiculed excessively rigid thought systems of all sorts; argued that all forms of authority should be judged on the basis of reason; and questioned the appropriateness of existing governmental institutions” (Iverson, 2001).

 

In his stories, Voltaire disguises the thoughts of the Enlightenment and provides a connection between the “new” sciences and the social theories of the period.  In his work, Candide, Voltaire attacks the idea of rationalization of nature and human nature through divine interpretation.  In his travels, Candide holds to the belief outlined by his friend and would-be philosopher, Pangloss who believes “that there is no effect without a cause and that, in this best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire, 1961, p.16) man lives by divine plan outlined by God.  In this statement, Voltaire is attacking the ideas of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz who believed “this world is the best God could create, given the material He had to work with” (Luehrs, 2005, p.6). Throughout his travels, Candide is accosted with personal indignities, war, violence and intolerance.  However, he holds to the ideas of his mentor, Pangloss “There is no effect without a cause … everything is linked by necessity and arranged for the best “(Voltaire, 1961, p.21).  Voltaire’s use of rhetoric throughout intensifies his mistrust of religion as the source of knowledge and that “all is for the best” (Voltaire, 1961).  When Candide and his party enter Lisbon, an earthquake hits.  While this is a natural disaster, Pangloss does not despair and continues to enforce God’s will “for it is impossible that things should not be where they are.  For all is well”.  Even while Pangloss continues his philosophies, Candide begins to understand that all is not necessarily as it should be – “we are going to another universe …no doubt it is in that one that all is well.  For it must be admitted that one might groan a little over what happens in the physical and the moral domain in ours” (Voltaire, 1961, p.35).  While attacking the role of God in man’s development, Voltaire also attacks the institution of religion itself.  He writes of Pangloss’s abduction and submission to the auto-da-fe which was used during the Inquisition to secure conversions from the Jews. 

 

Voltaire rejected the ideas outlined by the religions of the period and reinforced his own Deist position that man has the right to govern himself through reason reflecting the concepts of the Enlightenment (Luehrs, 2005).  Voltaire interjects his philosophy of politics by saying “In vain he told them that the will is free and that he wanted neither of these; he had to make a choice.  By virtue of the gift of God that is called liberty” (Voltaire, 1961, p.19).  Voltaire combined the ideas of Locke with the concepts of Deism to “reject the idea of rulers enjoying some sort of divine dispensation” (Luehrs, 2005, p.5) with the notion that God is a “celestial watchmaker, who had assembled the clockwork of the cosmos, would it up, and then stepped aside to lit it run itself” (Luehrs, 2005, p.5).  Candide is exposed to the government of Los Padres which represented the Jesuits.  Candide extols the ability of the government to rule with reason and that it is within this land that men are truly free and happy (Voltaire, 1961).  Voltaire’s El Dorado is another land in which Candide believes in equality and justice, freedom and happiness.  In El Dorado, there was no injustice and time was devoted to the study of mathematics and science.  “Candide asked to see the law courts; they told him that there were none and that people never wet to law.  His inquired whether there were prisons, and they told him no.  What surprised him even more and please him mostly was the Palace of Sciences, in which he saw a great gallery two thousand paces long all full of instruments for mathematics and physics” (Voltaire, 1961, p.59).

 

As his travels and turmoil continue to mount, Candide is reunited with his philosopher-friend Pangloss.  At this point, Candide is no longer able to accept Pangloss’s views and exclaims “at last I shall have to renounce your optimism” (Voltaire, 1961, p.61).  Again this “optimism” is reflected in the ideas of Leibniz and is a critical point which Voltaire rejects (Iverson, 2001).  In contrast to Pangloss as the optimist, Candide travels with Martin, a pessimist who is a self-described follower of Manichaeism.  Manichaeism followers believe that ignorance is the worst of all evils (Luehrs, HIST 609, 2004).  Martin stabilizes Candide’s theories of pre-determined outcomes through divine intervention. Martin emphasizes “I think that everything goes awry with us, that no one known his rank or his job or what he is doing or what he should do, and that except for supper, which is rather gay and where there seems to be a good deal of agreement, all the rest of the time is spent in senseless quarrels” (Voltaire, 1961, p.74).  After enduring tragedy and lost love, Candide believes Martin’s assessment of life and justice and how the values of Europe are waning.  “How right you are, my dear Martin! All is but illusion and calamity” (Voltaire, 1961, p.79).

 

In the end, Candide and his band of followers settled down and work without reflection and without a plan.  Martin, always the pessimist is consoled by the activities of daily life while Pangloss “having once maintained that everything is wonderful, he still maintained it and believed not a bit of it” (Voltaire, 1961, p.99).  Each of them removed themselves from reasoning and worries about the future and cultivates their garden (Voltaire, 1961).

 

Like Candide, Zadig is a tale veiled in controversy.  However, unlike Candide, Voltaire grows bolder reflecting “the belief that the pen was somehow mightier than the sword or at least a rival to the sword” (Kramer, 2001, p.11).  In Zadig, Voltaire reflects the growing sentiment of the eighteenth-century towards educating the public regarding matters of political injustice and intolerance.  “The philosophes take aim at corruption, intrigue, hypocrisy and cupidity” (Iverson, 2001). 

 

Zadig is a man who is entrenched in reason and rationality.  For each circumstance which requires his assistance, he uses intellect to console and adjudicate his ideas, much to the favor of his benefactors.  However, Zadig’s intelligence is quickly questioned and considered threatening to many of the cowards of the story.  As such, Zadig is forced to move from one drama to the next.  Zadig’s journey directly reflects the conscience of the age of Enlightenment.  As “Voltaire advocated the truths derived from reason, science, common sense, and experience as opposed to those believes pressed on us by tradition, emotion, prejudice or authority figures” (Luehrs, 2005), Zadig rejects the authority of priests and kings to overcome adversity and to rise to power in the end.  “Zadig saw how dangerous it sometimes was to be too knowing” (Voltaire, 1961, p.111).  Zadig was portrayed as an intellectual with a mind for knowledge through science and reason.  “He had a house, tastefully decorated, where he assembled all the arts and all the pleasures worthy of a gentleman.  His library was open to all the learned in the morning, his table to good company in the evening” (Voltaire, 1961, p.112).  Voltaire attacked the church who persecuted him “a great theurgist, hastened to accuse Zadig before an archmagus named Yebor, the stupidest of the Chaldeans and hence the most fanatical” (Voltaire, 1961, p.112) and the monarchy “So he had to go to his execution through a curious crowd of whom not one dared to sympathize with him” (Voltaire, 1961, p.115).  In this setting, Voltaire is describing the movement of prisoners in France from the prisons to the guillotine.  While admonishing the political and religious realities of France, Voltaire uses Zadig to describe the epitome of an enlightened man with a conscience of the divine and with a show of strength of convictions, just and flexible believing that “it is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent man” (Voltaire, 1961, p.119).

 

Like his other stories, Micromegas provides a glimpse of the ideas and concepts associated with eighteenth-century scientific advancements.  In the tale of two intergalactic giants, Micromegas from Sirius and an inhabitant from Saturn, Micromegas is considered not only a great mathematician “He worked out fifty propositions of Euclid” (Voltaire, 1961, p.174), but also a gentle philosopher.  Likewise, the alien from Saturn is well versed in scientific theories and understood the ways of the universe.  Together, they travel through the solar system and eventually landed on earth.  Through crude formations of microscopes from diamonds, they are able to view the tiny inhabitants of the planet – first whales and later, man.  To their surprise, the find that man has a voice and begin to infer as to the existence of the soul of man.  “To speak, on must think, or just about; but it they thought, then they would have the equivalent of a soul” (Voltaire, 1961, p.184). Using inductive reasoning, they were able to eliminate through empirical observations the knowledge that man possesses and begin to test them as to the extent of their knowledge.  Developing rudimentary methods of hearing the tiny voices of man, the giants speak to the band of philosophers they have retrieved from a vessel returning from the pole.  Unable to view the giants at first, man is frightened by the voices they hear and to each of their professions; they use the tools at hand to explain their experiences.  “They could not guess where they came from.  The ship’s captain recited the prayers for exorcism, the sailors swore, and the ship’s philosophers constructed a system; but no matter what system they made, they never could guess who was speaking to them” (Voltaire, 1961, p.185).  As Professor Kramer points out, the age of Enlightenment places “emphasis on reason referred primarily to a method of thought” and that “Reason is a tool for systematic analysis” (Kramer, 2001, p.12).  When the humans are finally able to converse with the aliens, they are able to construct their size through mathematical calculations that astonished the giants.  Believing that such ability was a sign of great intelligence, the giants reasoned that man must be happy with their place in the system to which each of the philosophers disagreed stating “with the exception of a small number of none too highly considered inhabitants, all the rest is an assemblage of madmen, wicked men, and unhappy men.” (Voltaire, 1961, p.187).  Unchanged, the giants reasoned that “since you know so well what is outside of you, no doubt you know even better what is inside” (Voltaire, 1961, p.189), to which the philosophers could not agree.  One scholar among them quotes the Lockean theory of tabula rasa, believing that all knowledge is based on experience (Kramer, 2001) to which the alien suggested “Then it was hardly worth while,…for your soul to be so learned in your mother’s womb only to be so ignorant when you have a beard on your chin” (Voltaire, 1961, p.189).  In addition, Voltaire addresses other philosophical considerations such as Leibnizian who regarded the soul as “a hand that points to the hours while my body chimes” (Voltaire, 1961, p.190).  Finally, a theologian represented the religious interpretation that the aliens, “their worlds, their suns, their stars, everything was made solely for man” (Voltaire, 1961, p.190) at which the aliens laughed at the presumptuousness of man.  At the end, the aliens present man with their interpretation of knowledge regarding philosophy which, when opened, was blank “Ah! That’s just what I suspected” (Voltaire, 1961, p.191).

 

The outlook, ideas and concerns of the Enlightenment was based on the ideas of reasoning and rationality.  From reason, man could develop his own method of existence, social conscience and political government.  The sciences of the seventeenth-century allowed the flow of original thought and shifted the ideas of knowledge away from religion and superstition toward pure knowledge gained from empirical evidence and mathematical thought.  The issues of the Enlightenment were apparent in many of the writings of poets, authors and theorists who developed their own characteristics as philosophes.  Dominate among these philosophers was Voltaire who as we have gathered from our study guides, lectures and readings, provided a means to educate the people of the eighteenth-century to the injustices in religion and politics, allowing individuals to develop the first stages of intellectual thought through discourse and education.