THE PHILOSOPHIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT

The period of Enlightenment refers to the European culture of the 18th century. The People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human knowledge and defied the tradition and the pre-established thoughts of the past. this is the period in which the humans became overconfident in the human Reason an rationality. Philosophers and Scientists committed the fallacy of argumentum ad ignorantiam. Anything which cannot be understood by rational knowledge and the current status of sciences was defied as meaningless or superstitious. Philosophy became very popular among the intellectuals and people read philosophical opera. However, the general concerns were about the practical use of our knowledge. In other words, The Two Fundamental Characteristics of the Philosophy of Enlightenment are: 1) faith in the European Reason and human rationality to reject the tradition and the pre-established institutions and thoughts; 2) Search for the practical, useful knowledge as the power to control nature.

John Locke is considered generally as the founder of Enlightenment movement in philosophy. However, in England, both characteristics of Enlightenment, namely the defiance of the tradition and the search for the knowledge as the practical, useful power to control nature, were not so emphatically visible due to the nationality and the social conditions in England. So it is generally agreed that the philosophy of Enlightenment will be divided into a) the Philosophy of Enlightenment in England, that in France and Germany. Therefore, a) is normally called as the British Empiricism and it s development. Distinguished from this, we consider the Philosophy of Enlightenment and its movement with the emphasis of the phases in France and Germany.

1. The relation of Descartes to the philosophy of Enlightenment In France and in England, all the philosophical thoughts from the middle of 17th century through the 18th century were under Descartes's influences. Fontenelle (1657-1757) The admirer of Descartes' physics and his radical rationalism threatened the Christianity and the established Church. Fontenelle's philosophy did not accept the Cartesian spiritualism and overemphasized the positive elements of the Cartesian philosophy. Thus, Fontenelle merely criticized the Ancient oracles as superstition, but this was immediately applied to the miracles of Christianity. Bayle (1647-1706) Starting with the Cartesian rationalism, Bayle considered that to believe in Christianity means to abandon Reason and the human rationality and to surrender to the miraculous phenomena. The opposition between philosophy (rationalism) and religion set up by Bayle created an anti-religious movement against Christianity as well as prepared for the development of the 18th Century philosophy. The Enlightenment Movement in France is a synthesis of the Cartesian philosophy of the mechanistic understanding of nature and the British Empiricism. In the 17th century, British philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes and Locke came to France and were strongly influenced by the French Philosophies. In the 18th century, the French philosophers visited England and were strongly influenced by the British Empiricism and advocated empiricism rather than idealism in France upon their return. 2. The influences of British Empiricism on the French Philosophies The most conspicuous example of the philosophers who were influenced by the British Empiricism was Voltaire.

Voltaire (1694-1778) Voltaire was a French man of thought who was most strongly influenced by British Empiricism and attacked the philosophers of Continental Rationalism. Voltaire was the author of Candid, which made fun of Leibniz' optimism. Voltaire attempted to refute Descartes' metaphysics on the basis of Locke's Empiricism and attacked Descartes' physics, employing Newton's mechanics. Voltaire mocked Descartes' innate ideas by referring to Locke's theory of the empirical origin of ideas which refuted the innate idea. Following Locke, Voltaire, too, considered man's desire to pursue one's happiness as inborn. Voltaire further maintained that while Descartes created a novel about the human spirit, Locke wrote the history of the human spirit. Voltaire praised Locke in how he was able to explain the origin and the process of the development of human spirit. Voltaire accused of Descartes in the following points: 1. Descartes by reducing physics to geometry denied the absoluteness of motion and argued for its relativity (i.e. motion is no other than the change of place, in other words, a portion of matter changes its place in relation to the portion of the other matter which is immediately touched to the former) 2. Descartes did not recognize gravitation (=the weight as the unique quality) by reducing matter to extension 3. Descartes by failing in recognizing the universal gravitation had to explain by the celestial vortex the motions of the celestial bodies. Thus Descartes explained the motion of solar planets by a heliocentric vortex. In that sense he did not disagree with Copernicus. In contrast, Newton proposed the universal gravitation by which he explains all the motions of celestial bodies. Voltaire became Newton's follower in physics and astronomy. Against the universal gravitation being a hidden(occult) power, Voltaire argued that the cosmic turbulence (vortex) is more a hidden power than gravitation because the law is verified and the phenomena are explained. In his letter in 1728 Voltaire writes, "When a French went to London, he discovers a lot of things different. So are there a big difference in philosophy. When he was in Paris, the universe is full of something like turbulent ether, upon his arrival in London he discovers that the same space is empty." Following the fashion of his time, Voltaire considers a systematic approach less valuable than a fragmental expression of insights. Voltaire was successful in making philosophy more popularized (journalistic). Voltaire discussed on may topics such as on God, freedom, immortality of soul. Voltaire holds that it is the true religion that one loves God and loves others like one's own siblings and that less dogmas it has, the better and true it becomes. Thus Voltaire fought against the traditional established Christianity. On the other hand, he criticized d'Hollbach's La Systeme de la nature, and attacked Pascal's Christianity. Influenced by British Deism, Voltaire maintained that religion must be a moral, rationalistic natural religion. He did not support the cosmological and teleological argument and yet considered the moral argument for the existence of God to be most useful. Voltaire maintained that without God morality is not possible, therefore God must exist. "If God did not exist, we must invent God!" Voltaire considers that it is not possible to theoretically demonstrate the immortality of soul and yet without the immortality of soul, morality is also not possible.(VERY KANTIAN) Voltaire contends that the basis of metaphysics consists in morality and that the obscurity and incompleteness of metaphysics will be clarified by morality. In his early period, Voltaire held the freedom of will, but abandoned it in his later years as meaningless and recognized only the freedom of action. According to Voltaire, freedom is when one can do what one wants to do. Whether or not what one wants is free, the answer is not, but what wants to desire is to necessarily desire. Otherwise, we desire to do something without reason or cause, that is impossible.Thus Voltaire proposed the psychological determinism. Regarding the problem of evil, he was optimistic, but after Lisbon's earthquakes Voltaire abandoned optimism. In relation to politics and society, Voltaire insisted freedom of reason, freedom of consciousness and particularly the freedom of research which contributed the further development of the contemporary european culture. Voltaire was the representative of the 18th century Enlightenment Spirit and enormously influenced the intellectuals of the days, according to Thomas Carlyle. Du Bois-Reymond said, "The reason why we do not consider Voltaire as a very important Enlightenment philosopher is because we unconsciously and implicitly have been a Voltaire ourselves. What Voltaire had fought and won such as culture, freedom of spirit, the dignity of humanity and justice have become some of the essential elements of our natural everyday life today." Voltaire was highly treated by Friedrich the Great at Prussian Sansoun Palace as an important guest. There are two poems of Voltaire; Le mondaine Defense du mondain ou l'apologie du luxe He loved gambling! Lettres sure les Anglais or Lettres philosophiques(1734) Elements de la philosophie de Newton Dictionnaire philosophique La philosophie ignorant Candid

Montesquieu (1689-1755) Montesquieu went to England and was also influenced by John Locke. He was deeply impressed by Locke's three division of the government. His main work is L'esprit des lois (1748) Recognizing the peculiarity and uniqueness of each nation, Montesquieu attempted to explain the legal system of the each nation from the geographic conditions and the social conditions of the given nation. In stead of seeking the foundation of the legal system of a certain nation in the rational, universal principles, Montesquieu tried to find the causes of the legal system of a given nation in the particular climates, the nature of soil, the largeness of the land, the living conditions of the people, religion, passions of the people, the degree of wealth and poverty, population and the historical conditions such as customs. He emphasized the uniqueness and the accidental nature of the legal system of a given nation.

The differences of the systems of government are due to the peculiarity of the given nation. the republic = the subject has the right to govern all the subjects = democracy a portion of the subjects = aristocracy the monarchy = the government by one ruler based on the constitution the constitutional monarchy the despotism = the government by one ruler by his will

There are the basic passions which motivate each of these forms of government

the republic = virtue the monarchy = honour

And the size of a country will affect the nature of the government. etc.

Follow this link:
California State University Dominguez Hills: The ...