ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY
Enlightenment was an
intellectual and philosophical movement of the 1700s. The movement was
widespread not just in Britain but France, Germany and other parts of Europe.
The Enlightenment era followed the middle ages. In contrast to the
irrationality and superstition of the middle age, we see a shift in thinking
purely based on REASON.
The Enlightenment
thinkers did not have a common ideal or philosophy. They were grouped together
only because of the importance they gave to individualism and rational
thinking. Although Scientific Revolution had begun by the 14th
century, it was merely seen as a creation of God. Otherwise, it was considered
unorthodox. People who questioned religion and faith were punished cruelly. The
Church enjoyed power and had control over the lives of the people.
It is generally assumed
that the Enlightenment era followed the neoclassical age. Although we cannot completely
agree to that, it is true that the major part of the neoclassical age coincides
with the Enlightenment era. The Neoclassical writers gave importance to reason
and logical thinking which was one of the basic features of Enlightenment
philosophy. The neoclassical writers were obviously influenced by this
philosophy. Some of the major writers of the neoclassical era are Alexander
Pope, Aphra Behn, John Dryden etc.
Francis Bacon, Rene
Descartes and Benedict Spinoza are considered as the precursors of the
Enlightenment thought. Francis Bacon was an English philosopher. The
Advancement of Learning and The Organon are his major works. Through his works,
he popularised the method of induction. That is, we observe things and form
judgements rather than merely deducting things. According to him, this is a
more authentic method because we apply reason to facts and arrive at
conclusions.
Rene Descartes was a
French rational philosopher. In contrast to the irrational methods followed in
the middle ages, he too emphasised on scientific methods. In his seminal work,
Discourse on Method, he appreciates the discipline of mathematics and argues
the need to apply the same to philosophy and other disciplines. He is mostly
remembered for the ideology – Je pense, donc je suis (I think, therefore I am).
He made a distinction between the mind and body. He explains that the mind is
something which can think on its own where as our body belongs to the material
world. Thus, he expresses a mechanistic view of the world through this notion
of duality.
Baruch Spinoza was a
Dutch philosopher. Due to his rationalistic and unorthodox views, he charged of
Heresy and was expelled from his own community. Unlike Bacon, he believed in
the method of deduction and had a mechanistic view of the Universe. He opposed
Descartes’ notion of dualism and believed that the Universe is composed of a
single Universe.
Bacon, Descartes and
Spinoza initiated the idea of enlightenment although they belonged to different
parts of the world and had even opposing ideas at some point. The two characteristic
features of Enlightenment philosophy, namely Empiricism and rationalism were
taken from their works. Bacon talked about the need to form conclusions based
on experience and observation while Descartes talked about the need to use our
reason when we understand something.
Materialism was the third
important aspect of Enlightenment. It was Thomas Hobbes who popularised this
notion through his works on political philosophy. He too proposed a
materialistic view of the universe, even that of the mind. He is best known for
his work Leviathan. The work is an attempt to explore the human nature.
In this work, he justifies the absolutist rule. To explain his stand, he says
that human nature is essentially bad. He constantly fights for power and
material benefits. However a group of individuals who are in power are more
inclined to misuse it in quest of more power than required for stabilising the
society. This, according to him, is why a single absolute ruler is better than
an oligarchy or democracy. The power and wealth of the nation and that of the
ruler is more or less the same, so he will be able to lead his nation on a more stable and successful manner. He also
asserts that it is the ruler’s responsibility to assure that his citizens are
well protected.
John Locke is another
important philosopher of the Enlightenment era. He is often considered as the
most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers. Some critics even consider him
as the ‘Father of Classical Liberalism’. He is also one of the first of the
British empiricists who followed the tradition of Bacon. The later Enlightenment
thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau etc were influenced by his ideals. This is
best reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.
His most important works
are An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises on Civil
Government. Locke believes that our mind is like a blank slate and opposes
Descartes’ view that ideas are borne in our minds. Our experiences get recorded
in this blank slate. The ideas that come from our mind arise out of our experience. That is
through our sensation and reflection. Therefore, all of our knowledge must come
from experience of the physical world, through sensory perception. Locke’s
chief argument against innate ideas is that if such ideas existed, they would
be universal in all men. However, he argues, there is not one single idea that
is universally held.
David
Hume further developed the empiricist notions of Locke. He was a Scottish philosopher. Critics call him a British Empiricist
along with Locke, Bacon and Hobbes because of his empiricist approach to
philosophy. He is best known today for his highly influential system of radical
and philosophical empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism. A Treatise on
Human Nature published in 1739 is his most important work. Although it
was not well-received in his own time, it is now a classic text.
Hume was a rationalist and an empiricist. His claim that proof was
required in order to establish a truth had created chaos during his time. Like
Locke, Hume believed that the mind is a blank slate at birth, but disagrees
with the idea that we possess the innate capacity to reason. Hume believes that
there are no innate ideas or capacities within us, but that everything is
acquired through experience, including our capacity to reason and hold ideas.
Giambattista Vico was an Italian
political philosopher, historian and another of the greatest Enlightenment
thinkers. He condemned the progress of modern rationalism and was an advocate
of classical antiquity. He is best known for his ScienzaNuova, often published
in English as New Science.
Vico was a predecessor of systemic and complexity thinking, as
opposed to Cartesian analysis. He is rightfully cast as a
counter-Enlightenment thinker. He advocated rhetoric and humanism. His
conjecture can be more easily understood by contrasting it with the Cartesian
rationalism, especially the emphasis laid by Descartes on the geometric method.
However the extent to which Vico disagreed with the ideals of
Enlightenment is not clear. He too was involved in similar philosophical
research as the other eighteenth century thinkers. He calls his most important
work as science and asserts the influence of Bacon on him. He was also
influenced by Malebranche. So although he was an advocate of classical
antiquity and ancient rhetoric, we don’t know to what extent he supported or
condemned the ideals of Enlightenment.
The point of dispute between Vico and Descartes was the
importance each gave for imagination and that of rhetoric. Descartes states in
the very opening of his Discourse
on Method his discontent with
rhetoric and culture as sources of certainty. He feels that if one can state an
idea clearly, there isn’t a need for rhetoric to defend it. On the otherhand,
Vico wrote most of his works advocating the importance of rhetoric.
The Enlightenment philosophy was also
popular in France. Jean
Jacques Rousseau was a
philosopher and a writer of the 18th century France who was an important
figure during the Enlightenment era. His political philosophy had influenced
Enlightenment in Europe especially France. Rousseau was against all sorts of
authority and believed in individuality. He was of the view that people need
not be ruled by person or structure as they are individuals themselves. His
notions of individual liberty helped foster the spirit of French Revolution.
A Discourse on the Sciences and Arts and The Discourse
on the Origin of Inequality are
his two major philosophical works. Through his works, he proposed that human
beings are inherently good and that they are corrupted by the complex
historical events.
There is an ambiguity whether Rousseau can be considered
Enlightenment or a Counter-enlightenment thinker. As such, it is appropriate to consider
Rousseau, at least chronologically, as an Enlightenment thinker. The major idea
put by the Enlightenment thinkers was to give a foundation to philosophy based
on reason and not tradition or culture. Rousseau had influenced later
Enlightenment critics like Immanuel Kant.
Voltaire, Denis Diderot and Jean
d’Alembert were the major
enlightenment thinkers in France. Voltaire had popularised the theories of Newton
and Locke among the public. His important works are Philosophical Dictionary and Candide. In Candide, he makes fun of the
optimism, determinism and rationalism of the German philosopher Gottfried
Leibniz. He stood for liberty and freedom of speech. Diderot and d’Akembert were the other leading members of
the French enlightenment. Diderot was a French philosopher, critic and a
writer.He is best known today as the editor and contributor toEncyclopedie along with Jean d’Alembert.
Gotthold Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn were two leading figures of the German
Enlightenment who advocated philosophies of religious tolerance.
Samuel
Johnson, often known as Dr Johnson was an
English writer who wore many caps. He was a poet, essayist, moralist, critic,
biographer and a lexicographer. He is best remembered today for the dictionary
he compiled –Dictionary of the English Language. Although it was not the first
dictionary in English language, it was the first comprehensive dictionary.
Lives of the English Poets is another famous work of Dr Johnson. It consists of short
biographies and critical assessment of 52 poets, most of whom lived during the
18th century. He has
also penned poem, the famous poem being The
Vanity of Human Wishes.
The History
of Rasselas is another important work of Johnson. It is basically an
apologue on happiness. There is a particular passage on poetry rendered by one
of the main characters in the work, namely Imlac. This is often considered as a
summary of neoclassical principles. He
is also known for the essays he wrote in The
Rambler, The Idler etc.
Johnson affirmed to the classical notions of literature being
based on reason and truth. He was also adamant on the moral function of
literature.
Joseph Addison was an English poet,
essayist and a playwright. He is mostly remembered for his periodical Spectator
which he found along with his friend Richard Steele. The aim of the periodical
is mentioned by a character called Mr. Spectator itself – “to enliven morality
with wit, and to temper wit with morality”. The periodical provided readers with
topics for well-reasoned discussions and to carry conversations in a political
manner. It reminded people of the social etiquettes of the society. The
periodical kept the values of the Enlightenment philosophy by promoting topics such
as family, marriage and courtesy.
Immanuel Kant was a German
philosopher. He is one of the leading figures of modern philosophy. He lived
towards the end of the Enlightenment. Like Voltaire and Hume, he too believed
that reason should replace the traditions and superstitions of religion and
monarchy. Although he lived during the revolution of France and America, he was
largely unaffected by the events.
Kant carefully amalgamated the empiricist philosophy that was
prevalent in Great Britain and rationalist philosophy of Europe. Although he
was trained in rationalist tradition, he was influenced by the empiricist
philosophy of Hume. Kant argued that reason is the source of morality,
aesthetics arises out of detached judgements, and that the world in itself is
something unknowable to human beings.
Edmund Burke was a writer, political
theorist and a philosopher. His most famous work is Reflections on the Revolution in
France. It is a sharp and
bitter criticism on the various facets of the French Revolution of 1789. Burke
has penned many political essays. He follows Hume and Addison, and adopts an
empiricist perspective.
Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer, philosopher and advocate of women’s
rights. She is often considered as the first feminist writer. Her famous work Vindication of the Rights of Men was a reply to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in
France. Her best known work
is A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman. This book is
considered as the foundational text of western feminism.
Mary
Wollstonecraft can be called an Enlightenment thinker. Through her works, she
proposes that men and women are equal, and that women appear to be inferior
because of lack of education. She was of the view that both men and women
should be treated as rational beings and wants a social order based on reason.
She argues that rights cannot be based on tradition, but on reason and rationality.
CONCLUSION
Enlightenment is a philosophical movement which dominated the
Intellectual arena of Europe in 18th century. Empiricism and rationalism
was the characteristics of this age. Egalitarianism and Individualism were the
keywords. The Enlightenment ideals continued till the early 19th century
and paved way for the 19th century Romanticism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Habib,
M. A. R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the
Present. New Delhi: Blackwell, 2006. Print
· Habib,
M. A. R. Literary Criticism from Plato to the Present: AN
INTRODUCTION. Singapore: Blackwell, 2011.Print
No comments:
Post a Comment