Lecture 3
September 8th, 2009
History 242 Tuesday Lecture
18th Century Europe – The Enlightenment
How it broke the structures of old regime Europe
1. Overview of Enlightenment
2. How historical thinking of the enlightenment has changed
What the 1960-70s told you about the enlightenment:
- small group of key thinkers
- Peter Gay (prof of intellectual history at Yale)
oIn his mind the small group was the party of humanity
Power of Reason
Atheists of deeply suspicious of Christianity
Big fans of the ancient Greeks and Paganism
oHe called it “New Paganism”
oRepublican – opposed to monarchy
oStrong materialist string
2 Problems with Gay’s Account:
1. His model of history was not very effective
- No great men/women….historical changes are due to lots of people
not main ppl
2. List of characteristics was factually incorrect
- Certain strain in France = accurate
- England or Germany = incorrect
- Took a slice to characterize the whole
New View Characteristics
- Faith and Reason
- Religious thought itself was important in Enlightenment
oStance in favor of religious tolerance
- Commitment to progress
oHistory was moving forward and things would be better
Merit to be recognized and grounds upon how ppl advanced (not
ancestral heritage)
Commitment to good manners (adoption of court manners)
(cosmopolitan outlook on the world – open and accepting of
cultural differences)
Enlightened Public was deeply indebted to (before 1800)
- Court culture
- Republic of letters
oCommunity of intellectuals in Europe
oCollective of intellectuals who talked to people in Latin originally
