The Enlightenment:Conditions and Society

“Man’s Emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.”

-Immanuel Kant

1700-1800

Why now? Well its got a lot to do with farming…

The late 17th century saw the emergence of the enclosure movement, superseding the open field system of farming that had existed since the middle ages.

The enclosure movement began in England and stressed the importance of crop rotation between specified fields.

This new farming system allowed for more food to be grown, including crops brought back from the New World.

The potato, for example, added significantly to the nutrient intake of individuals from all classes.

All this leads to… The relative abundance of

food led to increased populations as larger families could be supported.

Better sanitation, the introduction of quarantine measures, and the elimination of the black rat all led to the disappearance of the plague and other diseases, another reason for population growth.

Improved health care had little to do any of with this.

And then… These increases in

population meant that more people needed places to live and jobs to work. This was the beginning of a trend towards increased urban populations.

The increased populations of towns and cities throughout Europe, developments jumped the channel quickly, changed the way people lived dramatically. › London (Roman town 50

AD): 500 000 in 1700 1 000 000 + in 1800

Hogarth’s “Gin Lane”, 1750.

› Paris (founded 250 BC): 515 000 in 1700 1 051 000 in 1850

Notre Dame in 1750 (completed in 1345)

There are so many more people here in

Paris these days.Oh

absolutely!

It sure allows some people to focus more on

thinking…

› Edinburgh ( rebuilt 1100 AD): 50 000 in 1700 100 000 in 1800

Edinburgh in the 17th Century

Edinburgh at the end of the 18th Century

So all of this is important because…. Increased crop yields

meant that some people in the rapidly expanding cities could focus on production, artistry, thinking, teaching and learning.

As a result, the beginning of the population shift from rural to urban helped usher in the ENLIGHTENMENT.

(Not that kind)

Wait… what about the Scientific Revolution?

While the ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, and others were groundbreaking and changed the way humanity studied the world, they only affected a small portion of Europe’s educated elite.

It would be the Philosophes of the 18th century who would popularize the Scientific Revolution’s ideas and then adapt them to all aspects of life.

Nobody cares, Copernicus!

I’m hungry…

Science!

The Salons With urban life flourishing in the social and

intellectual hotbed of 18th century that was Paris, women (wealthy ones) took the initiative concerning new ideas.

They opened up their drawing rooms to groups of intellectual men and women in order to discuss the latest ideas with/from the philosophes.› Brought together writers and artists with the aristocrats,

government officials, and wealthy bourgeois (middle class)› Provided women with a chance to enact/influence real change in

politics and culture

Marie-Jeanne Philppon Roland, a member of the Girondist group in the French Revolution.

Decapitation is rough…

Madame Geoffrin’s salon in Paris, 1755 (painted 1812)

- The power the salons afforded to women made them unpopular to some and the status of any woman’s salon was still primarily defined by the men who visited it

-Salon’s declined in popularity during the French Revolution, but other locales of public discourse remained, including; coffeehouses, cafes, reading clubs, and libraries.

Fontenelle, Reading, and Skepticism

› His book Plurality of Words discusses the advances in cosmology that dispelled the ideas that prevailed earlier, but in the form of a discussion between lovers

› He also fostered the growth of skepticism, questioning religion, by portraying the churches as enemies of scientific progress

› This went counter to the actions of scientists like Kepler, Galileo, and Newton who always looked to, considered, and exalted God in their work

› Skepticism towards religion was a common theme during the enlightenment, this encouraged religious toleration, and to consider reason when presented with information by the church or the bible.

Fontenelle

The works produced during the Scientific Revolution were often difficult to comprehend for most audiences, though by the late 18th century basic literacy rates amoungst the upper and middle classes sat at around 75%

Fontenelle made no major scientific discoveries, but he had a great deal of knowledge concerning the subject

He took that knowledge and wrote books that made it accessible/appealing to his audience (still largely upper-class)