philosophy? 5.What were the major differences between Locke's concept of “social contract'"and Hobbes's？ 6.How did Locke justify rebellion against government? DIVISION SIX 7.What is the theme of John Milton's Paradise Lost? 8.What is Descartes's method of Cartesian doubt?What is its THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT significance？ 9.Who was the most well-known writer in the 17th century French literature?Say something about one of his major I.General Introduction works. 10.What are some of the characteristics of Baroque art? 1.Enlightenment The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement originating in France,which attracted widespread support among the ruling and intellectural classes of Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century.It characterizes the efforts by certain European writers to use critical reason to free minds from prejudice, unexamined authority and oppression by Church or State.Therefore the Enlightenment is sometimes called the Age of Reason. Although the Enlightenment was a movement that gained momentum in the second half of the 18th century,its intellectual origin could be traced back to the previous century.The most important forerunners of the Enlightenment were two 17th century Englishmen John Locke and Isaac Newton.Locke's materialist theory attributed the origin of ideas to sensations inscribed on the blank slate of mind.Newton's theory of gravitation further demonstrated to the world that the universe is governed by laws that could be understood by the human mind.Their theories fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and established confidence in human reason. 230 231 “法划路重
The major force of the Enlightenment was,however,the interference did violence to the law of nature.They favoured laissez. French philosophes.Among them were such well-known men of faire policies for the reason that the natural order harmonized conflicts letters as Montesquieu,Voltaire and Rousseau.Diederot,who edited of self-interest. the famous Encyclopedie,was also an important French Enlightenment figure.All these people popularized and propagated 2.Historical Context new ideas for the general reading public. The first half of the 18th century was an age of relative peace, As a movement,the Enlightenment developed many security and optimism.But the 1750s saw the world turning toward a ramifications period of turbulence,full of ideological,political,social and economic In their attempt to rationalize government and law,the revolutions. Enlightenment thinkers regarded government as the political The American War of Independence of 1776 ended British expression of law.And law itself was defined as the "necessary colonial rule over that country.The spirit of this revolution is relationships which derive from the nature of things." crystalized in a powerful statement written in The Declaration of (Montesquieu)According to them,the law of all lands is valid only Independence: when it conforms to the law which reason perceives in nature. As regards religion,the Enlightenment was completely secular "We hold these truths to be self-evident,that all men are in outlook,but not to the point of Atheism.The tendency was rather created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with toward Deism:the universe is set in motion by a God as a self- certain unalienable rights,that among these are life,liberty and regulating mechanism;everything operated according to natural the pursuit of happiness.That to secure these rights, laws,which could be understood by the human mind. governments are instituted among men,deriving their just In art and literature,what coincided with the Age of Reason powers from the consent of the governed,That whenever any was a period called neo-classicism.The most prominent figures of this form of government becomes destructive of these ends,it is the period were Dryden,Pope,Corneille,Racine,Goethe,Schiller right of the people to alter or to abolish it,and to institute a new Haydn,Mozart,David and Ingres.These people were on the whol government..." traditionalists;they had a great respect for the classical artists an authors,and for the rules of their art.They thought that reason an The American victory was followed in 1789 by an even more judgment were the most admirable faculties,and that decorum wa violent political upheaval on the European continent-the French essential.In their work,therefore,the most desirable qualities were Revolution.The seizure of the Bastille marked the end of the French harmony,proportion,balance and restraint. monarchy,and the First French Republic was born in 1792.Guiding In economic thought,the rationalists believed that state this revolution is a document called Declaration of the Rights of 232 233 列百环语酒网减
Man.It proclaims: "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else;hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the II.French Philosophy and Literature society the same rights.These limits can only be determined by law ..Law is the expression of the general will.Every citizen has a 1.Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) right to participate personally,or through his representative,in its Montesquieu,the jurist,satirist,and political and social formation.It must be the same for all,whether it protects or philosopher,was the first of the great French men of letters punishes.All citizens,being equal in the eyes of the law,are equally associated with the Enlightenment. eligible...to all public positions...according to their abilities... Wroks: No person shall be accused,arrested,or imprisoned except in the cases...prescribed by law...The free communication of ideas and a.Persian Letters (1721) opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man..." It is a satire in which Montesquieu joins philosophy,politics and While the Americans and the French were totally preoccupied ethics to tales in the guise of letters exchanged by Persians visiting with their domestic political revolutions,a quieter though not less France with Persians at home and with each other.Wrapped in the important revolution was set in motion in England.The Industrial 150-odd letters are scathing denunciations of every type of despotism Revolution (1760-1840),beginning with the invention of the steam over body and soul. engine,rapidly changed the face of the world,and ushered in a completely new age.This revolution is marked by the following b.The Spirit of the Laws (1748) developments:(1)the introduction of machines which reduced the It is one of the great works in the history of political theory and need for hand labour in making goods;(2)the substitution of steam in the history of jurisprudence.It is an investigation of the power for water,wind,and animal power;(3)the change from environmental and social relationships that lie behind the laws of manufacturing in the home to the factory system;(4)new and faster civilized society.Combining the traditions of customary law with method of transportation on land and on water;(5)the growth of those of the modern theories of natural,Montesquieu redefined law as modern capitalism and the working class. "the necessary relationships which derive from the nature of things". Laws,and their most basic political expression,government,thus became a relative.relationship between a people's physical environment and their social needs and traditions.Laws,"must be adapted to each people".In this book,he also touched on the theory 234 235
of the separation of powers by examining the British form of Christian:for,not to mention getting covered in mud from head government.He believed that the legislative,executive and judicial to foot,I cannot forgive being regularly and systematically powers must be confided to different individuals or bodies,acting elbowed.A man coming up behind me turns me right round as independently.The book was well accepted by the philosophers of he overtakes me;another,passing in the opposite direction, the Enlightenment and his theories had a great influence in the abruptly puts me back where the first one got me;and before I Western world even to this day.Particularly,his doctrines of the have gone a hundred yards I am in a worse state than if I had separation of powers became one of the most important principles of done ten leagues. the U.S.constitution. Do not expect me to be able to give you a thorough Here are some examples from his Persian Letters: description of European ways and customs.I have only a superficial idea of them myself,and have had barely enough time Letter 24 to do anything except be astonished. Rica to Ibben,at Smyrna The King of France is the most powerful ruler in Europe. We have been in Paris for a month,and we have been in a He has no goldmines like the King of Spain,his neighbour,but continual whirl all the time.There is so much to be done before his riches are greater,because he extracts them from his one can get lodgings,find the people to whom one has subjects'vanity,which is more inexhaustible than mines.He introductions,and obtain the necessities of life,all of which one has been known to undertake or sustain major wars with no needs simultaneously. other funds but what he gets from selling honorific titles,and by Paris is as big as Ispahan.The houses here are so high that a miracle of human vanity,his troops are paid,his fortresses you would swear that only astrologers would live in them.As supplied,and his fleets equipped. you will realize,a town built in the air,with six or seven houses Moreover,this king is a great magician.He exerts all on top of each other,is exceedingly full of people,and when authority even over the minds of his subjects;he makes them everyone comes out into the street it makes a splendid muddle. think what he wants.If there are only a million crowns in the Perhaps you will not believe this,but during the month exchequer,and he needs two million,all he has to do is that I have been here I haven't yet seen anyone walk.No people persuade them that one crown is worth two,and they believe it. in the world make their bodies work harder for them than If he is involved in a difficult war without any money,all he has Frenchmen:they run;they fly.The slow vehicles of Asia,the to do is to get it into their heads that a piece of paper will do for measured step of our camels,would give them apoplexy.As for money,and they are immediately convinced of it.He even me,who am not used to such a rush,and who often go on foot succeeds in making them believe that he can cure them of all sorts of diseases by touching them,such is the force and power without changing my pace,I sometimes get as cross as a 237 236 可牙容9静利串不發网得所绿环配
that he has over their minds. the way to Paradise: You must not be amazed at what I tell you about this I have heard things about the.king that border on the prince:there is another magician,stronger than he,who miraculous,and I have no doubt that you will hesitate to believe controls his mind as completely as he controls other people's. them. This magician is called the Pope.He will make the king believe They say that while he was at war with his neighbours, that three are only one,or else that the bread one eats is not who were all in league against him,he had an innumerable bread,or that the wine one drinks not wine,and a thousand number of invisible enemies in his kingdom,surrounding him. other things of the same kind. They also say that he has searched for them for more than thirty And in order to keep him in training,so that he will not get years,and that,despite the indefatigable efforts of certain out of the habit of believing,he gives him certain articles of dervishes who are in his confidence,he has been unable to find a belief as an exercise from time to time.Two years ago he sent single one.They live with him;they are at his court,in his him a long document called the Constitution,and tried to make capital city,among his troops,in his lawcourts.Yet they say he this king and his subjects believe everything in it,on pain of will have the vexation of dying without being able to find them. severe penalties.He succeeded with the king,who submitted at It is as if they existed in general,and were nothing in once,setting an example to his subjects.But some of them particular:they are a class without any members.No doubt rebelled,and said that they refused to believe anything in the Heaven wants to punish this prince for not being sufficiently document.The instigators of this revolt,which has split the restrained towards his conquered enemies,since it gives him court,the whole kingdom,and every family,are women.The enemies who are invisible,and who are superior to him in their constitution forbids them to read a book which all the Christians methods and in what they achieve. say was brought down to them from Heaven:it is really their I shall continue to write to you,and what I tell you will be Koran.The women,indignant at this insult to their sex,have far removed from the Persian character and way of doing things. started a whole movement against the Constitution.They have The same earth carries us both;but the men in the country put the men,who in this case do not want to be privileged,on where I am living,and those in the country where you are,are their side.You have to admit,all the same,that this Mufti men of very different sorts. argues perfectly reasonably;it must be,by the great prophet From Paris,the 4th of the Ali!That he is acquainted with the principles of our Holy Law. Second Moon of Rabia,1712. For,since women are created inferior to us,and our prophets say that they will not go to Paradise,why is it necessary for 2.Voltaire (pseudonym of Jean Francois Arouet,1694-1778) them to bother to read a book which is intended only to show Voltaire,the French poet,dramatist,historian,and 238 239 一/一图