Enlightenment Notes

• Gottfried Leibniz
• Theodicy and optimism. 
• Doesn't use optimism like we do. 
• In Pre-Enlightenment German philosophy, optimism is when something happens to it's greatest extent. 
• Theodicy - attempt to justify imperfections in the world. 
• If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and all good, then wouldn't he be able to stop bad things from happening to good people?
• Leibniz said that because God is all powerful, good, and knowing, the world as it is, is the best of all possible worlds because according to Leibniz God's strength, power, knowledge, and goodness makes it so that nothing God creates can go against that, so therefore, anything that happens is the will of God, God's will is all good, therefore anything that happens in the world is the best thing that could possibly happen. 
• Enlightenment thinkers thought that the religious wars were ridiculous. 
• They thought it was stupid to fight over religion when there were so many other more important issues. 
• Enlightenment tried to use REASON. 
• The Founding Father's of the U.S. were all Enlightenment thinkers. 
• Separation of Church and State is an Enlightenment idea. 
• Diderot's Encyclopedia: The first attempt at information technology. 
• Voltaire 
• Wrote Candide
• Uses satire to make fun of Leibniz's thinking.  
• Says that Leibniz's theory is invalid. 
• Montesquieu - came up with personal essays. 
• Used reasoning and nuance to make decisions. 
• Rousseau
• Wrote one of the fundamental documents for the Enlightenment and was used as the foundation for the Enlightenment's principles. 
• Within a democracy it's different because there is no king.  To get along with one another we don't look up to one person to tell us whether we're right or wrong. We create the laws so each of us has the maximum freedom and maximum protection. TO THE MAX. 
• The social contract is between people in a society and the people and the government.
• Opposite of Thomas Hobbes. 
• Hobbes says that because life is short they need a monarch to get things done for the people. 
• Rousseau says that what Hobbes says produces inequality and is bad.  
• Johnathan Swift
• Wrote A Modest Proposal.
• Ireland is going through a drought.
• The British should force the Irish to have more babies, so they have something to eat. 
• Used this to show how ridiculous it was that they could not come up with a way to get food and to show the corruption of thought in the political framework of this time. 
• Voltaire and Swift both used satire. 
• Adam Smith was the father of capitalism. 
• Adam Smith's idea was an open market. Anyone has the potential to make or lose a fortune.  
• People are not born a winner or loser.  They make their own destiny. 
• Mercantile approach was opposite - all dictated by monarch or state
• Before the Enlightenment there were absolute monarchs - Louis XIV, Peter the Great, etc. 
• The Enlightenment thinkers completely break with that tradition. 
• Immanuel Kant
• categorical imperative - philosophy of ethics: if you create a rule for one person, it applies to all. 
• Ex. If you say "do not lie" then in no situation should anyone lie and if they do they're breaking the law. 
• Jeremy Bentham - English philosopher who argued against Kant
• Kant says that if you make a rule then it applies to all situations
• Bentham says that there is a problem with that. 
• Ex. You have been out partying, you drive your car home, you're not paying attention to what you're doing, so you hit a pedestrian, and then you keep driving.  The police come the next morning and question you.  Under categorical imperative, you need to tell them what happened. 
• Ex. It's 1942, you're living in the Netherlands, and SS soldiers come to your door asking if any Jews are living in your house. You know that there is a secret door to your attic where a Jewish family who you are close friends with hiding there.  Under categorical imperative you must tell the soldiers that there are Jews there, knowing that they will be taken to the concentration camps. 
• Bentham says that it doesn't allow choice. 
• The categorical imperative forces legislators to be more thoughtful of how they make laws.  They always have to think about how a statement can come back and hurt them.  
• Utilitarian choice is Bentham's ethical philosophy 
• Utilitarianism is the idea that you have to do what is best for the most people. 
• German philosophy - categorical imperative vs. English philosophy - utilitarian choice

Women in the Enlightenment 

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