HIST 383 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Dictionnaire Philosophique, Scottish Enlightenment, Mary Wollstonecraft
Document Summary
People began to feel that they were living through a period of change, they didn"t know where it was going though. Others felt worried as what they saw as a breakdown of social order or the development of the early banking system. Immanuel kant asked what is enlightenment in an essay in 1784. It was man"s release from man"s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Humanity could come to self-knowledge and break through the chains of superstition. Mary wollstonecraft said that women did not have reason. Women are kept in tutelage because they don"t have access to the tools of education. This speaks to a broad sense of philosophers that they are trying to break the chains of a particular version of religion and develop through breaking those chains, develop human progress. Should we take this view on its own terms. Have courage to use your own reason - that is the motto of enlightenment.
