HI108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Moses Mendelssohn, Ottoman Empire, Baruch Spinoza
Document Summary
Five major powers within the top tier: great britain, france. Ottoman empire is a decaying political entity. Time period where thinkers tried to apply the principles of reason and science to all aspects of society: Enlightenment concepts: reason: not accepting anything by faith, scientific method could discover the laws of human society as well as nature, progress: better societies could be created using these principals. Advanced ideas of liberty, progress (things progressively get better, slight improvements) Catholics vs protestants just coming out of the religious wars. Enlightened thinkers were trying to push tolerance and tried to push the notion of fraternity (one big community) Tra(cid:374)sitio(cid:374)i(cid:374)g fro(cid:373) feudalis(cid:373) to a(cid:271)solute (cid:373)o(cid:374)ar(cid:272)hy"s (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h (cid:373)ade (cid:272)o(cid:374)stitutio(cid:374)al go(cid:448)er(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t extremely controversial. Pushed for the separation of church and state, hangover from the conflicts of the religious wars. Era is also called the century of light or philosophy. Principal occupation is to combat ignorance known as one of the great generals of history.
