HIST 1000 Study Guide - Summer 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Christianity, Voltaire, Torture
HIST 1000
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Class Notes
ENLIGHTENMENT
I. Introduction
a/- 18th century movement to change men’s minds and reform institutions; one of the most
important intellectual movements in western history.
b/--mottos:
--Kant: “What is enlightenment? Dare to know. Have the courage to make use of your
understanding” See box
--Diderot: “We are promoting a rev in men’s minds to free them of prejudice”
c/Begins in Paris in the early 18th century. Until the late 17th century, literature and writing
based at Versailles under Louis 14:
--But the regime ends as a mess: 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes; persecution of the
Jansenists; losses of war; famine; The result is that intellectual life shifts to Paris as writers
lose faith in Louis 14. He dies in 1715, the year Voltaire is 21.
d/ The enlightenment radiates from Paris and comes to include about 250 men an women of
letters over the next three generations. They are called philosophes, although only a few are
philosophers (Hume, Kant). They are the first modern intellectuals--live for ideas, committed to a
cause:
Voltaire, Diderot, Mont, Rousseau, D’Alembert, Holbach, Helvetius, Condorcet, Hume, Adam
Smith, Gibbon, Beccaria,, Franklin, Lessing, Kant,
Jefferson
e/ Builds on pre-Enlight thinkers: John Locke, Newton, Spinoza
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still closely studied:
--some see national orientations: the French more aggressively anti-religious (Voltaire,
infamy); the French church more oppressive, less inclusive than the English, where there is no
infamy to crush. Holbach: “double yoke of spir/temp power”
-- humanitarian instinct much more evident in Britain
-- division between mods and radicals (Diderot, Holbach, Bayle), influenced by Spinoza
(Holland); athesim vs deism.
--much study of the literary uground in spreading new thinking: popular tracts, even early
pornography.
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find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2. leading themes of the Enlightenment: Humanitarianism
a/-- There is a change in sensibility during the 18th century;
--increased capacity to identify with “the other” (criminals, the poor, slaves, other rels, non-
Europeans, gays).
--philosophers concluded that humans naturally were, and should, be compassionate
-- term humanitarianism is introduced (see encyc entry: “troubled by the pains of others and by
the necessity to alleviate them”) . The word “sympathy” is widely used in this context. Empathy
introduced late 19th cen.
--This marks the beginning of the meliorative view of society. You can make things better.
b/--The documents suggest some of the targets of humanitarians:
(Report)
1//brutal criminal codes--Beccaria
i--public execution everywhere;
--broad use of capital punishment for crimes against property (poaching with a blackened face;
whitewashing a farthing to resemble a shilling, tree felling, 1770--1830, 7000 hangings; London
workers have 7 days off per year to go to public executions)—procession to Tyburn gallows (HP
corner)
-- torture widespread since 13th cen intro Roman law (except GB, Holland)
ii/--What are some possible reasons for this?
--the state had few prisons, police just developing (England 1829).
--torture the best way to get confessions before modern policing
--the people--the mob--is scary. It is largely illiterate, differently clothed, smelly. the idea is to
terrify the people into submission by ritually brutalizing bodies in public.
--inflicting violence the right of social sups—employers, husbands, parents
--torture could save souls by helping criminals avoid damnation
--pain and torture had a collective purpose: restore wholeness, a sacrificial rite celebrating
recovery from the wrong: parties during public executions
iii/. the attack on torture: it becomes the measure of civilization
--torture ist attacked by Montesquieu, 1724, as Beccaria says.
--1754, Fred the Great (friend of V) abolishes torture--enlightened despot
--1761-2, Calas case--a turning point
--Sweden, 1772, Austria/Bohemia 1776, France diminishes it, 1780’s,
Procession to Tyburn ended 1783; drop hanging instituted
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Enlightenment: introduction a/- 18th century movement to change men"s minds and reform institutions; one of the most important intellectual movements in western history. b/--mottos: Have the courage to make use of your understanding see box. -diderot: we are promoting a rev in men"s minds to free them of prejudice c/begins in paris in the early 18th century. Until the late 17th century, literature and writing based at versailles under louis 14: -but the regime ends as a mess: 1685 revocation of the edict of nantes; persecution of the. Jansenists; losses of war; famine; the result is that intellectual life shifts to paris as writers lose faith in louis 14. He dies in 1715, the year voltaire is 21. d/ the enlightenment radiates from paris and comes to include about 250 men an women of letters over the next three generations. They are called philosophes, although only a few are philosophers (hume, kant).
