Question

what were some key ideas emerging in the Enlightenment? How did these ideas affect the monarchies of England, France, and Russia? How so? What were some characteristics of "enlightened rulers?

Answer 1

• The Enlightenment, sometimes called the 'Age of Enlightenment', was a late 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individualism, and skepticism. The Enlightenment presented a challenge to traditional religious views.
• Enlightenment thinkers were the liberals of their day. They were typically humanists who supported equality and human dignity. They stood opposed (in varying degrees) to supernatural occurrences, superstition, intolerance, and bigotry.
• While the Enlightenment was a tremendously broad movement, there are several core themes that were characteristic of it. One was reason. Enlightenment thinkers typically denounced supernatural occurrences as mere superstition. To a degree, the Enlightenment spurred atheism, but more commonly, it resulted in a mix between Christianity and scientific rationalism. This is best illustrated by the deist movement that gripped Europe and the United States during the late 18th century.
• In simplest terms, deism is the belief that God exists, but chooses to let the universe proceed according to natural law. Deists deny supernatural occurrences and insist that God is knowable through reason and nature, not divine revelation.
• Going along with reason is another Enlightenment theme, which is skepticism. By skepticism, we're talking about skepticism of religious dogma, the institutionalized church, government authority, and even skepticism of the nature of reality. To illustrate this point, let's look at something called the divine right of kings.
• According to this view, which had been popular among Catholics for centuries, monarchs had been placed in positions of power by the will of God and were not subject to Earthly powers. Basically, this was a fancy way of saying the king was above the law. But with the Age of Enlightenment, this idea began to lose its credibility.
• Enlightenment thinkers were skeptics. They typically rejected 'blind faith.' They wanted 'proof' in the modern sense that you and I want proof before believing something. This applied to all spheres of life, especially science, and even the nature of reality itself. This is exemplified by René Descartes, who, in searching for 'proof' of his own existence, famously said: 'I think; therefore, I am.'
• Religious tolerance:-Though skeptical of religious institutions, many Enlightenment thinkers believed that people should be free to worship as they wished. "The intellectuals of the Enlightenment vigorously sought to restrict the political power of organized religion in an effort to curtail the outbreak of intolerant religious wars.
• Liberty:The Enlightenment tolerance of religion is related to the movement's emphasis on personal liberty. This concept holds that God and/or nature gave all humans basic rights and humans should be free to act without oppressive restriction. The philosophers emphasized that government had no authority over an individual's conscience.Individuals had rights, all men were equal and legitimate political power is based on the consent of the people and is obligated to be representative of the people's will.
• Progress:The centuries before the Enlightenment were characterized by rapid changes, from the discoveries of the Scientific Revolution to the exploration of the world and the advancement in art technique during the Renaissance. Largely because of this, Enlightenment thinkers believed that the human condition was improving over time. Philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, both Scotsmen, tied Enlightenment ideals to politics, economic policies and more.
• In the wake of political turmoil in England, Locke asserted the right of a people to change a government that did not protect natural rights of life, liberty and property. People were beginning to doubt the existence of a God who could predestine human beings to eternal damnation and empower a tyrant for a king. Europe would be forever changed by these ideas.
• In America, intellectuals were reading these ideas as well. On their side of the Atlantic, Enlightened ideas of liberty and progress had a chance to flourish without the shackles of Old Europe. Religious leaders began to change their old dogmatic positions. They began to emphasize the similarities between the Anglican Church and the Puritan Congregationalists rather than the differences.
• New ideas shaped political attitudes as well. John Locke defended the displacement of a monarch who would not protect the lives, liberties, and property of the English people. JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU stated that society should be ruled by the "general will" of the people. BARON DE MONTESQUIEU declared that power should not be concentrated in the hands of any one individual. He recommended separating power among executive, legislative, judicial branches of government.
• One government that represents individual freedom was a Republic. And in the end, France did became a Republic.The rise of middle class and the printing press encouraged political awareness, Because more people was aware of the tyranny and injustice. More people wanted channge, and that leads to the French Revolution.
• Voltaire, an Enlightenment writer, thought that people should have the right to free speech and religious freedom, which they did not really have. This idea became an important part of all Enlightenment thinking and many governments.
• In 18th century Russia, Catherine II the Great, who was mildly enlightened, was the first ruler to introduce concepts from the Philisophes into Russia, and attempted to reform Russia along the lines of the enlightenment, however, resistance from the nobility classes stunned her success.
• She first adapted new concepts of the enlightenment by reading Voltaire’s work.She first initiated the relationship between herself and Voltaire in 1763. Catherine wanted a relationship with Voltaire because it benefited her for several reasons.Catherine was trying to reform Russia to the ideas of the Enlightenment and having Voltaire as a contact would help largely, especially because Catherine appreciated Voltaire's ideas more than other ideas in the Enlightenment.
• Catherine wrote a statement of legal principles permitted with ideas of the Enlightenment, to replace the Muscovite code of laws with a modern law code.
• The main two ideas of the new law code were that everybody is equal before the law, and the idea that preventing crime was better than repressing it.
• Catherine questioned the institutions of serfdom, torture, and capital punishment, as well as advocated for equality of all people under the law, but the palace guard and the gentry class did not allow her to have success with her ideas, who benefited from serfs. etc. Took major steps in promoting and spreading female education.
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