Enlightenment Overview


Historical and Philosophical Eras


  I.  Ancient Philosophy or Philosophy of Antiquity  (600 BCE - c. 400 CE (AD) 

        Plato and Aristotle (4th century BCE)   
        Other ancient philosophies (skepticism, Epicureanism, Stoicism, Neoplatonism

          (Fall of the Western Roman Empire - c. 300 - 500 CE)


 II.   Medieval (or "Middle Ages") Philosophy

       Early Middle Ages - c. 400 - 1000:  

              Augustine of Hippo  (c. 400)  Neoplatonist


 High Middle Ages  (1000 - 1300) 

          With the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, much of ancient Greek and Roman thought was lost to western Europe.  Several of Plato's works remained, only two of Aristotle's, and none of the ancient skeptics.  The lost works survived in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and in the Islamic Middle East, northern Africa, and Andalusia.  They returned to western Europe; most important for this course is the return of Aristotle's works starting around 1100 CE.  

      Throughout the middle ages all philosophy was used in service of Roman Catholic theology.  There was little in this time period that can be termed secular philosophy.    

      The medieval scholastics (or school men)  incorporated Aristotle's thought into Christian thought.

      These men are called scholastics because they were the professors of all subjects taught at European universities for five centuries, starting with the founding of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris around the beginning of the 13th century.  So Catholic theology, based on Aristotle, dominated European education. 

        At the same time the first major universities were founded, so were two major mendicant orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans.  Most of the professors in the universities were Dominicans and Franciscans.  There would be Jesuit schools beginning in the 16th century.    

        Starting with some Protestant reformers, some 16th century humanist philosophers, and more so with our Pre-Enlightenment philosophers, the scholastics and their use of Aristotle were attacked.  Because of the pre-Enlightenment philosophers and scientists, along with the rise of Protestantism, their influence in European universities was waning by 1700.  

            Thomas Aquinas  (mid 13th century)


                (c. 1500 - Medieval Era of history ends, Modern Era begins)


              Spread of Renaissance Humanism from Italy northward 
              The rise of mercantilism (trade) and the middle (merchants & bankers) class
              New World exploration and colonization  -  1492
              Protestant Reformation  -  1517
              Copernican Revolution (heliocentrism) - 1543
              French Wars of Religion  -  1562 - 1598
              Eighty Years' War  (Dutch War of Independence)  - 1569 - 1648  
              Invention of the telescope and microscope  - c. 1600   


  III.  1500 - 1637  -  Middle to Late Renaissance

         Return of ancient skepticism  /  development of pragmatism 
         Criticism of superstition, social norms, Catholic Church  


   IV.  1637 - 1800  -  Early Modern Philosophy 
  
          1. 1637 - 1715?  -  Pre-Enlightenment 

          2. 1715 - 1800?  -  The Enlightenment proper 


   V.  1800  -  Beginning of Late Modern philosophy and Age of Romanticism

The 19th century Romantics rejected the rationality of the Enlightenment philosophers. Passion replaces reason as the key ideology.   Byron and Keats in Europe, and the New England Transcendentalists like Emerson embrace the power and majesty, and sometimes terror, of nature (Melville's Moby Dick).  The focus on rules, order and logic are replaced with spontaneity and warnings against obsession with science (Mary Shelly's Frankenstein).  The tightly controlled emotions in Hayden and Mozart give way to sudden bursts of passion in Beethoven who transitions music towards the full romanticism of Chopin & Liszt.


What came next...

               The great philosophical divide of the 19th and 20th centuries


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The Age of Revolution

        A.  American  Revolution  (1775 - 1783)

        B.  Dutch Revolutions  (failed)  (1780s)

        C.  French Revolution  (failed?)  (1789 - 1799)

        D.  Haitian Revolution  (1791 - 1804)

        E.  Mexican War of Independence  (1810 - 1820)

        F.  Other Spanish-American Wars of Independence

       G.  Revolutions of 1830  (including the July Revolution in France)

       H.  Revolutions of 1848  (over one dozen, all failed)


Forms of Government   

   Absolute Monarchy  

       England - The Tudor and Stuart Dynasties to 1688

       Spain    -  Phillip II  1556 to 1598

       France  -  The Bourbon Dynasty to 1789 (Louis XIII: 1610 - 1643, Louis XIV: 1643 - 1715,
                        Louis XV: 1715 - 1774, Louis XVI: 1774 - 1789) 

       Russia  -  The Romanov Dynasty to 1917  (Peter I: 1687 - 1731, Catherine II: 1763 - 1796)

       Austria -  The Habsburg Dynasty to 1917  (Leopold I: 1658 - 1705, Charles VI: 1711 - 1740,
                        Francis I & Maria Theresa1740 - 1765, Joseph II: 1764 - 1790)  

       Prussia -  The Hohenzollern Dynasty  (Frederick the Great -  rules 1740 - 1786)  


   Constitutional Monarchy

       England, 1688, under William & Mary & then the Hanover Dynasty   (Aristocratic representative government)

       France, 1814, under Louis XVIII, Charles X  


   Others:  Principalities, Duchies, Free Imperial Cities (in the Holy Roman Empire), Papal States


   Republics 

       Roman Republic  (509 - 27 BCE)  

       Republic of Florence  (1115 - 1532)  

       Dutch Republic  (1588 - 1795)  


   Democratic Republics  - Republican Government  (popular government)  

       United State of America  (1787 -  )   

       First French Republic  (1792 - 1804) 



   "The Cosmopolitan World"  -  International cooperation to bring about positive change 

       Some examples:

          The United Nations

          The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

          The International Criminal Court in The Hague

          The International Red Cross

          Many more....




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