The Enlightenment

WYH2003HS Spring 2003-- March 18

Links

Descartes from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Descartes' Meditations, in English, French, and Latin

On René Descartes, from Alfred Freddoso of Notre Dame University

Lord Herbert of Cherbury, from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

John Locke, from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; an entry on Locke from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

An excerpt from Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity

Voltaire's treatise on toleration

The full Philosophical Dictionary of Voltaire

A study guide for Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary from Paul Brians, Washington State University

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on French deism (Voltaire, Rousseau, the encyclopedists)

Internet modern history sourcebook on the Enlightenment

The philosophes, from a Western Civ course at Washington State University

David Hume on religion, from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

A few excerpts from Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious (1696)

The Enlightenment was the watershed of modern intellectual history. It debunked the authority of religious dogma, written scriptures, and revelation, and instead championed the ability of Human Reason to discover truth and construct happy societies.

John Locke

Locke rejected original sin, and led the way to the modern idea that people could change themselves through education, without the necessity of grace. He was also a vigorous advocate of religious toleration, both as a support for free rational enquiry and as a prerequisite for social peace.

Voltaire

"I want my attorney, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God, and I think that then I shall be robbed and cuckolded less often."

Voltaire commended a social religion to keep the masses in order. It would include beliefs in a God who rewards good and punishes evil in an afterlife. This was more than he personally believed himself.