The Lights Century

The Lights Century

With the term illustration it is usually called the philosophical, literary and scientific movement that developed in Europe and its colonies throughout the thirteenth century. Ernst Troeltsch wrote, in 1897, that "the Enlightenment is the beginning and foundation of the properly modern period of European culture and history," and continued to recognize that "it is not at all a purely or eminently scientific movement, but a complete transformation ofculture in all areas of life ". The illustration is characterized in a very marked confidence in the powers of reason, understood as an instrument capable of solving all the problems of man, not only the strictly philosophical and scientific but also the religious, social and political. It was a complex and articulated movement with different ideas and views sometimes, but accompanied by a series of ideas about tolerance and reason.

In addition, the Enlightenment promoted a controversial living against the past and had the optimistic conviction to begin, with the help of reason, to a better stage than the previous. We had to reject the dogmas that characterized the metaphysical constructions of the past, to embrace a new philosophy capable of explaining the moral and cognitive phenomena differently and with a new critical attitude towards everything. Trust in the power of reason favored by the advances of science. There is a close relationship between enlightened ideas and scientific thinking and some philosophers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire entered Newton’s scientific studies or medicine for example (Mettrie was a doctor).

In philosophical field the Enlightenment tried to rethink values and beliefs of Western civilization especially the concepts of God, reason, nature and man. Its ultimate goal is to achieve the happiness of man through freedom that would give him the knowledge of things through reason.

The enlightened had great confidence in the intellectual faculties of man and the hope that the development of knowledge could help him reject fanaticism, intolerance and fight against darkness and superstition of the time. For them, the knowledge of nature and its laws was essential to reach a political and qualitative development of society. Already with the scientific revolution of the 16th century some important laws were discovered that allowed to explain many phenomena that previously seemed inscrutable secrets. In the 18th century, the advances of science were consolidated, especially with the contribution of Newton’s ideas that allowed to explain the Descartes system and gave life to a new cosmological vision and a "modern" science model, the advances of chemistryand astronomy, driven by the need for progress of navigation and military demand and also in medicine, although the progress was slow, but significant. For the enlightened reason, it has a transformative character while theoretical. Kant defines illustration as the conquest of the age of majority, independence and autonomy of human reason.

Global historical context

This century is characterized by the confidence of the European elite in the expansion of trade and navigation. The expansion of international trade towards the Americas, Africa and Asia exists since the fifteenth century, after its discoveries, but it is in the 18th century that acquires more importance and is related to the changes and innovations of the industrial revolution. It is clear that the technological progress of this era leads to great confidence in the possibilities of reason and a new optimism and the 18th century is still a time of discoveries.

• The scientific and technological advance in the previous decades
• Relative peace (if you think about the war crises of the seventeenth century)
• European progression on all continents

Social context

The 18th century is characterized by the advance of the bourgeoisie they saw in the social structures of the old regime an impediment to their social ascent.

Another characteristic is the secularization especially of the knowledge that ceases to be in the exclusive hand of the Church to pass by the "public", that is to say of the scholars who could disseminate and classify it through the encyclopedias. The key character of the Enlightenment is the "Philosophe", a term that has to be understood in a broad sense as an intellectual or writer, who with the ideas themselves try to perform a useful task and disseminate the philosophical principles. Philosophes also considered themselves, as was the case in humanism, members of a cosmopolitan community, but what is most important throughout the period of the Enlightenment is the weight of the national for the political changes of this century. The illustration presents its own face in each of the European nations due to national character and historical conditions

The roots of the thought of the Enlightenment and its development

This movement collects the legacy of the rationalism of the seventeenth century according to which reason is the only way to access the knowledge of reality. But the reason for the previous century is based on the existence of innate ideas inherent to the human soul and philosophers affirmed that these ideas came from God, considered the first engine of all the experience. On the contrary, the enlightened reason is empirical and analytical, that is, this faculty develops with experience and that its method is inductive;It is a critical reason in the sense that in the face of previous dogmatism and the belief of unlimited power of reason, its limits, the limits of experience itself are recognized.

Already in the seventeenth century are the roots of illustration especially in scientific advances and in the most representative figure of English empiricism: Locke. For some authors the date of birth of the lights is around 1720, but others delay it by coinciding with the publication of the works of Voltaire, Montesquieu and Pope.

European illustration is what we call emerging philosophical views regarding human autonomy, agency and self-determination;the departure of the rights of the people or the group and towards the recognition of inherent individual human rights;freedom of expression and religion;and the transition to see sovereignty as the divine law of the kings to see it as an attribute of society and human power to whom the rulers can govern only with the consent of the governed.

These principles were discussed by political philosophers from the 16th century and until the beginning of the 18th century;The illustration came basically before the new American concept in democracy began, in fact, it was the inspiration for the founders to prove the self-government republic.

The age of reason, as it was called, was extending rapidly throughout Europe. At the end of the 17th century, many intellectuals challenged the old regime to learn the same things as all always, without thinking more founded so that they could try to discover truths of the human being.

People began to doubt the existence of a God who could predestine human beings to eternal condemnation and give power to a tyrant for a king. Europe would be changed forever by these ideas.

New ideas also shaped political attitudes. John Locke defended the displacement of a monarch that would not protect the lives, freedoms and ownership of the English.

During the old order, life was represented by superstition, an angry God, and absolute presentation of authority. The thinkers of the age of reasons marked the beginning of a new way of thinking. This new way defended the achievements of humanity. People did not have to accept despair. Science and reason could cause happiness and progress. Kings No Standard of Divine Law. They had the obligation of their songs

The Church was generally against the enlightened ideas that often had an anti -religious and skeptical character, but a part of the clergy concurred to the classrooms and academies and was also counted among the subscribers of the encyclopedia. What we have to take into account is that the illustrated ideas only affected the people marginally and often only involuntarily in the way of acting. The enlightened thinkers used all the diffusion channels available to disseminate the ideas, such as the case of the press. The first newspaper was founded in Holland in 1686 and later the German and French press that were characterized by rapid development, but countries such as Spain, Italy, Poland and Russia were delayed and did not see the time of journalism yet to be born yet. The dissemination of new ideas through newspapers, although it contributed to the development of public opinion, was quite difficult because the press was strongly censored and it was for this reason that satires and pamphlets began to circulate. The most important diffusion channels were the halls often run by high -class women.

Enlightened thinking is empiricist and always proceed in an analytical way trying to reach practical solutions to understand the universal law that is hidden in experience data. Natural religiosity, which must be rational and therefore reject superstitions, rites, prophecies, acquires two forms of manifestation: theism and deism.

A new idea of progress and history not as the contemplation of divine providence but as the performance of human forces: man will be the subject of his history that will have to conquer greater happiness for the greatest number of beingshumans. From here the complaint of the past as delay and the valorization of education as an accelerator of this progress. Reason can and should promote this progress even through struggles and contrasts.

The French illustration and the Encyclopèdie

The French illustration is distinguished by its radicality with respect for example to English: in fact, English thought always remained linked to tradition and maintained a positive relationship towards religion. In France the rupture with tradition was carried out abruptly because the Church was closely linked to the ancient social powers. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the French language became the language of the Cortes, the cult par excellence, and France prepared to play the leading role in the social development of Europe during the 18th century.

To get to that, France rejected the cultural self-sufficiency that had characterized the era of Louis XIV, and began to demonstrate a living interest in the study of what England had produced before, especially its state and social constitution and natural science and the natural science and theEnglish philosophy. In fact, in England and the United Provinces the tolerance climate, the presence of characters such as Spinoza and Bayle and the editorial industry had favor the prosperity of both countries and that reveals the bourgeois origin of the Enlightenment. In addition, this trust that developed in human initiatives and the secularization of culture led to an open conflict with the forces that until now had held the monopoly of power. Many of the enlightened belonged to various categories of the bourgeoisie linked to knowledge (lawyers, doctors, writers, journalists, jurists) but there were also noble and ecclesiastical ones, although the presence of these figures was minority.

Therefore, the French illustration is deeply influenced by the English: the first generation (that of Montesquieu and Voltaire) is characterized by having traveled to Britain and having known Locke’s ideas regarding the separation of powers and the political systemEnglish parliamentarian, but stands out for the radicalization of some of these ideas. The concept that the French thinkers developed was about history.

The most representative company of the culture of French Enlightenment is the Encyclopèdie Ou Dictionaire Raisonné des Arts et des Métiers. It was a work of many authors under the guidance of Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert . In the voice "Encyclopedia" of the same encyclopedia we can read: "The objective of an encyclopedia is to unify the dispersed knowledge about the face of the earth;expose the system and transmit it to those who will come after us;So that the works of the past centuries have not been useless for the following centuries, so that our descendants, being more educated, can at the same time be more virtuous and happier, and so that we do not disappear without having been deserving of the genrehuman. […] We realized that only encyclopedia could be attempted in a philosophical century and that this century had arrived."But its purpose was not merely scientific or instructive, but in the end it sustained a rationalist ideology that questioned the certainties received by tradition, judging in a moderate way the same foundations of political power and the Church. He was born from the idea of the Parisian bookseller Le Bretón who wanted to translate into the French the Universal Dictionary of the Arts and English Sciences Chambers. Diderot changed the original plan to do so and surrounded itself with numerous collaborators. The first volume appeared in July 1751. After the second volume, the work was paralyzed by the opposition that had raised in the religious media, but with the support of Madame de Pompadour it could be reprimanded and in 1753 the third volume came out. Other volumes continued to be published regularly. In 1757 the encyclopedia suffered a crisis, not only for external opposition. Some of the most prominent representatives of illuminist philosophy did not collaborate in the encyclopedia or appear in it with few contributions. For example, Montesquieu wrote more than a single article, about taste, which completely differs from the topics of his fundamental works. Voltaire collaborated in the first volumes and then stopped doing it. But the spirit of these men, as well as that of Locke, Newton and the English philosophers of that time, also dominates the encyclopedia, and the doctrines that they did not expose on their own, inspired the articles of the work through writingof a multitude of anonymous collaborators. In the encyclopedia there are no lack of errors and inconsistencies, even in relation to the culture of time. But its effectiveness was immense and it is largely due to one of the most vast and radical revolutions of European culture.

Montesquieu (Brede 1689- Paris 1757) wrote about diverse issues, both literary and scientific but his predominant interest is political science.

In his "Persian lettres" published anonymously in 1721 Montesquieu condemns the incoherence and superficiality of western culture/ civilization of the time, especially religious and political absolutism. In his work "The Spirit of Laws" can be understood by his conception of history as an order that is manifested in constant laws. The law is "the necessary relationship that derives from the nature of things" and that is why if everything has its law, man also has, but what Montesquieu states is that these laws are not necessary. Men, such as intelligent, continually violates the laws established by God and also changes those that it establishes. For this reason it is necessary to be directed. Montesquieu distinguishes three types of governments: the Republic, which is characterized by the principle of political virtue, the love of homeland and equality, monarchy, for honor and despotism for fear. All these governments are articulated in a set of specific laws, but when the government is corrupted the laws are stirred against the same State. According to this conception, the growth or decline of a nation has its causes, which are the laws of the same history and are not the result of chance. With respect to freedom, this is not inherent in any type of government, but only of those that are moderate, that is, of the governments where power finds limits that prevent them from corrupting themselves. Montesquieu affirms that power can be limited only by power. That is why the division of the three powers is necessary in the State: legislative, executive and judicial because their meeting and their abuse would cancel the freedom of the citizen.

In France, for example, the Catholic Church was exposed to severe criticism and subject to strong anti -clerical attacks. The philosophers, in particular, wanted to secularize the church but, although they were a vocal group, they did not represent the whole society. It is important to remember that, despite the extensive criticism and investigations to which religion was submitted, an examination of the relations between the Church and the Enlightenment society demonstrates that this period was not, in fact, dominated by atheism andskepticism.

Despite the challenges that the Christian churches had to face in the Enlightenment, they continued to thrive during the period and, ultimately, important sources of power and influence remained.

Due to the religious persecution that had passed in Europe during the last century, one of the most vociferous motifs of enlightenment went to religious tolerance. John Locke in England was one of the first to start a campaign for tolerance and later joined Voltaire, Gotthold Lessing, Moisés Mendelssohn and others.

Illustrated despotism – The Enlightenment in Spain

The programs of the "enlightened" governments of the second half of the 18th century present some common characteristics: the reinforcement of centralization to achieve a more effective bureaucracy;the development of a tax reform, with the aim of avoiding the numerous fiscal deviations;a legal reform, through legislative collection and the application of utilitarian and humanitarian principles in criminal matters;The strengthening of economic activity, through the implementation of scientific and technical innovations, the reinforcement of culture, through the creation of educational institutions to reach broader social groups and the secularization of the monarchy and social norms, whichallows the advance of a "new" tolerance.

Carlos III (Spain)

In countries like England and Holland with a powerful bourgeoisie and a government that soon received their ideas, the movement was normally developed, on a progressive line. In France, where the bourgeoisie was strong but the impervious government to reforms, the confrontation was alive and aggressive with Philosophes determined to fight political absolutism. On the other hand, in countries with a weak bourgeoisie the enlightened could consider the support of the monarch to face the most conservative forces. This was the case of Spain too. It is usually distinguished a pre-bankruptcy, which is located at the end of the 17. The novators wanted. To scholastic sectarianism they contradicted philosophical freedom, the cancellation of the union between metaphysics and science, also promoting the use of Spanish and a clearer and clearer expression. What stands out in this period is the creation of increasingly strong links with the crown, Spanish monarchical institutions and with orders and institutes such as the Society of Jesus or the Benedictine Congregation of Valladolid.

King Carlos III (1759-1788), son of Felipe V, who made himself noticed for his innovative policy, when he had previously reigned in Naples he made political and economic reforms to advance Spain. He had the support before the Italian ministers Grimaldi and Esquilache and after the Condes de Aranda, Campomanes and Floridablanca. And also of the societies of friends of the country, formed of the cultivated elite, which was intended to revalue work and develop teaching. The extension of technological knowledge and their practical application not only ran from the hand of education, but also a model of encounter between thinkers, intellectuals, religious and scientific that were these societies that had a very important role. The first was founded by a group of Basque nobles in 1774, but the most important of them was the Royal Economic Society of Madrid, a city that will be the center of the new social model. These societies welcomed, without class distinction, to all sectors with the common attempt to procure the economic development of the regions where they were implanted contributing to disseminate new cultivation techniques, trades, mechanical and mechanical schools. The problem was that this idea of reform was defended only by a minority and at the end of the reign of Carlos III the traditionalists, animated by the preacher Diego de Cádiz, which was contrary to the dissemination of the illustrated principles, carried out a reactionary policy. The outbreak of the

During the first years of Carlos III’s reign, the reform policy was promoted by a government led by Italian ministers who came with him from Naples. Carlos III strengthened the central authority, reducing the prerogatives of the provinces and municipalities, reorganized the finances, the army and the fleet. I force the Inquisition to go to the State Security Service, reduced the privileges of the clergy and expelled the Jesuits in 1767.

Carlos III made a reform plane among which the economic ones stand out: the free trade of cereals was decreed by suppressing the rate of the grain that was in force since the time of the Catholic Monarchs as a measure to keep under the price of cereals. Then the monopoly of the port of Cádiz on commercial exchanges with America was ended so that the volume of exchanges could grow and thus increase the income of the State. These policies aroused the opposition of the privileged, but also that of the people, which perceived reforms as foreign inspiration measures that altered traditional customs of Spanish society. And all that led to the riot of the Esquilache in 1766, when to the discomfort of the town for the lack and the increase in the price of bread (caused by the policy of free trade of cereals) the opposition of the privileged was also added. As a consequence of the revolt, the Government restored the grain rate and to change the practice of the partial confiscation plan of the ecclesiastical properties. So the agrarian reform, which was a fundamental point of all the enlightened programs, had limited results, but it was sought to rotate wastelands and projects were done on an agrarian law in order to harmonize the interests of owners and cultivators.

The Spanish enlightened were convinced that the country’s decline had an economic root and for this reason they thought that the most urgent was to develop useful sciences (physical, chemistry, mathematics) to reach a technical innovation and the consequent economic resurgence. This tried to completely renew the educational system from primary education to university and professionals. The education that opened to science and technique was modernized under the influence of the humanist Jovellanos renewing the scientific, legal and philosophical contents and with greater control of universities by the government.

(…). Note that the usefulness of instruction, considered politically, does not come from the sum of knowledge that a people possess, nor from the quality of this knowledge, how much of its good distribution. A nation can have some, or many and very eminent wise men, while the great mass of its people lies in the most eminent ignorance, it is already seen that, in such a state, the instruction will be of little use, because being to some extentnecessary to all classes, the individuals of which they are productive and most useful will be inept for their respective professions, while their wise compatriots rise to the most sublime speculation. And so it will happen that, in the midst of a sphere of light and wisdom, agriculture, industry and navigation, sources of public prosperity, they will lie in the darkness of ignorance.

(…) What can a people without education aspire, but to the servile and precarious condition of day laborer? (…).

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