Chapter 18: The Age of Enlightenment—Eighteenth Century Thought
Reading and Study Guide
(Divide and Conquer)
Taking the time to do a study guide well reduces the time required to study well for an
exam. As you invest, so shall you prosper….
BIG QUESTIONS: (as you work through the chapter, keep these questions in mind)
1. What is the Enlightenment? What was the intellectual and social background of
Enlightenment?
2. Who were the philosophes and what were their agendas of intellectual and political
reform?
3. What efforts were made by “enlightened” monarchs in Central and Eastern Europe
to increase the economic and military strength of their domains?
4. Why was Poland partitioned by Prussia, Russia, and Austria?
Introduction
This is a “heavy-duty” chapter on thought. It is perfectly alright to NOT agree with the
philosophies of these philosophes; it is perfectly alright TO agree with these guys.
This is your time to create and formulate your own philosophies of why society
functions as it does…you may think that Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire, etc are exactly “on
target” or you may think these guys are “out to lunch.” You have brains…use them!
The philosophes were convinced that human beings could comprehend the
operation of physical nature and mold it to the end of material and moral improvement,
economic growth, and political reform.
Introduction through The Emergence of a Print Culture
pages 588-596
Mini-Dictionary ☺
Conviction: a belief or
opinion that is held firmly
Permeate: to enter
something and spread
throughout it, so that every
part or aspect of it is
affected
Unbridled: freely and
openly expressed
Atheist: somebody who
does not believe in God or
deities
Agnostic: somebody who
believes that it is
impossible to know
whether or not God exists
Deist: a belief in God
based on reason rather than
revelation and involving
the view that God has set
the universe in motion but
does not interfere with how
it runs
Creed: any set of beliefs or
1. Identify four extraordinary changes or transformations that occurred in Western
principles
civilization from 1750 to 1850? Are the convictions that permeated 18th century
Europe still present today?
2. Define ENLIGHTENMENT.
3. What made a PHILOSOPHE a philosophe?
4. What ideas of LOCKE and NEWTON became central to the Enlightenment?
5. Contrast the societies of France and Britain in the 18th century.
6. Within what are genre did Joseph Wright work? What attitudes toward science and the culture of rationalism are
expressed in his work?
7. In what sense was VOLTAIRE not an unbridled believer in progress?
The Encyclopedia through Women in the Thought and Practice of the Enlightenment
pages 596-610
1. What was DIDEROT’s ENCYCLOPEDIA and why was it censored on the European continent? What did it
accomplish?
2. When Voltaire cried “Crush the Infamous Thing!” what did he mean, and why did he utter such a challenge? What
was such a plea so risky?
3. Explain why the philosophes should not be considered atheistic or agnostic. In what did they believe? (DEISM)
4. In what sense were the philosophes like the early politiques?
5. Why did Voltaire take up the Calas issue?
6. For what were DAVID HUME and the BARON D’HOLBACH known?
7. What was the essential drive of the philosophes regarding human activity?
8. Describe UTILITARIANISM, and what BECCARIA and BENTHAM contributed to the idea.
9. Who were the PHYSIOCRATS and what was their creed?
10. What arguments were central to ADAM SMITH’s philosophy? Why might it be said that much of Smith’s
philosophy has fallen on harder times?
11. Why did the most important political thought of the Enlightenment originate in
Mini-Dictionary II
France? What important works did BARON de MONTESQUIEU contribute to the
Enlightenment? Why do YOU suppose so many authors, particularly on the continent,
Vehicle: a medium for
chose the vehicle of satire to promote their criticism of society?
communicating,
expressing, or
12. What is so important about Montesquieu’s work THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS? In
accomplishing
what sense did Montesquieu promote a sort of socio-political relativism? What was,
something
perhaps, Montesquieu’s most influential idea? Why?
13. How did ROUSSEAU feel about his contemporary society? What was his concept
Satire: the use of wit,
of the “general will?”
especially irony,
14. Why were GEOFFRIN, LESPINASSE, and TENCIN important to the
sarcasm, and ridicule, to
Enlightenment, and what unique trait did they share?
criticize fault
15. What was the position of most of the Enlightenment thinkers on the position of
women in society, and how does Rousseau typify this position? What is paradoxical
Relativism: the belief
about this?
that concepts such as
right and wrong,
16. Identify MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT?
goodness and badness, or
17. In what sense were most philosophes conservative?
Enlightened Absolutism through In Perspective
pages 611-621
truth and falsehood are
not absolute but change
from culture to culture
and situation to situation
Contemporary: existing
1. Define ENLIGHTENED DESPOTISM. Which monarchs are not readily associated
or occurring at or dating
with this? Should the term “enlightened” really be applied to them? (Hint: We’re
from the same period of
doing a class group project on this.)
time as something or
2. What important change in the concept of the state took place under the enlightened
somebody else\
despots?
3. Identify ways in which FREDERICK THE GREAT advanced the idea of
Paradoxical: a
enlightened absolutism.
statement, proposition,
4. Describe JOSEPHISM and specify the specific policies pursued through it.
or situation that seems to
be absurd or
5. Why did many of the reforms of JOSEPH II eventually fail?
contradictory, but in fact
6. How did CATHERINE THE GREAT come to the Russian throne? Was Catherine
is or may be true
II (the Great) of Russia as dedicated to enlightened reform as Joseph II of Austria?
What was gained by Catherine through the Charter of the Nobility and the Treaty of
Kuchuk-Kainardjii?
7. For what reasons was the partitioning and disappearance of POLAND accomplished by the end of the 18th century?
8. What differentiated the general atmosphere and overall state of affairs in the monarchies of central and eastern
Europe in the period from 1763-1789, compared to the period from 1789 through the first quarter of the 19th century?
True/False
1. A long-term effect of the Enlightenment has been the spirit of innovation and improvement that first took root
within Western societies.
2. John Locke fully accepted the Christian view of humankind flawed by sin.
3. John Toland’s 1696 publication Christianity Not Mysterious became an important defense of medieval
Christianity during the Enlightenment.
4. For the Scottish philosophe David Hume, the greatest miracle of all was the belief in miracles.
5. Gotthold Lessing’s Nathan the Wise actually called for the religious toleration of non-Christians.
6. Francois Quesnay headed a French mercantile association opposed to physiocratic thought.
7. Montesquieu’s analysis of the separation of powers within the British constitutional system called attention
to the role of patronage and corruption.
8. Adam Smith wrote that, “All men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains,” to call attention to the
need for laissez-faire economics.
9. Mary Wollstonecraft argued that it was in a woman’s best interest to be the sensual slave of men.
10. Leopold II, upon succession to the Austrian throne, made a concerted effort to repudiate some, but not all
of the reforms of his brother Joseph II.
1) T
2) F
3) F
4) T
5) T
6) F
7) F
8) F
9) F
10) F