Acc World History 2011-2012
Mr.Burrell
The Age of Enlightenment: Eighteenth-Century Thought
Objectives:
1. Understand the intellectual and social backgrounds of the Enlightenment
2. Describe the philosophes
3. Analyze the various philosophes and the documents they wrote as well as how they influenced
the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution
4. Discuss the various “enlightened” monarchs and how they increased their economic and
military strengths.
5. Describe the partition of Poland
Calendar:
Wed 11/2
Turn in CE#8
Unit IV Exam
HW: Read Kagan 550-554
Thu 11/3
What is the Enlightenment, Discuss Influences & define philosophes
HW: Read Kagan 554-558
Fri 11/4
Discuss Philosophes and chart (Due Mon 11/17)
HW: Read Kagan 558-566 (Skip Jewish & Islamic Thinkers)
Mon 11/7
Crime, Religion, and Economics in the Enlightenment
HW: Read Kagan 567-571
Tue 11/8
Political Thought of the Philosophes
HW: Read Kagan 571-575
Type up CE#9
Wed 11/9
Turn in CE#9
Internet Art Activity (Baroque to Neo-Classical) – (Due Mon 11/17)
HW: Read Kagan 575-580
Study Hall – Chapter Review
Thu 11/10
No School – Staff Development Day
Fri 11/11
No School – Veteran’s Day
HW: Complete 100 Notecards
Mon 11/14
Turn in 100 Notecards
Enlightened Despots
HW: Read Kagan pg. 580-584 up to “Joseph II of Austria”
Tue 11/15
Finish Enlightened Despots
US Constitution = Enlightened Document?
HW: Type up CE#10 – The last one – YEAH!!!
Read Kagan 584-590 beginning with “Joseph II of Austria”
Wed 11/16
Turn in CE#10
Work on Sophomore project – Thesis and Outline Packet
HW: Complete HW pckt & Internet Art Activity
Study
Study Hall – Help with Finishing Sophomore Project work
Thu 11/17
Really Big Quiz or really small test on Chapter 17
HW:
Fri 11/18
Complete SP Thesis & Outline
Turn in Sophomore project Thesis & Outline
Unit V Review Sheet
Chapter 18- The Age of Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Thought
Isaac Newton, John Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, Tabula Rasa, British
toleration/ stability, print culture, Samuel Johnson, The Spectator, Coffeehouses & libraries, writing as a
profession, public opinion
Philosophes, Francois Marie Arouet, Voltaire, Letters on the English, Elements of the Philosophy
of Newton, Candide
Voltaire & Religion, “Crush the Infamous Thing”, Deism, William Robertson, a Kirk, John
Toland, Christianity Not Mysterious, toleration of religions, Gotthold Lessing, Nathan the Wise, critiques
of religion, David Hume, Inquiry into Human Nature, Philosophical Dictionary, Edward Gibbon, The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Denis Diderot, Encyclopedia, Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, Physiocrates,
Francois Quesnay, Adam Smith, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, laissez
faire, Four Stage theory of economic development
Baron de Montesquieu. Spirit of Laws, Persian Letters, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the
Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, The Social Contract,
critique of European Empires
Mari- Therese Geoffrin, mariquise de Pompadour, Montesquieu’s view of women,
Encyclopedia’s view of women, Rousseau’s view of women, Emile, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication
of the Rights of Women
Rococo, hôtels, Francoise Boucher, fêtes galantes, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David,
Oath of the Haratii
Enlightened Absolutism, Frederick the Great, “First servant of the state”, domestic policies,
economic reforms, Joseph II, Centralized authority, Maria Theresa, Joseph’s views on religion,
Josephinism, robot, Leopold II, Catherine the Great, succession from Peter the Great, Goals of Catherine,
expansion of Russia, Partition of Poland, Russia, Prussia and Austria
Unit V: Guided Questions
Chapter 18: The Enlightenment
1. Who were the philosophes?
2. What was the role of the philosophes during the Enlightenment? How were they different from
the great thinkers of the earlier centuries?
3. Why did the philosophes look to the paganism of ancient Greek and Rome and the ridicule of
the Middle Ages?
4. What were some of the major intellectual changes that led to the Enlightenment?
5. How was the spirit of the 18c Enlightenment drawn from the scientific and intellectual
revolution of the 17c?
6. Make and extensive list of the major themes/characteristics of Enlightenment thinking.
7. Create a CHART which compares the ideas and contributions made by the major personalities
of the period. Be sure to include a list of their written works and the themes of these works.
8. What were the themes of Diderot’s earlier works?
9. What contributions did The Encyclopédie made to the development of new ideas during the
Enlightenment?
10. What was the problem that many thinkers like Voltaire had with Christianity?
11. How did Enlightenment thinking diminish the authority of religion?
12. Identify the major beliefs of deism. What was the hope of the deists in regard to Christianity?
13.What arguments could be made for supporting the following statement?: The Enlightenment
substituted “the religion of science” for the “religion of Christianity.”
14. How did the Enlightenment influence the growing popularity of history? How did Edward
Gibbon reflect this change?
15. List some of the beliefs of the physiocrats. How were they a reflection of the larger intellectual
trends of the Enlightenment?
16. Why did Montesquieu admire the structure of Britain’s government? What was inaccurate
about his view?
17. What political role did the philosophes feel the aristocracy should play in any government?
18. What did Rousseau claim was wrong with the culture and society of his day?
19. Identify the major ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau [add them to the chart created above]. In
what ways were his ideas unique, differing dramatically from his predecessors?
20. Why could Rousseau be claimed as an intellectual soul mate of both the liberal strain and the
despotic/totalitarian tendencies in the Western political thinking?
21. To what extent did the ideals of freedom and egalitarianism present in the Enlightenment
apply to women?
22. Why did 19c German historians describe the Prussians and Hapsburg monarchies of the 18c as
“enlightened” absolute monarchs? Why was this view misleading?
23. What reforms did Catherine the Great attempt to initiate in Russia? Why did she change her
attitude toward reform later on in her reign?
24. How did Catherine the Great deal with the Pugachev Rebellion?
25. Why was Joseph II considered to be the only real “enlightened” absolute monarch of the 18c?
26. Why did Joseph II’s agrarian reforms provoke such fierce opposition form the landowning
nobility? Why were they unsuccessful?
27. What were the limits to what these supposedly absolute rulers could do?
28. Why were the monarchs and the nobility natural rivals?