Questioning the Nature of Man and Society

Questioning the Nature of Man & Society Although the question of the role of God in creating Man and Nature fascinated some intellectuals in this era, for others, questioning the nature of religion was less interesting. They preferred to investigate the nature of social and political power. However, these questions took different forms in different countries. This section looks at the differences between French and English intellectuals. English history and politics influenced the types of political and social philosophies that English intellectuals developed. The Wars of Religion and Reformation were very brutal in England, and from the 1530s when Henry VIII declared an independent Church of England until the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the tumult inherent in the monarchy subsided, England experimented with different types of political representation. This created a very fruitful space for English intellectuals including Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. L to R: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679) was an English philosopher who is often considered the father of political philosophy because he attempted to understand the basis of social and political order through understanding humans’ motivations. He argued that humans by nature were selfish creatures, driven by self-interest. Without laws and government, chaos and warfare would be the natural state of human relations. In his work,Leviathan, he argued that society functioned according to observable processes and that through selfexamination each human could understand itself. However, within society, groups of humans functioned as complex machines that required guidance— much as the body does what the head requires. John Locke(1632-1704) While we will talk about Locke in greater detail on the next page, it's important to include his ideas here. Indeed, Locke suggested that it was only through self-knowledge that a person could begin to understand the world. In his writings,he argued that knowledge was not innate and that it came from experience. Further, the ways people spoke about ideas informed how they understood those ideas. Beyond this, Locke suggests that we should divide perception from knowledge, belief, and opinion. Ultimately, Locke sets out a semi-scientific way of creating observations that focus on the creation of knowledge. In doing this, he argues that knowledge requires active participation and that through reason, a person could understand the world. Like the Scientific Revolution, Locke argues in favor ofempiricismor observation as a key way to produce knowledge. As knowledge could be learned and was not innate, for Locke, this meant that individuals could be educated to understand the world in a new way. In hisTwo Treatises on Government,Locke argued that government existed to protect people. For Locke, natural rights existed –life, liberty, property—and these rights should be guaranteed by the government. For Locke, people gave up a measure of personal freedom to the government in order to ensure their personal security. This forms the basis of the idea we call thesocial contract.In the case of Locke, humans’ ability to learn information and to apply it, led him to suggest that humans desired security and could be educated in order to acquire it. In France, the monarchy moved increasingly towards absolutism during and after the Reformation. The kings took on the absolute power previously reserved for the Pope and worked with the Church and nobility to secure that absolute power. Unlike in England, French monarchy strengthened in the 17thand 18thcenturies and this led to a backlash from intellectuals including Baron de Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Baron de Montesquieu,(1689-1755) was a French nobleman who wrote about the nature of man and the self. In hisPersian Lettershe ruminated on the inability of humans to be fully self-aware. Through a series of letters, he worked to express the idea that striving for virtue and self-knowledge is part of human nature, but that a human cannot possibly act entirely virtuous or understand the self. With this, his more recognized work,The Spirit of the Laws, takes up the discussion of human weakness and failing, suggesting that law should serve liberty and that the different groups in society exist to maintain balance. For Montesquieu, balance in society and in politics was the most important factor to a just and virtuous society. Further, Montesquieu believed that a one-size-fits-all approach to government was undesirable because laws and government should be tailored to the commerce, customs, manners, and economy of a place. He identified three types of government—republic, monarchy, and despotism. The difference between the last two is whether laws (monarchy) or a sovereign’s whim (despotism) guided the government. He explored the idea of inequality and argued that citizens must be educated in order to fully participate in either a democracy or republic. Further, he argued that law should aim to preserve the equal distribution of property to prevent corruption of social ideals. Perhaps what he is best known for is his argument in favor of thedivision of powerin government—legislative, executive, and judicial. Jean-Jacques Rousseau(France, 1712-1778), who we will also talk about in a minute, argued that simply questioning religion was not an effective way of understanding the world. For Rousseau, an intellectual had to understand nature. Locke and Hobbes influenced Rousseau’s ideas and demonstrate to students of history how these intellectuals shared information and built upon each others’ ideas. Locke argued in favor of natural rights and Rousseau took this idea a step further. In hisDiscourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau argued against both Locke and Hobbes and suggested that humans were amoral in nature; it is society and its values that enhance or corrupt human beings. Indeed, Rousseau argued that there was nobility in the savage world, meaning the world outside of Europe, and that many non-European societies experienced more peace and prosperity than Europe did.  Rousseau then applied this idea to politics and in hisDiscourse on Political Economyhe argued that the “general will” of a society should help guide that society. For Rousseau he argued that for a state or government to be virtuous they had to respond to the general will, ensure all citizens recognized and respected the general will, and he suggested that the best way to do this is through the creation and equal application of laws. For Rousseau, laws existed to discourage selfish actions that hurt society. In suggesting this, Rousseau moved the idea of thesocial contractbeyond Locke—not only were the rulers and the ruled bound to respect each other as Locke suggested, but Rousseau’s ideas introduced a mechanism to ensure that this respect was equally applied and binding. These thinkers were shaped by the pressing questions of their lives to develop new and different ideas. They were not always successful and, what is more, their ideologies often led to more conflict than they resolved, as will be explored more below and in the coming units. The Age of Revolution Enlightenment ideals not only infiltrated the ideas of monarchs like the Enlightened Despots, but they also penetrated into some societies. This was particularly true in societies where there were a large non-noble and nonpeasant class of people, some of who were educated and who could read the texts produced by the enlightened intellectuals. These individuals felt left out of the social and political order, silenced from expressing dissent or from advocating in favor of their own goals. They desired to institute some of the values imagined by the Enlightenment intellectuals, but as we will see, they did so in very different ways. Locke, Rousseau, and the Social Contract As we've seen, enlightenment thinkers throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change.John Locke(1632-1704), who we met in our section onEnlightened Ideas, laid much of the groundwork for the Enlightenment and made central contributions to the development ofliberalism. To expand on that earlier section, we should discuss two very important publications of Locke's that lay the foundation for the Age of Revolution. In his“Two Treatises of Government” (1690),Locke rejected the divine right of kings, arguing instead thatsocieties form governments by mutual agreement. So, when a king loses the consent of the governed, a society may remove him— an approach quoted almost verbatim in Thomas Jefferson’s 1776Declaration of Independence. Locke also developed a definition of property as the product of a person’s labor that would be foundational for both Adam Smith’s capitalism and Karl Marx’s socialism.Locke argued that agovernment's legitimacy comes from the citizens' delegation to the government of their right of self-defense (of "selfpreservation").The government thus acts as an impartial, objective agent of that self-defense, rather than each man acting as his own judge, jury, and executioner—the condition in the state of nature. In this view, government derives its "just powers from the consent [i.e, delegation] of the governed".  Again:consent of the governed. In his“Letters Concerning Toleration” (1689-92),Locke suggested thatgovernments should respect freedom of religion except when the dissenting belief was a threat to public order.Atheists (whose oaths he felt could not be trusted) and Catholics (who owed allegiance to an external ruler, the Pope) were thus excluded from his scheme. Even within its limitations, Locke’s toleration did not argue that all (Protestant) beliefs were equally good or true, but simply that governments were not in a position to decide which one was correct. What many will remember is Locke's arguments concerning the Rights of Man, which had their basis in the theory of the divine right of kings.Locke lived in a time ofAbsolute Monarchy,whichmeant the king had the power to do anythingwithout any constraint by law or Parliament. This is calledabsolutism This had its basis intheDivine Right ofKings Theory, which asserted that God chose some people to rule on earth in his will (Kings, the church, the Pope), so whatever the King decided was the will of God. When you criticized the ruler, you were in effect challenging God. Locke argued in favor of theRights of Man,which held that there is no divine right of kings; only a divine right of man. This connected to his political theory of government by the consent of the governed as a means to protect life, liberty, and estate (or property).With that in mind, Locke argued there was no legitimate government under thedivine right of kingstheory. Instead, the purpose of government was to protect thenatural rightsof its citizens. Those natural rights (life, liberty, andproperty) were earned these simply by being born. Furthermore, when a government did not protect those rights, the citizen had the right and maybe even the obligation of overthrowing the government. French philosopher and writerJean-Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778), who we also met in our section onEnlightened Ideas, came a bit later than Locke and was certainly influenced by him. You could consider him more a product of the Enlightenment than an influencer like Locke. Rousseau's philosophiesinfluenced the spread of the Enlightenmentin France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought. He once wrote: “Man is born free and yet everywhere he lives in chains.” (Rousseau, Social Contract 1:1), and that sums up what the Enlightenment really was about: Freedom. While Locke argued that tabula rasa translates into natural equality –we are all born the same, “empty” or devoid of knowledge, and thus we are all “equal” – Rousseau similarly argued that freedom is also the inherent, natural condition of mankind; all political inequality, all slavery, all absence of freedom follows from social, not natural conditions. Thus to Rousseaufreedom is both an inherent right and a means towards maintainingjust,moral societies. What Rousseau offeredwasa means of actually implementing this philosophy into a set of laws to create this society. Those means became the basis of American and most European democracies. Locke and Rousseau both based their beliefs on what we callThe Social Contract, a theorythat states that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or magistrate (or to the decision of a majority), in exchange for protection of their remainingrights. In other words: I agree to support and trust you, King, if you agree to protect and govern me in a manner befitting that support and trust. The central assertion that social contract theory approaches is that law and political order are not natural, but human creations. The social contract and the political order it creates are simply the means towards an end—the benefit of the individuals involved—and legitimate only to the extent that they fulfill their part of the agreement. Hobbes argued that the government is not a party to the original contract and citizens are not obligated to submit to the government when it is too weak to act effectively to suppress factionalism and civil unrest. According to other social contract theorists, when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society (called the "general will" by Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey, or change the leadership through elections or other means including, when necessary, violence. Locke believed that natural rights were inalienable, and therefore the rule of God superseded government authority, while Rousseau believed that democracy (self-rule) was the best way to ensure welfare while maintaining individual freedom under the rule of law. The Anatomy of a Revolution There are a number of conditions that seem to be present as causes of the revolutions that take place during this period, and this allows us to see how the ideas of the Enlightenment begin to trickle down to the populace. For example, people from all social classes feel restless and held down by unacceptable restrictions in society, religion, theeconomy or the government. While they are hopeful about the future, they are being forced to accept less than they hadhoped for. As the ideas of the enlightenment begin to take root in all corners o society, people are beginning to think of themselves as belonging to a social class, and there is agrowing bitterness between social classes. This leads to hostility, and scholars and thinkers begin to express their frustration with theway their society operates. Citizens begin to feel that the social contract has been violated and that the government does not respond to the needs of its society. The government is unable to get enough support from any group to save itself, and it cannot organize its finances correctly and is either going bankrupt ortrying to tax heavily and unjustly. As revolutionaries begin to organize, there are demands made of the government, which, if granted, would mean its end. Unsuccessful government attempts to suppress revolutionaries only give the revolutionaries more power, uniting the citizens against the government and a plan to overthrow that government is born. Enlightenment idealswill stimulate actions, and we see that in the liberal political revolutions that take place during this period: theAmerican Revolution (1776-1783), theFrench Revolution (1789-1799), theHaitian Revolution (1791-1804), theLatin American Revolutions (1808-1830), and the Mexican Revolution (1810-1821).However, while each of these has many similarities, each has its own unique qualities. While the American, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions were all focused on decolonization and the realization of fundamental rights, the French and Haitian Revolutions were both significant for their work in overthrowing the existing political and social regimes.These revolutions were deemed liberal because they sought to overthrow the existing political and/or social order and to institute a political and/or social system based upon rights and equality. Very few revolutions realized their ideals, but they nonetheless contributed to the development of them. Atlantic Revolutions Enlightenment ideals will stimulate actions, and we see that in the liberal political revolutions that take place during this period: the American Revolution (1776-1783), the French Revolution (17891799), the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), and the Latin American Revolutions (18081830). However, while each of these has many similarities, each has its own unique qualities. While the American, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions were all focused on decolonization and the realization of fundamental rights, the French and Haitian Revolutions were both significant for their work in overthrowing the existing political and social regimes. These revolutions were deemed liberal because they sought to overthrow the existing political and/or social order and to institute a political and/or social system based upon rights and equality. Very few revolutions realized their ideals, but they nonetheless contributed to the development of them. The American Revolution QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOUR VIEWING: o What are the origins of the American Revolution? Basically because of taxes being imposed and they weren’t represented by the body that was imposing the tax. Being away from Britain they developed a sense of independence because of these obligations put upon them. o What was and was not revolutionary about the American Revolution according to John Green? They broke from imperial rule and replaced it with a govt that didn’t have a king. The idea of property rights not being taxed and women could inherit , equality that men are equal to each other and representation and there would be none of the nobility thing. o How was or was this not a revolutionary revolution? They didn’t overturn privilege the guys that were running it before the revolution were the same guys running it after the revolution. The legal all men are created equal, but 30% of the population was slaves. Women coulnd’t vote and white men who didn’t own enough property he govt in for and by the people, wasn’t that. its was for 1015 % of the populations. The American Revolution (1775-1783) arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s thirteen North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. For the better part of the 17th and 18th centuries, the relationship between Great Britain and her North American colonies was firm, robust, and peaceable. The colonies enjoyed a period of “salutary neglect”; meaning that the colonial governments were more or less able to selfgovern without intervention from Parliament. This laissez-faire approach allowed the colonies to flourish financially, which in turn proved profitable for the mother country as well. However, this period of tranquility and prosperity would not last. Great Britain had amassed an enormous debt following the French and Indian War; so, as a means to help alleviate at least some of the financial burden, they expected the American colonies to shoulder their share. Beginning in 1763, Great Britain instituted a series of parliamentary acts for taxing the American colonies. Though seemingly a reasonable course of action – considering the British had come to the defense of the colonies in the French and Indian War – many colonials were livid at the levying of taxes. From 1763 to 1776, Parliament, King George III, royal governors, and colonists clashed over regulations of trade, representation, and taxation. Despite the growing unrest, many Americans perceived war and independence as a last resort. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed conflict, and by the following summer, the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their independence. France entered the American Revolution on the side of the colonists in 1778, turning what had essentially been a civil war into an international conflict. After French assistance helped the Continental Army force the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, the Americans had effectively won their independence, though fighting would not formally end until 1783. The French Revolution o *What led to the French Revolution? People were hungry, but I think also with all the intellectual stuff going on and seeing how the Americans got their independence, they felt also entitled. Problem collecting taxin, people with # never paid taxes. France was bankrupt, economic contractions were hard on the poor. *What are the different phases of the French Revolution? Stage 1: National Assembly. 1789-191: -creation of parliament, witing of constituion.  Stage 2: the legislative assembly and war. 1791-1792:  Stage 3: the national convention and the reign of terror. 1792-1795:  Stage 4: the directory. 1795-1799:  Stage 5: the dictatorship of Napoleon. 1799-1815:  *What were the legacies of the revolution? equality of the law. freedom of expression and religion. all people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. o *What are the key Enlightenment ideas that inspired the revolution? Enlightenment political concepts such as popular sovereignty and constitutionalism, which aimed to create a more effective system of government. anti-clericalism, which sought to reform the Catholic church, particularly the actions of its clergy, reducing political influence, interference and corruption. Enlightenment stressed the idea of natural rights and equality for all citizens. As the 18th century drew to a close, France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution and extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but two decades of poor harvests, drought, cattle disease, and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes – yet failed to provide any relief – by rioting, looting and striking. Add to that the rise of Enlightenment ideals thanks to Enlightenment thinkers like Jean Jacques Rousseau, who echoed Locke's arguments concerning the social contract. Rousseau's arguments concerning liberté, egalité, and fraternité (liberty, equality, and brotherhood) made sense to a citizenry no longer dying of the plague by the thousands. As people finally realized that cleanliness stopped the plague, mortality rates slowed considerably and population numbers rose rapidly. Resources, however, stayed at the same level. Food scarcity in the months immediately before the revolution was at a record high and the Third Estate was starving. The French Revolution lasted ten years from 1789 to 1799. It began on July 14, 1789 when revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, a medieval fortress that was used as a prison. A period of constant chaos, the French Government was in constant turmoil throughout the revolution. Eventually, a group of radicals from the Third Estate called Jacobins took control of the government and radicalized the revolution. As the Reign of Terror took shape, the Jacobins proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy, sentenced the King and Queen to death, and declared France to be a republic. Led by the radical Maximillian Robespierre, the Reign of Terror corrupted many ideas put forth by the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thought emphasized the importance of rational thinking and began challenging legal and moral foundations of society, providing the leaders of the Terror with new ideas about the role and structure of government. Drawing from the idea of a general will, Robespierre felt that the French Revolution could result in a Republic built for the general will but only once those who fought this ideal were expelled. Those who resisted the government were deemed "tyrants" fighting against the virtue and honor of the general will. The leaders felt their ideal version of government was threatened from the inside and outside of France, and terror was the only way to preserve the dignity of the Republic created from the French Revolution. On August 22, 1795, a group within the French government called the Girondins approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral legislature. Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory appointed by parliament. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte. The Directory’s four years in power were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption. By the late 1790s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field. On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadership reached a fever pitch, Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s “first consul.” The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe. The Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave revolt in history and resulted in the establishment of Haiti, the first independent black state in the New World. While France was undergoing its political challenges, its primary colony found its voice. St. Domingue, as Haiti was known prior to the revolution was a sugar island, meaning its primary product of value was sugar. Sugar was an important commodity in the late 19th century and was labor intensive. Haiti’s population consisted largely of slaves, with some free men of color, and white plantation owners. The Haitian Revolution, though it is known as a slave revolt really encompassed two very different revolutions. Not only did it occur in phases, like the French Revolution, but it was divided along race lines. The white revolt looked very much like the American Revolution—colonial elites hoping for independence and freedom from paying taxes to the home country. The black revolt was specifically anti-slavery and worked to not only free the colony from colonial rule, but also to free its population from enslavement. One must emphasize the struggles that had been occurring for decades prior to the 1791 outbreak of full-scale rebellion. Yet the French Revolution was also crucially important, for the conflicts between whites about what exactly its ideals meant triggered an opportunity for blacks. A historically significant step was the issuance of the Declaration of Rights of Man passed in France on August 26, 1789. It stated, "In the eyes of the law all citizens are equal." While the French government did not want to release this to their colonies, word got out. News of the Declaration of Rights of Man brought new hopes to the black masses. Meanwhile, plantation owners and the French government continued to exploit the slaves for profit. Some of the rebellion’s leaders like Toussaint L'Ouverture, Dessalines, and Henri Christophe helped to guide the Revolution down its torturous, bloody road to complete success, although it would cost over twelve years and hundreds of thousands of lives. Though long ignored by many who study the Age of Revolutions, the Haitian Revolution stands out as the only instance in which enslaved people and free people of color fought and defeated the French, Spanish, and British to end slavery and the slave trade. This successful and complicated campaign for freedom and equality, begun in 1791, resulted in the creation of the second republic in the western hemisphere, the independent Republic of Haiti in 1804. In addition to their own desire for freedom from the harsh realities of slavery in Saint-Domingue, enslaved people and their allies were inspired by both the rhetoric of the American and French Revolutions. In fact, several hundred men of color had joined with royal French soldiers in the American Revolutionary War in 1779, only to return home to Saint-Domingue after the siege of Savanna, Georgia, disillusioned with the treatment they received from their own officers there. In a complex upheaval involving free people of color, radical whites, and enslaved men and women, revolutionaries in Saint-Domingue overthrew local slavery, defeated French, Spanish, and British forces sent to crush them, and ultimately founded a republic based on the ideals of the revolutions that had inspired them.