The wisdom of the enlightenment

353 Pages·2022·31.208 MB·English

by  Michael K. Kellogg

THE WISDOM OF THE
ENLIGHTENMENT
Michael K. Kellogg
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Names:Kellogg,MichaelK.,1954–author.
Title:Thewisdomoftheenlightenment/MichaelK.Kellogg.
Description:Lanham,MD:Prometheus,animprintofGlobePequot,thetradedivisionofThe
Rowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc.,[2022]|Includesbibliographicalreferencesand
index.|Summary:“FromDescartes’assertionof‘Ithink,thereforeIam,’tothephilosophiesof
EnlightenmentthinkerslikeMoliere,Spinoza,Voltaire,Hume,andKant,thisbookchartsthe
newandrevolutionaryphilosophiesatatimewhenprogressseemedpossibleacrossthewhole
rangeofhumanknowledgeandendeavor.Insweepingasidetiredsuperstitionsandapplyinga
newscientificmethodology,theEnlightenmentideasofprogressthroughfreeexerciseofreason
usheredusintothemodernworld.ThisengagingandcomprehensivesurveyofEnlightenment
thoughtsandthinkersisacelebrationofthefaiththatallproblemsaresolvablebyhuman
reason”—Providedbypublisher.
Identifiers:LCCN2021026080(print)|LCCN2021026081(ebook)|ISBN9781633887930(cloth)|
ISBN9781633887947(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Enlightenment.
Classification:LCCB802.K452022(print)|LCCB802(ebook)|DDC190—dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021026080
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021026081
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AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperfor
PrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.
For Lucy
With thee conversing I forget all time,
All seasons and their change, all please alike.
—Paradise Lost, 4.639–40

CONTENTS
Introduction vii
1 DescartesandtheMechanicalUniverse 1
2 JohnMiltonandtheParadiseWithin 25
3 Molière:FromFarcetoSocialComedy 57
4 PascalandtheHiddenGod 85
5 Spinoza:GodwithoutReligion 107
6 DefoeandSwift:AutobiographyasMyth 131
7 VoltaireandthePhilosophes 163
8 SamuelJohnsonontheStabilityofTruth 193
9 DavidHumeandtheEndofPhilosophy 219
10 KantandtheClaimsofReason 247
Acknowledgments 275
Notes 277
SuggestionsforFurtherReading 309
Index 317
v

INTRODUCTION
From our perspective, the technology of the eighteenth century was
crude, urban life uncomfortable, social welfare grudging and feeble,
transportandcommunicationcumbersome,dietinadequate,andmedi-
cineagamblenotworthtaking. . . . Modernity was still struggling to
beborn.Butmensawlifegettingbetter,safer,easier,healthier,more
predictable—that is to say, more rational—decade by decade; and so
theybuilttheirhouseofhopelessonwhathadhappenedthanonwhat
was happening, and even more on what they had good reason to ex-
pectwouldhappeninthefuture.1
E
nlightenment—Aufklärung in German, Lumières in French—is more
an idea than a period. But it is an idea that took hold in a particular
historical context of revolutionary scientific advances, increasing eco-
nomic and social freedom, rising literacy and prosperity, and a greater
willingnessto challenge authoritarianism in politicsand religion. Samuel
Johnson cautioned that “human life is everywhere a state in which much
istobeendured,andlittletobeenjoyed.”2Buthumanlifewasalreadyfar
removedfromthe“solitary,poor,nasty,brutishandshort”stateofnature
famously depicted by Thomas Hobbes. The Enlightenment was a time
when progress seemed possible across the whole range of human knowl-
edge and endeavor. There were timeless truths to be discovered; there
were vast opportunities to better the human condition; it was only a
matter of sweeping aside tired superstitions and superannuated dogmas
andapplyingthenewscientificmethodologytoobservedphenomena.
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
ChoosingabeginningdateforabookontheEnlightenmentisnoeasy
task.OnemightstartwiththePeaceofWestphaliain1648,whichlargely
ended thirty years of devastating religious wars that had transmogrified
intoacontinent-widestruggleforhegemony.Oronecouldpick1643,the
beginningoftheseventy-two-yearreignofLouisXIV,the“SunKing,”in
France, where—despite absolutism—the Enlightenment often seemed to
shine brightest. My own choice, precisely because enlightenment is an
idea rather than a period, is 1637, the year Descartes’s Discourse on the
MethodofRightlyConductingOne’sReasonandSeekingtheTruthinthe
Sciences was published. Descartes sought to explain the physical world
entirely in scientific terms—specifically, the mathematics of matter in
motion. His “method of doubt” was to question all received truths that
could not be placed on a firm foundation of innate ideas known directly
by reason. He even sought to extend his method of “rightly conducting
one’s reason” to psychology, treating the passions as immaterial forces
interactinginthehumansoulaccordingtofixedlaws.
Descartes’s theorieswerechallenged andrefined, and his innate ideas
largely rejected. But his methodology, however questionable in some
respects, embodied a profound, touching, and almost giddy belief in the
power of human reason to uncover truth, a belief shared by rationalists
andempiricistsalike.Inhisfamousessay,“WhatIsEnlightenment?,”the
German philosopher Immanuel Kant, with whom I will end the book,
wrotethat “enlightenmentis thehumanbeing’s emergence fromhis self-
incurred minority.”3 We must, he argued, learn to think for ourselves in
matters of science, art, politics, and particularly religion, rather than ac-
cepting doctrines handed down over generations. “The public use of
one’sreason mustalwaysbefree,anditalonecan bringaboutenlighten-
ment among human beings.”4 Reduced to a bumper sticker, the motto of
Enlightenment thinkers could be “Progress Through Reason” or, even
better,“ProgressThroughFreedom,”fortheyadvocatedscientific,politi-
cal, economic, and religious freedom, confident that reason would show
theway.
Perhapsitwasanaivebelief,anditcertainlyhaditsdetractorsevenin
theseventeenthandeighteenthcenturies.Buttheideaofprogressthrough
the free exercise of reason helped bring us into the modern world, and
remainswithustoday.5Eachthinkerdiscussedinthisbookwrestledwith
thatideainhisownway.Beforewedealwithparticularwriters,however,
it is worth setting forth the main strands of Enlightenment thought, as