姓 名: 穆雨舒 专 业：翻 译 年级、班级：12级1班
学 号：12173024 作业日期：2013.12.10
章 节：Chapter 8 The Age of Enlightenment
Summary
The Age of Enlightenment
Immanuel Kant says, “The Enlightenment is mankind‘s final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error. “
The Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to use the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in Church and state. Originating about 1650–1700, it was sparked by philosophers among them were Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), John Locke (1632–1704), mathematician Isaac Newton (1643–1727) and others. Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered Enlightenment figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government. The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism‘s emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopedia. The first Encyclopedia is considered to be the pinnacle of the Enlightenment period. It was compiled by Denis Diderot in 1751-1772. It had contributions from hundreds of leading intellectuals called philosophers. Among them were Montesquieu (1689–1755), Voltaire (1694–1778) and Rousseau (1712–1778). Some 25,000 copies of the 35 volume set were sold, half of them outside France.
Montesquieu is the author of The Spirit of the Laws. In this political treatise Montesquieu advocates constitutionalism and the separation of powers, the abolition of slavery, the preservation of civil liberties and the rule of law, and the idea that political and legal institutions ought to reflect the social and geographical character of each particular community.
Voltaire was famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets.
He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day. His most famous work is Candide.
In Candide, Voltaire demonstrates a variety of irredeemable evils in the world, leading many critics to contend that Voltaire's treatment of evil—specifically the theological problem of evil—is the focus of the work. Heavily referenced in the text are the Lisbon earthquake, disease, and the sinking of ships in storms. Also, war, thievery, and murder—evils of human design—are explored as extensively in Candide as are environmental ills. While on his deathbed, he was asked to renounce Satan, to which he responded: "This is no time for making new enemies."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy heavily influenced the French Revolution, as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought. Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (1754). For Rousseau, civil society was a trick perpetrated by the powerful on the weak in order to maintain their power or wealth. He had a belief in the “Noble Savage”.
“The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said ‘This is mine,’ and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”
The Social Contract (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is the book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way in which to set up a political community.
- Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
- The Sovereign, having no force other than the legislative power, acts only by means of the laws; and the laws being solely the authentic acts of the general will, the Sovereign cannot act save when the people is assembled.
- Every law the people have not ratified in person is null and void — is, in fact, not a law.
- The legislative power belongs to the people, and can belong to it alone.
His work Emile (1762) was considered by Rousseau to be his most important work and was related to education reform. It is a Bildungsroman, among the first of its kind. It focuses on the growth and development of the main character, Emile.
The work tackles fundamental political and philosophical questions about the relationship between the individual and society— how, in particular, the individual might retain what Rousseau saw as innate human goodness while remaining part of a corrupting collectivity. Its opening sentence: “Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.”
