McGill University - HIST 310HIST 310 Notes

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HIST 310 Notes January 14, 2019- Ideas, Reforms, Crisis Challenges to Absolutism  The Enlightenment  Public Opinion  The French Monarchy in Crisis (Mis)Conceptions about the Enlightenme... nt  Age of enlightenment vs. enlightenment thought o Not uniform thought o Defuse movement o Age is something we used to talk about o Thought is more modern  Zero in certain kinds of thoughts we can relate to enlightenment  Siècle des limieres- a century of light?  Conspiracy theories (post-Revolution)  Not a uniform school  Limited reach Where does the Enlightenment come from?  17th century scientific revolutions  Emphasis on reason  Search for universal laws  Critique o Take things you took for granted and critique them  Philosophes o People from all sorts of trade o People who are interested in a variety of different disciplines o Different means in getting at universal laws/truths o Not only interested in philosophy The Encyclopedia  General/complete education  Published between 1751-1772  Edited by Diderot and d’Alembert  More than 70,000 articles  28 volumes- 23,500 copies sold  At least 140 authors  First edition cost 980 Livres (a skilled worker made 2-5 livres/day)  3 categories o Memory o Reason o Imagination  Focus on technical knowledge  Banned in 1759 for being irreligiouso ½ completed o Take away permit  It became popular enough that the editors could go across the border to the Netherlands and publish the rest which then circulated in France Kant and Montesquieu  Who was Montesquieu? o French philosopher o Legal scholar o Judge o Member of parliament o Spirit of the laws/Persian letters  What does Montesquieu’s vision of the world look like? o People are naturally inclined to do good things o Not savages o Society develops in stages o Very structured o Hierarchy of reasons and logics  What does Montesquieu think of the different forms of government? o 3 forms  Monarchy  Don’t need virtue, thus it is the finest of machines  Best political regime  Don’t have to worry about what people believe  Only 1 person they have to worry about  Therefore it is the best vs. trying to please everyone  Republic  Can only live on its virtue  Requires virtue o Concern for the public good  Aristocracy  Fear or coercion  Virtue o Have to be worried about the public good  In Montesquieu what's virtue? Honor? o Cannot trust people to be good o Coerces people using honor?  Aristocrats are motivated by notion of honor  Accumulating land/honor etc.  In monarchy you can use drive to honor in its favour  Tap into notion of honor o Montesquieu doesn’t trust human nature that much  Not a revolutionary just trying to perfect their system  Why are they important in different forms of society? [Show More]

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