The Impact of Enlightenment in France

The Ideas of the Enlightened Philosophes

• Enlightenment - Intellectual and cultural movement.
• Spread across Europe during the 18th century.
• Using the same principles of observation and reason to discover "truth" as had been developed in the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. 
• European thinkers questioned the traditional assumptions, ideas and institutions such as absolute monarchy, the Church and the structure of society.
• Stressed the importance of reason, logic and freedom of thought over faith, acceptance and superstition, refusing to accept and unproven belief that has been asserted as true without question.
• Enjoyed debate for it's own sake; although they believed it was possible to improve the world around them, they were not politicians trying to draw up realistic policy poposals. 
• They were thinkers who liked to question and argue with their fellows.
• However they did agree on one matter: that many of Europe's long-standing institutions were unjustifiable and holding back progress.

The Philosophes

• Interests were primarily in political instutions and the state of society. 
• Sought to establish the basic principles by which a state should be governed, how individuals in society should live and how society's wealth should be distributed. 
• Although their conclusions differed, their rational, scientific and secular approach to political and religious institutions posed a significant challange to the Ancien Regime.

Montesquieu

• Magistrate and president of the parlement of Bordeaux.
• Defended nobility and privilege.
• Questioned the structure of political authority.
• Expressed his ideas in the Lettres Persanes (Parisian Letters), 1721 and L'Espirit des Lois (The Spirit of Laws), 1748.
• Argued that there should be a seperation of powers in a state.
• Believed in a seperate legislature (to make the laws), executive (to carry out and enforce the laws), and judiciary (to interpret and judge the application of the laws).
• Thought the power and influence of any one of these should never exceed the other two.

Voltaire

• Abandoned his career in law to write against hypocrisy and injustice. 
• In support of toleration, civil rights and the right to a fair trial.
• Imprisoned in Bastille Prison in Paris for nearly a year under the lettre de cachet for insulting the duc de Rohan.
• After, he travelled to England.
• Defended the right to free speech with the words; "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

Rousseau

• French authorities banned his works.
• Wrote Du Contrat Social: principes du droit politique (The Social Contrats) in…