Ch 17-The 18th Century's Age of Enlightenment Flashcards
Enlightenment
movement in the 18th century of intellectuals who “dared to know”
Skepticism
-philosophical concept where nothing can be known beyond all doubt
-when a large number of educated men and women began to question religious truths and values
-this began it late 17th century but was strongest in 18th century
-aka “New Skepticism”
cultural relativism
belief no culture is superior to another because culture is about custom not reason
philosophes
-upper class, middle class sometimes lower class
-writers of literature, professors, statesmen, economists, and political scientist
-above all social reformers
-wanted to change the world
-international
cosmopolitan
Enlightenment included people from many different countries
deism
-belief that God has no direct involvement in the world
-He created it and let it run based on its own natural laws
laissez-faire
government should not interfere or regulate the economy and should let the people do what they want
-don’t interrupt the “natural economic forces”
economic liberalism
-government should not interfere with the economy
romanticism
-rejected emphasis on reason
-stressed importance of intuition, emotion, and imagination as sources of ‘knowing’
feminism
-belief in political, social, equality of men and women
salons
-fancy rooms in urban houses belonging to wealthy people that served as a place for philosophes to discuss and share their ideas
-united writers, artists, aristocrats, government officials, and wealthy bourgeoisie
-hosted by women, Madame Geoffin, marquise de Deffand, Madame Necker
Rococo
-focused on grace and gentle action. -had a lot of curves and followed the natural lines of objects like seashells and flowers
-very secular
-spoke on the pursuit of pleasure, happiness, and love
Neoclassicism
Strived to capture the classic Roman and Greek architecture styles
high culture
literary and artistic world of the educated upper classes
popular culture
written and unwritten lore of the majority (the middle and lower class)a lot of which is passed down by word of mouth
Pietism
Heavy religious beliefs
who wrote Persian Letters?
Montequieu
Who wrote Philosophic Letters on the English?
Voltaire
