Literary Criticism Introduction to The Enlightenment Criticism & John Locke
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Introduction to The Enlightenment Criticism
Enlightenment refers to a movement that took place during the eighteenth century, particularly in the Western part of the world. Like various other intellectual movements, it did have an immense influence over the literary, artistic and philosophical works of the time.
Contrary to the understanding that has been predominate historically that the movement viewed rationality as to be absolute—and hence was called the ‘age of reason’—, modern readings tell us that the ideas propagated and views held by thee pundits of the age were not uniformed but heterogenous that included rationalism, empiricism, humanism, etc.
What may be said to be common was perhaps the contempt for irrationality and superstitious practices that all the thinkers of the time strongly kept. The aim was to free the society of all the practices and believes that had chained human mind to the darkness of the irrationality and had taken it away from the light of human reason and, therefore, to make society more humanistic than superstitious.
Enlightenment did not only influence our view of the artistic and philosophical world but also had an impact on the questions of politics/political and economics of the time. Eighteenth century was an age filled with political, social and economic turmoil that was going to lead us to a kind of social setup that will remain a dominate socio-economic system for the times to come.
Capitalism is the name and form that the social setup that has its root, say, in eighteenth century has taken today. In other words, many prevalent ideas of liberalism and democracy that are taken to be normal today, took birth during the French revolution of eighteenth century.
Pre-democratic societies suffered severely from ‘political absolutism’, where the society and its politics and economics is dictated by a single and absolute power such as the Church or the King. This didn’t provide much liberty to the people and a violent kind of suppression of thought, ideas and individual desires persisted.
It can be said what began with Renaissance i.e. a fight and ambition for individual freedom reaches a certain kind of fulfilment with French revolution, which was, theoretically, the product of the Enlightenment.
Individual freedom, prominence of rationality, pursuit of knowledge and a social setup that was based on the principles of democracy all these ideas seemed, to any educated mind, worth fighting for but, if looked critically, as also argued by M.A.R Habib, they were all meant to clear space for the rise of bourgeois class.
The principles of the enlightenment finally lead to “newer, rational attitudes toward banking, investment, trade, and manufacture, and harbouring profound implications for the status of science and technology.” All these developments will only contribute to the prosperity of liberalism or capitalism as we know today.
On the other side, enlightenment has had its critics from eighteenth century to today. Jean-Jacques Rousseau had critiqued the philosophy for ignoring the importance of instincts and emotions. David Hume, a well-known empiricist of his time, who realized the importance of reason had said, “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
Many Enlightenment ideas were incorporated into the founding documents for the United States.
John Locke
From late seventeenth century to through the eighteenth century the philosophical world witnessed various conflicting opinions leading to the making of different philosophies altogether. One such debate was between British Empiricism and European Rationalism as it would come to be known.
It has been understood that rationalism tend to make a distinction between two types of knowledge: a priori knowledge that arises from the faculty of reason and exists in us prior to any real experience and other is empirical knowledge that is purely based on one’s experience and comes to us through our experiences of it.
Empiricism, on the other hand, denies any such distinction and argues that there’s not any a priori knowledge that may arise through reason. It maintains that all forms of knowledge can be reduced to only one origin and that is our sense perception. Experiences lead us to knowledge through our sensory organs. John Locke belongs to British empiricism and is considered to have laid the foundations of it.
John Locke had lived through Renaissance and had contributed to Enlightenment, which makes him one of those thinkers who witnesses one of the most politically tensed times in England. He was a Puritan in his political affiliations because, maybe, he attended Oxford which also sympathized with Puritans.
Puritanism was a progressive movement that was aimed to reform the Church of England and free it of old Catholicism, and make it more protestant. He read the works of Rene Descartes, was friends Isaac Newton, and was exiled in Holland until the Protestant King, William of Orange, gained the English throne.
Locke’s political views and association were progressive enough to gain him a reputation in the good books of history. Among his most famous works are: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), and Two Treatises of Government (1689), etc.
His Essay Concerning Human Understanding is more philosophical essay compared to other works which were political in nature. In this essay, Locke takes up the concept of tabula rasa to explain the nature of human mind. He argues that when a human is born his mind is like a tabula rasa, meaning blank slate. After the birth, through his/her sensory organs, knowledge is imprinted on this blank, which serves as basic knowledge for the construction of more complex ideas.
This conception also informs us of his belief in empiricism that knowledge is derived through sensory organs, and experience. Some Thoughts Concerning Education is neither a philosophical nor a political work but rather a friendly advice on how to raise children.
In this work, he argues against the coddling of the children and overprotective treatment of them. He believes, on the contrary, that children must develop a sound mind and body as they, too, have the same ability to reason and rationality as adults and, therefore, they must be treated as such.
The Two Treatises of Government is political and polemic work and for this reason it was published anonymously. The First Treatise was his attack on then widely believed and held normal notion of jure divine, meaning that king is directly connected to Adam and derives his from the divine. Locke argues if the king is an heir to Adam, there has to be only one heir and, by that logic, all except one are the fake heirs.
He suggests that jure divine is not a sustainable political philosophy and it must be eliminated. The Second Treatise presents a sort of an alternative to absolute monarchy, which is based on jure divine. Locke says that a government must only be concerned with safeguard of the ‘property’, which exists before and after the state.
Q&A
Q1. Who was Benjamin Fine?
Ans. Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.
As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass ‘armonica’. He formed both the first public lending library in America and first fire department in Pennsylvania. He was an early proponent of colonial
Q2. What was John Locke known for?
Ans. John Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. He produced works of great intellectual and practical importance. Locke’s theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Q3. Was John Locke an enlightenment thinker?
Ans. John Locke was a philosopher who lived from 1632 to 1704. Locke is known for his views on the human mind and his theory of property, which have greatly influenced the history of political and social thought. He was one of the most significant philosophers of the enlightenment period.
Q4. What was John Locke enlightenment philosophy and main idea?
Ans. John Locke was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and known as the ‘Father of Classical Liberalism‘. Locke’s philosophy is based on empiricism, rationalism, and natural law. He outlined his theory of human understanding in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke is also known for his work on the principle of natural equality, especially in A Letter Concerning Toleration.
Q5. Which enlightenment idea would John Locke support?
Ans. John Locke would support the idea of the “tabula rasa” or the idea that people are born blank slates. If a person is born blank slate then how that person turns out is determined by his or her experiences.
Q6. How did John Locke’s background reflect Enlightenment Ideas?
Ans. Locke’s background reflects Enlightenment ideas as he was a rationalist, empiricist, and critic of the Church. John Locke was a political philosopher who lived during the Enlightenment. His education was classical, with a concentration in Latin and Greek. Locke believed that people were born “blank slates” that had a tendency toward good.
He felt that people were truly left to their own devices by God. People were to find their own morality, and in doing so, were shaped by the environment they grew up in. Locke believed that humans were at their best when they could do what they wanted. This is where the idea that people should be free to do what they wanted came from.
Q7. Enlightenment thinker John Locke believed that governments should do?
Ans. John Locke believed that governments should not allow citizens to practice actions that were contrary to the public good. And governments should not suppress freedom of speech or thought. He wrote “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.”
John Locke a prominent enlightenment thinker argued that
John Locke a prominent enlightenment thinker argued that the state of nature was a state of perfect freedom in which individuals were under no obligation to enter into a political system.
the enlightenment and the great awakening caused
The enlightenment and the great awakening caused a new sense of morality and a great revival in religion. The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening were periods of religious revival in the 17th and 18th centuries that spread ideas of religious tolerance and rationalism. People began to question authority and think about the role of government.
Q8. Why the enlightenment encouraged revolutions and reforms?
Ans. The Enlightenment was a movement that took place in the 18th century and encouraged revolutions and reforms. The main driver of this movement was the French Revolution that was caused by the enlightenment.
The Enlightenment was a time of revolutionary changes in philosophy, science and politics. The enlightenment was a movement that encouraged the idea of a revolution to change the existing systems for the better. This movement was characterised by the use of reason and rational thought to solve problems.
The enlightenment encouraged people to think freely about subjects such as politics, religion and philosophy. They were encouraged to start thinking for themselves and to form their own opinions about things and to challenge the accepted system of thinking. The enlightenment caused a big change in the way that people lived.
