GESCHICHTE 150 Monday September 23 2013 The motto of the Enlightenment Immanuel Kant Dare to Know OUTLINE 1 Critically evaluate social institutions ideas and practices Question Is it reasonable REASON 2 Uncover the natural laws operating society Objectives Examples Caesare Beccaria On Crimes and Punishments 1764 Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations 1776 John Locke Two Treatises of Government 1690 Voltaire Treatise on Toleration 1763 NOTES Immanuel Kant What is Enlightenment 1784 Emergence of a new concept the individual with NATURAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS Enlightenment is man s leaving his self caused immaturity Immaturity is the incapacity to use one s intelligence without the guidance of another Dare to know Have the courage to use your own intelligence motto of the enlightenment Warning song Question everything or shut up and be a victim of authority Influence of the scientific revolution Examining questioning discovery quest for knowledge and understanding of the natural laws of the environmental and social world Greenday band Enlightenment period Reform and change human PROGRESS Reason reform and rhetoric Knowledge is power GESCHICHTE 150 Monday September 23 2013 Caesare Beccaria Italy Inequalities built into the criminal justice system Punishment based on your social status Membership had its privileges Disagreed and objected these inequalities In England 200 crimes punishable by the death penalty z B theft game laws On Crimes and Punishment 1764 Argued that all people should be treated equally before the law Argued that all penal systems should be reformed so that the punishment fits the crime The impression of pain may become so great that filling the entire sensory capacity of the tortured person it leaves him free only to choose what for the moment is the shortest way of escape from pain torture is an infallible mean indeed for absolving robust scoundrels and for condemning innocent persons who happen to be weak Such are the fatal defects of this so called criterion of truth a criterion fit for a cannibal Caesare Baccaria Death penalty Attempted regicide 1st objection does not deter crime typical punishments and methods for death penalty 2nd objection is it not absurd that the law which detest and punish homicide should in order to prevent murder publicly commit murder themselves Better method would be to send criminals to prison deprive them of their basic natural liberties Influence of work Book was translated into multiple languages had huge impact on tangible social reforms By around 1800 most European countries abolished torture and reserved the death penalty for only the gravest crimes Adam Smith Scotland Set on track to uncover laws in the economic systems The Wealth of Nations 1776 Argued that the economy was governed by the natural laws of supply and demand o A nation could maximize its wealth if the governments of those nations should pursue the policy of laissez faire let nature take its course government doesn t interfere with the already balanced system Argued that individuals should be free capable to pursue their own economic self interest Monday September 23 2013 GESCHICHTE 150 Individual Originally belonging to a category fitting within a group but nothing more specific Natural rights and freedoms Originally depended on which group you belonged to John Locke One of the two most important political works written in history Two Treatises of Government 1690 All men are born free and equal All men are born with a number of natural rights the natural rights of life liberty and property as well as pursuit of happiness Jefferson Men formed governments to protect these natural rights A government that failed to protect those rights or rules arbitrarily or absolutely becomes a tyrannical government o Violates its purpose Faced with a tyrannical government people have the right to overthrow this government and form a new one REVOLUTION right to rebel