Empire today, we want to start with our first major theme and that is we want to talk about a little bit about intellectual History Today and this movement in 18th century america, really it begins in late 17th century america, but this movement known as the enlightenment. Now when you think about the enlightenment . What kind of things come to mind . Yeah, lexus Benjamin Franklin. Okay that why Benjamin Franklin . He kind of like to freedom livery like when we talk about like liberalism. Okay sense and john locke as well with like the freedoms that come. All right, so certainly and well talk about this actually in the next couple of class periods. Right . Certainly. The enlightenment is about politics in some ways right natural rights, right and well get back to this good what else comes to mind the enlightenment. This is by the way, isnt this isnt this the class when you were in high school taking history, you know, like, oh were doing the enlightenment today. I find you know this when you youre kind of eyes glaze over and you know, theres nothing exciting here. Yeah caleb reason. Okay. Good reason how many of you have heard of the enlightenment used as or described the age of reason . Right. Well come back to reason again anyone else. What figures do you think about when you think about the enlightenment in the 18th century . We heard about franklin we heard about locke. Any other names hit you next hmm jefferson. Okay. Good Thomas Jefferson in america often known as a man of the enlightenment. Resilience voltaire good so we have these frenchmen right rousseau voltaire. There was this guy diderot who who wrote the encyclopedia good anyone else . Those are the big ones. All of those names we could add, you know david hume to the list, you know a bunch of others we could add if we wanted to make a long list of the most important figures of the enlightenment. Most of those figures that we learned about in school when we learned about the enlightenment are part of what historians call the high and lightenment. And what i mean by the high enlightenment is that these are kind of intellectuals that usually surround themselves with around power their paint. They have patronage their patrons are the kings and the queens the monarchs they tend to live a very different lives from normal people they are intellectuals. They are thinkers and thats what they do. That is theyre calling that is their vocation right to write to think and so with their hands arent dirty right in other words, right . These are the great kind of thinkers of the age so to speak right the high enlightenment, right . And usually its associated with france. The philosoph says theyre called the philosophy in france. Theres an english enlightenment scottish enlightenment, right, but its its largely understood in its european context. What i want to suggest today and over the course of the next two classes. Is that the enlightenment in america . In the american colonies in the 18th century. Looks very different. From the high enlightenment of the 18th century in europe where you just have a bunch of people sitting around in coffee shops talking about ideas and sort of reading the loads. You read the latest piece by vote rousseau today. Why . Yes, you know pass me the decaf right very different. In america, so lets think about the enlightenment in america this way and some of youve had me for the us survey class have been there when ive done this but not everybody has had me for that class. Raise your hand how many of you want to make a better life for yourself how many of you want to improve your life . Yeah, i mean every hand in the room goes up, right youre all the reason youre in college. You know, youre thats why youre sitting here, right . Im guessing most of you want to get a College Degree because you want to prove your life. You want selfimprovement. You want to better your life. You may even want to you know, some of you who if youre a First Generation College student. You know, you may want to sort of pursue a life that your parents or your grandparents didnt have right College Degree kind of thing. In some ways that if you raised your hand and all of you did i would i would suggest that you then have been more influenced by. The fundamental ideas of the american enlightenment then you realize. Now usually when i bring this up to students, they will say or maybe some of you are assuming who has you know . Everyone wants to improve themselves, right . You know, i mean from the beginning of time right . I mean if youre a human being you want to improve your life you want to strive you want to make something you want to rise . Right you want to be ambitious and become something get it, you know good job or make more money that youre than your parents did or Something Like that, right . But what if i were to suggest to you that . The idea of wanting to improve yourself is actually a relatively new thing. In Human History right and this idea of wanting to improve your life or improve society . Suggests that number one its possible. In other words think about new england puritans for a minute. You are not so stained and depraved from your sin nature. That you cant rise above it. And make something of yourself. You are not stuck in some type of a conservative caste system in which your bloodline determines whether or not you will be successful or not. If you reject that idea. You have drunk deeply. From the well, if you will of the enlightenment, so imagine, you know, imagine like a medieval peasant. Okay, a medieval peasant pretty how does a medieval peasant just take a guess. How does a medieval peasant spend his or her day . So if youve studied medieval history, jack fields working in the field, right dylan you what dad to that. I was gonna say the same thing quietly. Hes usually on a plow right or behind a horse. Right plowing sowing reaping agricultural stuff, right . No medieval peasant say 18 to 22 year old medieval peasant is out there in the field saying. I may be on the field now, right but one day my kids theyre going to go to college, you know, theyre gonna become something. Theyre not even thinking that theyre probably thinking i got to get the field done and if theyre thinking thinking about anything other than their work, theyre probably thinking like where am i going go when i die. Right. How do i how do i get right with god . Its a completely different world view, but the idea that now improvement is possible. That one can actually change the world and this gets to your point caleb about x or exercising reason. Is a new thing. Its not something that has been a defining marker of Human History for tens of thousands and thousands of years. It emerges right in this moment. And again, its a transatlantic idea. So it merges in you know, the high enlightenment in france and england and so forth but in the colonies this idea of improved this idea of the enlightenment is always connected with this notion of improvement. I want to talk about that here in a second. So so what i want to do today is i want to introduce some of the central tenets of the enlightenment in america and then over the course of the next couple days. Well well dig even deeper into that. So today i want to really wrestle with this kind of more a 30,000 foot level, right . Is the enlightenment . And how does the enlightenment what does the enlightenment look like in america in the colonies the British American colonies . Okay, everyone clear where were headed today. So i want to leave you with four essential. Ideas today about the enlightenment in the first one. Weve kind of already covered, but i want to i want to riff on it a little bit more. First the enlightenment is about selfimprovement. Progress if you believe in progress if you believe that you individually can improve yourself or that society can progress . Youre in the enlightenment camp. Now again, think about this in the context of the 18th century the idea that you can overcome the limits. Of the world what are some limits that are placed on peoples lives in the 18th century . Or even in the 17th century. What limits people . Well okay, does wealth limit you . I would think well food would be something that would allow you to do all kinds of things. Most people cant do when you look lack of lack. Okay, good lack of wealth, right . So so poverty or or not having money right could be a limit placed on you and certainly there were many in what we call in colonial america the lower sort, right who were limited by lack of money and lack of opportunity as a result of not having money good. What else . What are the limits are placed on your life jackson youre the religion that you practice. How does religion serve as a limit . If youre living say in puritan new england and you are say a catholic. You have no chance to do anything. Good luck. Yeah. Or you know, i mean you know Messiah University is a Christian University many of you. If not, all of you are christians right does your does your Christian Faith place any limits on your life . I mean if youre going to say im a christian, is that going to place any kind of limits on you . Of course, it will. Right now you might want to go like commit adultery. Right, and you can do it youre free to do it, but hopefully as a christian you might say i dont think thats a good idea because the Scripture Church tradition or whatever says that thats wrong. What do you mean . What do you mean . I cant commit adult you. Im free. Right. Yeah, you technically arent going to go to jail for. But christianity has placed a limit on you if youre serious about your faith. So religion becomes a kind of limit right the whole very notion of the puritan idea of total depravity. The calvinist idea is a limit because it suggests you are so depraved. That you cant rise above that the only what for calvinists whats the only way you can improve your life . And rise above the limits. Well yes, but while youre living youre right. Nicky dying. Is that yeah, but while youre living. Go ahead andrew like if god rescues you from yeah yourself. Yeah, if youre safe if youre if youre if youre christian god can lift you above the sin, but only god could do that. You dont have to Human Potential to do that in puritan calvinism. Right because your will is so broken and sinful that theres nothing you can do apart from god helping you. Thats what the puritans believe the enlightenment will challenge that notion and say that your sinful nature has not broken you to such an extent that you cant rise above it through exercise of reason through hard work through individual effort, right . This is a new thing. In the history of the world that we havent seen before progress. So enlightenment must always be understood when we talk about it in terms of selfimprovement must always be understood. In the context of what it is challenging and its challenging in older christian protestant and catholic. Worldview of what is possible for human beings . Now, let me illustrate this one more way. In a christian worldview say the middle ages. Right or the puritans where is history moving . Wheres history ultimately going to end . With direction is it going . Wheres the ultimate sort of you know we use this word tea loss, right . What is the end of history in a christian worldview asa . All right, the rapture, lets be thats specific. Lets be more general. What is it . What is it . Jesus coming back. Yeah the return of jesus right or the return of god will come and will will end it all. Right thats kind of the christian what we call teleology. Thats where historys moving. Thats what christians of all the eastern orthodox catholic protestant, right . They all believe that history is ultimately moving towards god wrapping it up. We call this theological. Theologically we call it eschatology, right the the end times when god will bring an end to his creation, right . The enlightenment has a completely different understanding of Human History. And the way history is moving right because if progress is the ultimate goal of Human History . Histories ultimately moving towards the overcoming. Of all limits right if we just apply reason. If we just apply our minds. Educate ourselves learn new things knowledge gain new knowledge right in enlightenment knowledge is not fixed. You see what i mean by thick knowledge if you live in the middle ages, where do you find knowledge . The bible or the church, right . So theres only a certain amount of knowledge as its contained in a book or an official church teachings, but the enlightenment suggests that knowledge is progressive you can you can always apply reason and come up with new knowledge. Through experimentation through more thinking. Right. So ultimately history in an enlightenment perspective is moving towards the overcoming of all limits through the application of reason. This is what we mean by improvement. Like if you apply yourself and apply your education your rational ability you can rise above whatever weakness you have because youre poor or because you were born a certain way or so forth. Right so in the enlightenment idea history is just you know, there is kind of no end ultimately, you know in its purest form. I should say. Were going to reach some kind of utopia where all limits will be overcome all disease. All you know unethical things. Hey, we will even cheat death. Right as long as we apply reason well figure out some way to cheat death. That is the teleology of the enlightenment. That is the way history is moving. So when you hear people say youre on the right or the wrong side of history, usually what theyre saying is if you dont believe in progress youre on the wrong side of history. Right and we had the you know, we can get into that today, but but i dont want to i dont want delft i we could get into that another time. I dont want to delve into that. So the enlightenment is about selfimprovement one more point. I want to make about this before i go to the next slide. The enlightenment is often described as a very individualistic effort. If you apply reason you will improve right you will if you get educated. Right if you get a degree or study something for a particular time, you will improve your life. Youll Gain Knowledge and so forth and thats true. But one of the things thats really interesting about the enlightenment. We see some of this in europe too, but in america is the enlightenment america is often. Cultivated in communities so you have later on well talk about next class. Well talk about Benjamin Franklins gentel. Remember i mentioned that some of you are at my convocation address that i gave months ago. I talked about the gentle right this this group of ordinary tradesmen. What was Ben Franklins trade . He was a printer right . I mean you think of ben franklin is sitting in continental, you know, the continental congress, but when ben franklin came home from work every day, he had ink all over his hands. He had to clean up. Heres what he was a tradesman. He was a worker he would gather with a bunch of other artisans like blacksmiths and carpenters and so forth. They met once a week in this club called the genteau and they described the club as a club for mutual improvement. Theres no better enlightenment definition in that right a club for mutual improvement that get together. They read a text together and talk about it. Someone would like present a paper that they wrote and they would debate it and so forth, but you see this over and over again that the enlightenment is both an individual effort, but the enlightenment improvement selfimprovement always comes within some kind of community as well. So theres my first premise of the enlightenment the enlightenment is about selfimprovement. Second this ones a little more complex. And lightened people people who are enlightened were able to apply employ reason a necessary check. To the individual passions when you think about check what do you think about that . Were check. Like to check them down. Yeah good checks and balances, right . Why do you need checks and balances . Because if one if one branch of governments, theyre passions run wild they need to be controlled and checked by another branch of government. Right so here were suggesting that reason needs to be checked a reason needs to check the passions. Now if you were in college in the 18th century. If you were a student at one of the 18th century colleges and there werent many were you know, yale or harvard yale kings college. Which later becomes columbia the college of philadelphia, which later becomes university of pennsylvania william and mary was around then im probably missing probably missing one or two here. I cant remember. In your senior year you would take a class with the college president. Right, and that usually a minister and the class would be titled moral philosophy. Which essentially would be ethics . Right moral philosophy and thered be a unit in that class on the discipline of faculty psychology. Faculty psychology and basically in that unit you would study. The human faculties now one of the things you would learn in that class if you were taking it. Your senior at a college youre getting educated, right which would be in a very small minority of the population right is you would learn that there are two dominant passion two dominant faculties. Anyone know what they are . Take a guess from looking at the screen. What are the two dominant faculties that all humans possess according to this 18th century faculty psychology dealing . And passion reason and passion i you are born with of these faculties. And you have to cultivate the other one. Which one are you born with . Passion, right, you know think about a baby. You know a baby doesnt like, you know, if the baby has to go to the bathroom and needs its diaper change or needs food, right . The baby is not making a kind of rational choice like oh moms busy now. Ill come back to her later. You know or Something Like theres no reason involved right the baby starts to cry because its rational faculty has not been cultivated yet. Right so what you would learn in this class, is that the point of being an educated person . Is to make sure that you train your rational faculty. So that its Strong Enough. To put down usually theyre described as the unruly passions. So in some ways the rat your reason your rational faculty is like a muscle think about lifting weights, right . You want to build that muscle and make it stronger and stronger. So when passions arise . That are going to get you into trouble. Unr