10.6: Implications of the Enlightement

Philosophes rarely attacked members within their own social hierarchy. The abuses of the church, the ignorance of the nobility, and even the injustices of kings might be fair game for criticism. However, the better-known philosophes did not call for or support a political revolution. Only Rousseau was bold enough to advocate a republican form of government as a viable alternative to a monarchy. Even Kant celebrated the “public use of reason” while defending the authoritarian power of the Prussian king to demand that his subjects “obey!”

Most of the major figures of the Enlightenment were social elites, whose thoughts were ultimately disruptive to the Christian society of orders. In their minds, the legitimacy of a monarch was based on their rule coinciding with the prosperity of the nation and the absence of cruelty and injustice in the laws of the land. Yet, people have the right to judge the monarch based on his or her competence and rationality. The philosophes did attack the nobles for enjoying vast legal privileges but having done nothing to deserve those privileges besides being born a member of a noble family. They were quick to point out that many members of the middle class were far more intelligent and competent than the average nobleman.

In addition, despite the inherent difficulty of publishing against the backdrop of censorship, philosophes contributed to the undermining of organized religion. All major Enlightenment thinkers agreed that “revealed” religion - a religion whose authority was based on miracles - was nonsense. According to the philosophes, the history of miracles could be disproved. Plus, contemporary miracles were usually experienced by lunatics, women, and the poor (and thus automatically suspect from their elite, male perspective). Basically, miracles violated natural law, which according to the very core principles of Enlightenment thought was simply not possible.

The Enlightenment did more to disrupt the social and political order than most of its members ever intended. Obvious and spectacular expressions are found in a pair of political revolutions: first in the American colonies of Great Britain in the 1770s, then in France starting in the 1780s. Ideas that had remained in the abstract during the Enlightenment were made manifest in the form of new constitutions, laws, and principles of government, and in both cases, one of the byproducts was violent upheaval.