What specific contributions did Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot make to the age of the Enlightenment - Essay Example

What specific contributions did Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot make to the age of the Enlightenment? In his first creation ‘Persian Letters’, Montesquieu severely criticized the French institutions, particularly the French monarchy and the Catholic church. Being a French nobility who obtained classical education and studied in law, he was widely acclaimed for his composition of ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ besides the austere impact caused by the serious blows of his philosophy against the conventional religions of the period. Through this famous work, Montesquieu claimed that there exists three distinct types of government namely the republics, the monarchy, and despotism. This enabled him to determine the ‘natural laws’ governing the social relationships of men upon application of the scientific method is onto the socio-political realms within which human beings function. Along with such comparative study of governments, Montesquieu managed to have arrived at his most notable contribution to the French Enlightenment which pertains to the significance of checks and balances through separation of powers. Diderot, in the similar fashion, became well celebrated for his 28-volume Encyclopedia, also known as the ‘Classified Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades’ which he also considered to be his life’s highest achievement the chief goal of which, according to him, was to “change the general way of thinking.” Diderot had mostly devoted his lifetime to expressing irrevocable contempt against religious superstitions especially the unreasonable fanaticism he perceived with Christianity during the age of Enlightenment. To him, toleration and related programs of enhancing legal, social, and political aspects of well-being would guide a society to be further humane, reasonable, tolerant, and cosmopolitan, instead of adhering to religious beliefs. At the latter part of his life, Diderot came up with a proposition that “This world is only a mass of molecules.” On the other hand, despite the biting philosophical stance which Montesquieu and Diderot brought in enormous opposition to the traditional exaggerated religious devotion, Voltaire wrote ‘Treatise on Toleration’ in 1763 to mellow on extreme views arguing that England and Holland were not negatively affected by the religious toleration. With his ‘Philosophic Letters on the English’, Voltaire conveyed profound appreciation of English life including its religious toleration, political liberty, and freedom of the press. Aside from religious tolerance of the era, he also supported the advocacy for ‘deism’ or a religious perception based on Newtonian principle which assumed the existence of a mechanic (God) that formed the universe. Discuss the significance and the influence of John Locke and Isaac Newton on the Enlightenment. The age of Enlightenment also witnessed growing interest toward influences derived from scientific awareness the concepts of which had flourished through geniuses like Isaac Newton, who had his most remarkable creation of ‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’ published in 1687. The mathematical proofs for his universal law of gravitation as well as the full account of astronomical studies initiated by Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus were covered in this work which also pointed out the essential rules of reasoning from which the Universal Law evolved. Consequently, Newton’s ‘Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy’ was crucial to the development of ‘Scientific Revolution’ wherein abiding by such is ascertained to reform a person’s view of the world, of European religious traditions, and of science in ancient times. The ‘Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy’ substantiates four primary rules to follow with the first being the admission of ‘no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearance’. Thus, based on the second rule, ‘to the same natural effects’ humans must ‘as far as possible, assign the same causes’. Third rule pertains to ‘the qualities of bodies, which admit neither intensification nor remission of degrees while the fourth makes reference to ‘experimental philosophy’ in which Newton encouraged ‘to look upon propositions inferred by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true’ despite any ‘contrary hypotheses’. John Locke, on the contrary, posited a ‘tabula rasa’, otherwise known as ‘black mind’ with which he elaborated his insights on education which involved learning from experience not solely on the ground that humans exist. Alternatively, this is to say that men are originally born in the absence of knowledge and would only obtain such through experiential learning and that genetic factors bear nothing to constitute with the effect of knowing. Moreover, the revolutions of the 18th century had been amply impacted by Locke’s two treaties on government in 1690 by which the philosophe proposed that to bring legitimate rule to a nation, it would be acceptable to revolt against tyranny. How do the art and literature of the eighteenth century reflect the political and social life of the period?  Since the Enlightenment demonstrates a post-Renaissance interest focus in man as the enduring subject of intellectual revolution, the advancements of the era greatly favored reformations in philosophies and sciences between the 16th and 18th centuries. Hence, arts and literature were paid limited to negligible attention unlike in the period of Renaissance in which artistic pursuits of various forms counted in almost every aspect of living. Just as the Renaissance broke away from the Middle Ages when religious reign paved the way for the absolute rule of monarchs, so did the Enlightenment impair the spiritual and cultural values that were of indispensable value to arts and literature alike. While the Newtonian science, for instance, inevitably found its way to shape cultural expressions in the west, it highly manifests itself in philosophical forms complied with by Europeans who had attempted to determine parallels of scientific approach with handling social affairs where discovery to resolve circumstances of human conflicts is of huge concern. Literature to some extent had been able to reflect expressions or the collective notion behind its optimistic utopianism, however, it was less conspicuous in depictions through visual arts and even only slightly detectable in musical themes. Apparently, the arts offered negligible response to politically motivated scientific and philosophical endeavor since artistic inclinations were much dependent on traditions of sensible culture, individual sentiments, and patronage. Arts and literature altogether, nevertheless, were quite rich and varied, exhibiting the prosperity by wealth, broadening perspectives, and rising technical proficiency of social life in Europe. Works Cited Spielvogel, J.J., 7th ed. Western Civilization. Cengage Learning, 2008. Hackett, L. “Developments in the Arts.” The Age of Enlightenment. 2011. http://history-world.org/age_of_enlightenment.htm . 9 Aug 2011.   Read More