Enlightenment Historiography

Enlightenment Historiography

Readings:

• Giambattista Vico, The New Science

(1725)

• Edward Gibbon, The Decline And Fall of

The Roman Empire (1776, 1781)

• Leopold von Ranke,”Author’s Preface,” to

The History of the Reformation in

Germany (1839-47)

Approaching Enlightenment

Historians…

• Classical Historiography

– transition from “storytelling” to use of

documents (especially for Tacitus, who had

access to Roman imperial archives)

– but main focus was on the meaning of Being

Greek (or Athenian, or Roman)

Approaching Enlightenment

Historians…

• Medieval and Renaissance Historiography

– Dominated by Church history (ecclesiastical

histories)

– But with Renaissance, “rebirth” of secular

histories

• Machiavelli’s political histories

• Ibn Khaldun’s “scientific” histories

– and the emergence of an actual “historical

method”

• Jean Bodin

Approaching Enlightenment

Historians…

• What happens after the Renaissance:

– in response to the discoveries of the

Renaissance (New World, re-discovery of the

mathematical and scientific worldview of the

East – both China and the Islamic world)

• focus on science over faith

• Scientific Revolution

–     Enlightenment

–      

Enlightenment Historiography

• What is the Enlightenment?

– Period mostly in the 18

th

century

– Humanist reaction against the centrality of The

Church during the Middle Ages

– Partly an outcome of the Protestant Reformation (and

the excesses of the Counterreformation)

– Partly the rediscovery of the Classical and Islamic

traditions

– Partly intellectual development, as “The Age of

Reason” (scientific thought)

– Partly economic (the “free market,” publishing

industries, etc.)

Major events of the Enlightenment

• Revolutions & Political Systems

– English (“Glorious,” 1688), American (1776), French (1789)

– Establishment of republics (First Spanish, etc.)

– Constitutional Monarchies based on “Social Contracts”

• Intellectual Breakthroughs

– Science

• Sir Isaac Newton, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)

• Diderot's Encyclopédie (1751-1772, and on)

– Arts

• Neoclassicism in art and architecture (see images on next slides)

• Novels of satire and Bildungsroman (coming-of-age)

– Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1769)

– Voltaire, Candide (1759)

– Rousseau, Emile: or, On Education (1762)

– Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795–96)

– Society

• Printing, Café culture, Lodges, Salons

– Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)

• After-effects of the Reformation

– Rise of “deism”:  Belief that reason and observation of natural world alone prove

the existence of a supreme creator (a "divine watchmaker") who does not directly

intervene in human affairs through such means as answering prayers,

performing miracles, or providing revelations.

So the Enlightenment…

• Fosters a desire to make inquiries

scientific

– What is Science?

– What is scientific method?

• OBJECTIVITY as goal, even for historians

Enlightenment Style

• Enlightenment historians wrote broad

accounts of social and cultural epochs.

– with the goal of identifying the nature of

human history

• patterns in it

• natural bases of human behavior

–     scientific OBJECTIVE approach

–      

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)

(1694 – 1778):

• French philosophe, satirist, essayist, historian

• Saw history as a universal human experience

– even the poor and weak HAVE history

• The job of the historian was to understand the

social and moral aspects of the past.

– and to explain the fundamental natural bases of

human development

• Voltaire rejects religion and God’s role in

shaping the outcome of history

• Human life is not destined or controlled by

greater beings (thus a “humanist”)