“The Enlightenment” by Outram, a summary

By: Graham Doel, February 4th, 2008

The Enlightenment

Author: Dorinda Outram
Publication: Cambridge University Press (1995)

Contents

1. What is Enlightenment?, p.1
2. Coffee houses and consumers: the social context of the Enlightenment, p.14
3. The rise of modern paganism: Religion and the Enlightenment, p.31
4. Science and the Enlightenment: God’s order and man’s understanding, p.47
5. Europe’s mirror? The Enlightenment and the exotic, p.63
6. Enlightenment thinking about gender, p.80
7. Enlightenment and government: new departure or business as usual?, p.96
8. The end of the Enlightenment: conspiracy and revolution? p.114

What is Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment should be seen as an intersection of debates, rather than one unified stream of thought. In this introduction Dorinda Outram presents the different ways the term “enlightenment” has been interpreted as it relates to this period of history. She starts with the way dominant Enlightenment thinker present their own understanding of the term in essays written for the Berlin newspaper Berlinische Monatsschrift. She notes that the interpretation of Enlightenment as a value system based on rationality was predominant in the interpretation of the Enlightenment.

This Line of interpretation of the Enlightenment saw it as an intellectual movement by great thinkers in Western Europe and displayed little interest in its social or political context or in the impact of these ideas.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.3-4

She observes that the way Enlightenment has been interpreted by historians has changed significantly since the 1960’s. She points to Peter Gay’s works on the enlightenment published in the late 1960’s as significant in preparing the way for the impact of the social and political context of the Enlightenment to be considered in it’s interpretation. Authors Alderidge, Venturi and Darnton are sighted examples of the widening understanding of the political and social context in relation to the geographic spread of Enlightenment ideas far beyond the homogeneous white and male interpretations that had dominated its study.

Dorinda follows the changing interpretation of the Enlightenment through to the work of Habernmas and Foucault who saw the progression of ideas from the Enlightenment, through Modernity into their own emerging thinking.

She concludes her introduction by setting her understanding of her framework for interpretation:

… think of the Enlightenment, not as an expression which has failed to encompass a complex historical reality, but rather as a capsule containing sets of debates, stresses and concerns, which however differently formulated or responded to, do appear to be characteristic of the way in which ideas, opinions and social and political structures interacted and changed in the eighteenth century.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.12

Coffee houses and consumers: the social context of the Enlightenment

Economic expansion, increasing urbanisation, rising population and improving communications contributed to the rise of public lectures, coffee houses, lending libraries, art exhibitions operatic and theatrical performances. These led to an increase in social integration and the public debate of ideas. Observing that only 1% of borrowing in lending libraries was of a religious nature, she suggests that the novel was the main was in which the readers encountered new ideas and attitudes.

The Enlightenment was an era where dramatic shifts occurred in the production and accessibility of ideas and especially in the case of print media. New social institutions were constructed based on the interchange of idea, rather than to mark or display social and political rank.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.29

The Rise of modern paganism? Religion and the Enlightenment

A complex picture of religion in the eighteenth century is painted. While on the one hand the discovery of reason led to much question of accepted religious norms there was an increasing interest in religion from an alternative perspective. The enlightenment is seen as the natural continuation of the reformation (Hegel) and the debate about toleration of non standard religious practice as a debate about the place of monarchy. She suggests that there were many voices that tried to tackle the problem of religious belief with the growing Enlightenment reason:

One way out was Deism, with its total hostility to revelation. Another was to reject the attempt to make Christianity ‘reasonable’, and return to a view of religion which emphasised faith, trust in revelation, and personal witness to religious experience.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.43

Science and the Enlightenment: God’s order and man’s understanding

The development of “Natural Philosophy” which became known as “Science” after the term was coined in the 1830’s is significant in the Enlightenment. Initially it was treated with suspicion and attracted none of the central funding that it has attracted in the last 100 years. However its development in this period paved the way from the shift from religion to science as the dominant cultural force. Science began to offer people the opportunity to become independent in knowledge of the world form the traditional claims of religion. She also observes that Foucault’s view of the role of science in the Enlightenment was to change all the structures of knowledge.

Thus, for some historians science is the cultural category of the Enlightenment, rather than that of religion, which seems so central to Hegel.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.48

Europe’s mirror? The Enlightenment and the exotic

The existing knowledge of far lands and other cultures grew during the eighteenth century along with colonisation and colonial attitudes. The inequality between races that colonisation presented were contrary to the ideas dominating the Enlightenment. Rousseau challenged the idea of the European civilisation being the dominant cultural form to which other cultures were to conform to.

Enlightenment views of a single grand movement of progress lying behind human history could not grapple with the idea of each cultural identity being driven by its own cultural dynamic.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.79

She suggests with Herder that the central failure of the Enlightenment was the way it dealt with difference.

Enlightenment thinking about gender

The debate about gender was a dominant theme of Enlightenment thinking. There was a rise in female engagement in the exchange of ideas through the french “salon”. However the make dominated world was reluctant to accept the female intellectual capability. The result was a measure of confusion:

Enlightenment thinkers seemed to assert, on the one hand, that women, as human beings, could have rights; but also, on the other, that because of their alleged irrationality and lack of autonomy, they should not be allowed to take part in politics.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.95

Dorinda suggests that although during the Enlightenment period there was little change in the way women were treated, the argument of Enlightenment thinkers paved the way for those who were to bring about significant change in this realm.

Enlightenment and government: new departure or business as usual?

The change in dominant thought form that the Enlightenment heralded meant that it was impossible for kings to rule in the manner they once had. The people they ruled demanded rights. It is impossible to find a king who ruled without some form of restriction (in England it was Parliament). Towards the end of the eighteenth century most governments had engaged programs of reform involving education and welfare. There had the unintended result of increasing social mobility. They were aimed, however, to produce a population cable of giving rational ascent to the measures of the monarch.

In the end, Enlightenment was able to raise major problems for monarchies, as well as being of major importance in reform
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.112

The end of the Enlightenment: conspiracy and revolution?

Dorinda asks if the French Revolution was a consequence of Enlightenment and suggests that Enlightenment was a consequence of revolution:

One could even say that Enlightenment began with Revolution, that which occurred in England in 1688, which created the conditions for the emergence of the philosophy with which John Locke discussed new thinking about the relationship between ruler and ruled.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.120

what the Enlightenment contributed was not only a great number of new, non-traditional ways of defining and legitimating power, through ideas such as ‘natural law’, ‘reason’, and so on, it had also mobilised sections of society into ‘public opinion’, which Kant had earlier identified as requiring tight control if it were not to disrupt social and political order.
Outram (1995) The Enlightenment, C.U.P. p.127

Notes to Self

Interesting that the fairly recent writers look at the Enlightenment ans see some connections with the way they are thinking. Reading this book made me think of some of the similarities between the cultural shift that is happening in the Enlightenment and the cultural shift that is happening in the (so called) Post-Modern era.

Read "“The Enlightenment” by Outram, a summary" in full. This post is filed in "Study",

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website