Enlightenment and Modern Ideas

Tuesday, May 22 2012, 1:52 PM

Enlightenment
Factors Responsible
Social
1. Discrimination: There was widespread discrimination between the privileged and the unprivileged
based on birth. Exploitation.
2. Scientific inventions: Spreading inventions and education questioned existing beliefs and inspired new
thinking.
Political
1. Absolutism: There was no democracy, no checks and balances, no separation of powers. There were
despotic monarchies. There was no liberty for the masses.
2. Feudalism: All the high offices were monopolized by feudal lords. State authority was being misused
for personal benefits.
3. Arbitrariness: There was no rule of law. There were cahiers.
Cultural
1. Church: It dominated religious-cultural lives of people. It was an absolute tyrant and no one could
speak against it. Its voice was the voice of God. Dissenters were suppressed brutally. There was no
tolerance for different ideas and religions and only catholicism was allowed. Church indulged in
massive corruption.
Economic
1. Exploitation: A small fraction of the population cornered most of the resources and lives of majority
were miserable.
2. Industrial revolution: Old landed groups lost their hold on economy and new groups emerged which
were guided by different set of interests and ideas.
Nature and Character
1. Rationalist: Laid emphasis on logic and reason. It had a scientific outlook. Anti superstitions and anti
bigotry. Critical analysis of prevailing conditions and logical alternatives. Discarded practices not
conforming to reason. They emphasized on empiricism i.e. accept only those ideas which can be
perceived through human senses.
2. Humanist: Believed in welfare of human beings. It believed in progress of mankind and its innate ability
to cause it. They believed in social, political and religious liberty of every man. State, society and
religion exist to serve the humans and not the other way round.
3. Composite movement, secular and tolerant. They were reformative in outlook. It put forward new
concepts and ideas instead of harping upon past glories for inspiration.
4. Liberal and democratic: It advocate constitutionalism. It was non violent. It believed in promoting
liberty. Concept of popular sovereignty was popularized. It was against absolutism and gave a call for
monarchies.

5. Egalitarian: It was also anti slavery and anti serfdom apart from being anti feudal privileges. It believed
every man is equal.
6. Natural laws: They believed that society, political system, religion etc. everything is governed by natural
laws and nature is supreme. So an understanding of these laws is necessary.
7. Urban.
Spread
1. Enlightenment didn't remain confined to but spread later to Americas, Asia and Africa in that order.
Various leaders and institutions were instrumental in its spread.
Socialism
Rise of Socialist Ideas
Robert Owen in
1. The early socialist ideas stemmed from the writings of Rousseau, philosophies of extreme Jacobians
and from the general ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity. But in , socialism gained importance for
the first time under Robert Owen. In 1800 he began his experiment with creating a model factory
where he tried to prove that could be increased by treating workers well.
2. He had great influence on two of the most successful working class movements of his day - the trade
unionism and cooperative movement. After the unions were legalized in 1825, Owen setup a national
trade union whose aim was to raise the level of unionism to a national movement. Simultaneously he
reorganized production along cooperative lines. In 1844, inspired by his ideals, 28 workers opened a
little cooperative store and by 1851 more than 130K such stores had been opened. Yet the movement
failed to make any real note.
St. Simon in France
1. He preached that the property rights must depend on their social utility and not on individual rights. He
coined the slogan - from each according to his capacity, to each according to his needs.
Charles Fourier in France
1. He regarded modern commerce as a great evil as it made vice more profitable than virtues. He
believed that competition leads to deceit, greed and inhumanity and thus the aim should be to restore
harmony. To make a work attractive each worker must share in its produce and be guaranteed a
sufficient minimum to free him from anxiety.
Louis Blanc in France
1. He argued that political reform is the only means to achieve social reform and that socialism must be a
state socialism. If the state is not used as an instrument it becomes an obstacle. Thus the state must
recognize and implement a right to work and should protect the weak.
Spread of Marxian Socialism
1. The socialists had vowed to use the state to further their aims. But the socialists in Europe were divided
into 2 lines on the question of whether they should work within the parameters of the parliamentary
constitutional framework or should they overthrow it via a revolution? Generally it can be said that
wherever the civil liberties were higher and the parliamentary system was stronger, the socialists tended

to organize themselves in the form of social democratic parties which used parliamentary means to
secure power and reforms. Wherever the scope offered by the parliamentary system was non existent
or weak the communists or believers in revolution were stronger.
2. Moreover the parliamentary socialists were better representatives of the organized labor unions and
they tended to be more popular when business was brisk. This was because the employers were more
willing to grant concessions during such times. But in downturns the communists and class struggle
theories tended to become more popular.
3. Another common phenomenon among the socialists was a split in their ranks on multiple questions.
Thus we have seen above there were those who advocated parliamentary means, and there were those
who advocated revolution. There were anarchists who were against any form of state as well and
believed in setting up small local bodies.
4. But the question which really led to their downfall was the attitude towards nationalism. They were
often caught on wrong footing there when they raised a rhetoric against nationalism. Sometimes they
would preach against nationalism but their actions would be pro nationalism. Thus they lost their
credibility.
Paris Commune, 1871
1. After the defeat at the hands of Germany the workers in Paris rose in revolt against the liberal
government which had surrendered to Germany in order to preserve its existence. It was seen as a
betrayal and compromise and the government lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The various
socialists and communists and workers parties united and overthrew the government. But this revolt
can't be seen as a class revolt as put forward by Marx because the workers had not risen against the
exploitation. On the other hand they had revolted guided by patriotism and anti-German sentiments.
Paris had seen a large influx of workers from the German occupied northern areas and the bourgeoise
class had fled Paris in the wake of its siege.
2. The confusion (that it was a great example of a revolution symbolizing the class struggle) also seems to
come from the choice of words used by Marx in describing it. He called it a moment of great triumph
for his followers and the International. He called the workers communards (supporters of the
Commune) and the politicians "capitulards" which meant the government which had capitulated. But
people mistook it as communists vs capitalists.
Growth of Social Democratic Parties
1. In Germany the lower house Reichstag was elected by universal male suffrage and the socialists there
organized themselves on the parliamentary lines to form social democratic parties. In 1875 the main
socialist parties in Germany united where they accepted the Marxian doctrines of class struggle and his
interpretation of history, but they decided to press for it within the parliamentary framework. The party
grew rapidly and soon became the largest party in Germany. Similar parliamentary socialist parties
came up in and France as well.
2. In places like Italy where universal suffrage was late in coming, the socialist parliamentarian parties
couldn't claim to be effective. Thus revolutionary socialism grew in such places. Similarly in Russia
there was no parliamentary system and thus the socialism there was revolutionary.