Test - Monday (9/28) - the test will have four short answer questions and you will have to answer two of the questions with a complete answer that draws on the ideas and historical evidence contained in this unit.
Reminder - The question for the unit essay is "Should political decisions be made from the top down (traditional) or bottom up (liberal)? You should be starting to organize your ideas and evidence for answering this question. Your essay should:
- Be no more than three pages - size 11 font with 1 inch margins
- Have a clear thesis with the structure of the essay following the logic of the thesis
The essay will be due on Tuesday (9/29)
Biography - Voltaire
Voltaire was born in 1694 in France and spent his life working as a writer on topics ranging from poetry and plays to studies of history to science. As a young man, Voltaire was often imprisoned by the government or exiled from France because of his writings which were critical of government policy. In 1725, while living in exile in Britain, Voltaire studied the country's freedom of speech and religion and its system of constitutional monarchy (a king whose power is limited by a constitution), as opposed to the absolute monarchy of the French. When he returned to France three years later, he published a collection of essays that caused outrage because he argued that the British system of government was better than the French system. Voltaire also introduced many of Newton’s ideas about science to France.
While unpopular with the French government, Voltaire was invited by Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, to live and work in Prussia. Frederick was inspired by many of the Enlightenment ideas to improve the lives of his subjects and supported the arts and sciences, abolished torture and censorship, and reformed Prussia’s legal system. However, after a few years in Prussia, Frederick ordered Voltaire leave Prussia after Voltaire refused to apologize for his writings which were critical of Frederick’s advisors.
Unable to freely return to France, Voltaire moved to Switzerland where he wrote his most important book Candide. In the book, the main character Candide experiences human cruelty and tragedy, and yet tries to hold to his belief that he lives in the best of all worlds and that “all is for the best”. It concludes with Candide acknowledging that this is not the case and that the only way to shut out the stupidity and cruelty of the world is to lose oneself in satisfying work. Voltaire also spent his time writing in support of tolerance and fighting for people who were victims of intolerance. In 1763, Voltaire wrote a "Treatise on Tolerance" which argued that freedom of religion, tolerance and speech will always need to be protected by society's lawmakers.
Biography - Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was born in France in 1713. He attended the University of Paris and worked as a writer and tutor. In the 1740s, he became a translator of English books. In 1747, Diderot began the process of putting together and editing the massive Encyclopédie or “Encyclopedia”. This encyclopedia collected the thoughts and works of Enlightenment thinkers in one souce and then spread the ideas across Europe. Many Enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire, wrote articles for the Encyclopedia. In addition to written articles, the Encyclopedia is also famous for its 3000 pages of illustrations showing everything from medical procedures to technical inventions and natural science. The Encyclopédie was revolutionary because it made information that had previously only been available to the wealthy available to everyone. Diderot said the purpose of the Encyclopédie was "to further knowledge and, by so doing, strike a resounding blow against reactionary forces in church and state."
The massive set of 20 volumes that made up the Encyclopédie were sold to wealthy individuals and small private libraries where the public could read it for a small fee. The impact of the Encyclopédie was widespread in France and Europe and by 1789, the start of the French Revolution, more than 25,000 copies had been sold.
Despite the success of the Encyclopédie, Diderot was not able to make a living off of the sales of the Encyclopédie. The Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, supported Diderot by giving him a salary and buying his library – however she allowed him to keep his library as long as he lived. After his death, it was sent to Russia and became part of the National Library of Russia.
Source # 1 - Pages from the Encyclopédie
Source # 2 - Painting of a Salon
Source # 3 - Picture of a coffee shop
Source # 4 - Map of the Enlightenment in Europe
Source # 5 - Table showing the changes in literacy rates in different European Countries
Source # 6 - Chart showing the number of different types of books and periodicals (ESTC stands for "English Short Title Catalog") published in England from 1600 to 1790.
Source # 7 - Excerpts from Candide (1759) by Voltaire
Chapter 5 - This chapter begins with Candide, the main character of the novel, walking into the city of Lisbon, Portugal, with is tutor Dr. Pangloss after having survived a ship wreak.
Scarcely had they ceased to lament the loss of their benefactor and set foot in the city, when they perceived that the earth trembled under their feet, and the sea, swelling and foaming in the harbor, was dashing in pieces the vessels that were riding at anchor. Large sheets of flames and cinders covered the streets and public places; the houses tottered, and were tumbled topsy-turvy even to their foundations, which were themselves destroyed, and thirty thousand inhabitants of both sexes, young and old, were buried beneath the ruins.
Candide fainted away, and Pangloss fetched him some water from a neighboring spring. The next day, in searching among the ruins, they found some eatables with which they repaired their exhausted strength. After this they assisted the inhabitants in relieving the distressed and wounded. Some, whom they had humanely assisted, gave them as good a dinner as could be expected under such terrible circumstances. The repast, indeed, was mournful, and the company moistened their bread with their tears; but Pangloss endeavored to comfort them under this affliction by affirming that things could not be otherwise that they were.
"For," said he, "all this is for the very best end, for if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could be in no other spot; and it is impossible but things should be as they are, for everything is for the best."
Chapter 6
After the earthquake, which had destroyed three-fourths of the city of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more effectual to preserve the kingdom from utter ruin than to entertain the people with an auto-da-fe ("act of faith"), it having been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible preventive of earthquakes.
In consequence thereof they had seized on a Biscayan for marrying his godmother, and on two Portuguese for taking out the bacon of a larded pullet they were eating; after dinner they came and secured Dr. Pangloss, and his pupil Candide, the one for speaking his mind, and the other for seeming to approve what he had said.... Candide was flogged to some tune, while the anthem was being sung; the Biscayan and the two men who would not eat bacon were burned, and Pangloss was hanged, which is not a common custom at these solemnities. The same day there was another earthquake, which made most dreadful havoc.
Candide, amazed, terrified, confounded, astonished, all bloody, and trembling from head to foot, said to himself, "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others? If I had only been whipped, I could have put up with it, as I did among the Bulgarians; but, not withstanding, oh my dear Pangloss! my beloved master! thou greatest of philosophers! that ever I should live to see thee hanged, without knowing for what!"
Chapter 28 - In this chapter, Candide is reunited with Dr Pangloss, who is being held as a slave on a Turkish ship.
"But how happens it that I behold you again, my dear Pangloss?" said Candide.
"It is true," answered Pangloss, "you saw me hanged, though I ought properly to have been burned; but you may remember, that it rained extremely hard when they were going to roast me. The storm was so violent that they found it impossible to light the fire; so they hanged me because they could do no better. A surgeon purchased my body, carried it home, and prepared to dissect me. He began by making a crucial incision from my navel to the clavicle. It is impossible for anyone to have been more lamely hanged than I had been. The executioner was a subdeacon, and knew how to burn people very well, but as for hanging, he was a novice at it, being quite out of practice; the cord being wet, and not slipping properly, the noose did not join. In short, I still continued to breathe; the crucial incision made me scream to such a degree, that my surgeon fell flat upon his back; and imagining it was the Devil he was dissecting, ran away, and in his fright tumbled down stairs. His wife hearing the noise, flew from the next room, and seeing me stretched upon the table with my crucial incision, was still more terrified than her husband, and fell upon him. When they had a little recovered themselves, I heard her say to her husband, 'My dear, how could you think of dissecting a heretic? Don't you know that the Devil is always in them? I'll run directly to a priest to come and drive the evil spirit out.' I trembled from head to foot at hearing her talk in this manner, and exerted what little strength I had left to cry out, 'Have mercy on me!' At length the Portuguese barber took courage, sewed up my wound, and his wife nursed me; and I was upon my legs in a fortnight's time. The barber got me a place to be lackey to a Knight of Malta, who was going to Venice; but finding my master had no money to pay me my wages, I entered into the service of a Venetian merchant and went with him to Constantinople.
"One day I happened to enter a mosque, where I saw no one but an old man and a very pretty young female devotee, who was telling her beads; her neck was quite bare, and in her bosom she had a beautiful nosegay of tulips, roses, anemones, ranunculuses, hyacinths, and auriculas; she let fall her nosegay. I ran immediately to take it up, and presented it to her with a most respectful bow. I was so long in delivering it that the man began to be angry; and, perceiving I was a Christian, he cried out for help; they carried me before the cadi, who ordered me to receive one hundred bastinadoes, and sent me to the galleys. I was chained in the very galley and to the very same bench with the Baron. On board this galley there were four young men belonging to Marseilles, five Neapolitan priests, and two monks of Corfu, who told us that the like adventures happened every day. The Baron pretended that he had been worse used than myself; and I insisted that there was far less harm in taking up a nosegay, and putting it into a woman's bosom, than to be found stark naked with a young Icoglan. We were continually whipped, and received twenty lashes a day with a heavy thong, when the concatenation of sublunary events brought you on board our galley to ransom us from slavery."
"Well, my dear Pangloss," said Candide to him, "when You were hanged, dissected, whipped, and tugging at the oar, did you continue to think that everything in this world happens for the best?"
"I have always abided by my first opinion," answered Pangloss; "for, after all, I am a philosopher, and it would not become me to retract my sentiments; especially as Leibnitz could not be in the wrong: and that preestablished harmony is the finest thing in the world."
Chapter 5 - This chapter begins with Candide, the main character of the novel, walking into the city of Lisbon, Portugal, with is tutor Dr. Pangloss after having survived a ship wreak.
Scarcely had they ceased to lament the loss of their benefactor and set foot in the city, when they perceived that the earth trembled under their feet, and the sea, swelling and foaming in the harbor, was dashing in pieces the vessels that were riding at anchor. Large sheets of flames and cinders covered the streets and public places; the houses tottered, and were tumbled topsy-turvy even to their foundations, which were themselves destroyed, and thirty thousand inhabitants of both sexes, young and old, were buried beneath the ruins.
Candide fainted away, and Pangloss fetched him some water from a neighboring spring. The next day, in searching among the ruins, they found some eatables with which they repaired their exhausted strength. After this they assisted the inhabitants in relieving the distressed and wounded. Some, whom they had humanely assisted, gave them as good a dinner as could be expected under such terrible circumstances. The repast, indeed, was mournful, and the company moistened their bread with their tears; but Pangloss endeavored to comfort them under this affliction by affirming that things could not be otherwise that they were.
"For," said he, "all this is for the very best end, for if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could be in no other spot; and it is impossible but things should be as they are, for everything is for the best."
Chapter 6
After the earthquake, which had destroyed three-fourths of the city of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more effectual to preserve the kingdom from utter ruin than to entertain the people with an auto-da-fe ("act of faith"), it having been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible preventive of earthquakes.
In consequence thereof they had seized on a Biscayan for marrying his godmother, and on two Portuguese for taking out the bacon of a larded pullet they were eating; after dinner they came and secured Dr. Pangloss, and his pupil Candide, the one for speaking his mind, and the other for seeming to approve what he had said.... Candide was flogged to some tune, while the anthem was being sung; the Biscayan and the two men who would not eat bacon were burned, and Pangloss was hanged, which is not a common custom at these solemnities. The same day there was another earthquake, which made most dreadful havoc.
Candide, amazed, terrified, confounded, astonished, all bloody, and trembling from head to foot, said to himself, "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others? If I had only been whipped, I could have put up with it, as I did among the Bulgarians; but, not withstanding, oh my dear Pangloss! my beloved master! thou greatest of philosophers! that ever I should live to see thee hanged, without knowing for what!"
Chapter 28 - In this chapter, Candide is reunited with Dr Pangloss, who is being held as a slave on a Turkish ship.
"But how happens it that I behold you again, my dear Pangloss?" said Candide.
"It is true," answered Pangloss, "you saw me hanged, though I ought properly to have been burned; but you may remember, that it rained extremely hard when they were going to roast me. The storm was so violent that they found it impossible to light the fire; so they hanged me because they could do no better. A surgeon purchased my body, carried it home, and prepared to dissect me. He began by making a crucial incision from my navel to the clavicle. It is impossible for anyone to have been more lamely hanged than I had been. The executioner was a subdeacon, and knew how to burn people very well, but as for hanging, he was a novice at it, being quite out of practice; the cord being wet, and not slipping properly, the noose did not join. In short, I still continued to breathe; the crucial incision made me scream to such a degree, that my surgeon fell flat upon his back; and imagining it was the Devil he was dissecting, ran away, and in his fright tumbled down stairs. His wife hearing the noise, flew from the next room, and seeing me stretched upon the table with my crucial incision, was still more terrified than her husband, and fell upon him. When they had a little recovered themselves, I heard her say to her husband, 'My dear, how could you think of dissecting a heretic? Don't you know that the Devil is always in them? I'll run directly to a priest to come and drive the evil spirit out.' I trembled from head to foot at hearing her talk in this manner, and exerted what little strength I had left to cry out, 'Have mercy on me!' At length the Portuguese barber took courage, sewed up my wound, and his wife nursed me; and I was upon my legs in a fortnight's time. The barber got me a place to be lackey to a Knight of Malta, who was going to Venice; but finding my master had no money to pay me my wages, I entered into the service of a Venetian merchant and went with him to Constantinople.
"One day I happened to enter a mosque, where I saw no one but an old man and a very pretty young female devotee, who was telling her beads; her neck was quite bare, and in her bosom she had a beautiful nosegay of tulips, roses, anemones, ranunculuses, hyacinths, and auriculas; she let fall her nosegay. I ran immediately to take it up, and presented it to her with a most respectful bow. I was so long in delivering it that the man began to be angry; and, perceiving I was a Christian, he cried out for help; they carried me before the cadi, who ordered me to receive one hundred bastinadoes, and sent me to the galleys. I was chained in the very galley and to the very same bench with the Baron. On board this galley there were four young men belonging to Marseilles, five Neapolitan priests, and two monks of Corfu, who told us that the like adventures happened every day. The Baron pretended that he had been worse used than myself; and I insisted that there was far less harm in taking up a nosegay, and putting it into a woman's bosom, than to be found stark naked with a young Icoglan. We were continually whipped, and received twenty lashes a day with a heavy thong, when the concatenation of sublunary events brought you on board our galley to ransom us from slavery."
"Well, my dear Pangloss," said Candide to him, "when You were hanged, dissected, whipped, and tugging at the oar, did you continue to think that everything in this world happens for the best?"
"I have always abided by my first opinion," answered Pangloss; "for, after all, I am a philosopher, and it would not become me to retract my sentiments; especially as Leibnitz could not be in the wrong: and that preestablished harmony is the finest thing in the world."
