Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was a determined philosophe and fiery feminist leader during and just before the French Revolution. She was born in 1759 and lived under the tyranny of an abusive father; at the age of nineteen she escaped from home to pursue a writing career. After many stunts writing for a paper of radical thought, she wrote her most famous work titled, A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Her novel brought her fame and infamy because it attacked men for not allowing women the same oppurtunites and freedoms that they possessed. This work was important because it labeled Mary Wollstonecraft as a strong feminist and brought her into the public eye. She was very opinionated about politics and combined her devout christian morals into the way government was run. Despite her greatness as an activist she was very troubled; she married, was abandoned, attempted suicide, had children, and then remarried but only a couple of years before her death in 1798.

Joseph-Marie de Maistre

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Joseph-Marie de Maistre was born in April 1, 1753 in Savoy, France and died in 1821. He was a French political philosopher considered teh leading philosophical opponent of the Enlightenment on Europe. He wrote at least 13 volumes of collected works; letters, diplomatic correspondence. It was designed to refute the principles of the French Revolution. His first major work was Considerations on France (1706) which argues that paper constitutions never will or have established rights for people. Also, most of his views were in "The Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions" (1809). His basic views were the constitution should not be written and the people should receive the rules over a large span of time.

(To)Day's Dilemmas for Diderot

Before it is possible to asses which current day issues would be of interest to Diderot, it is necessary to first investigate what interested him in his own lifetime. As did all philosophes, Diderot had a variety of interests; skimming the list of subjects that he wrote about in his Encyclopedia, the most interesting were philosophy, ethics, intolerance, geography, political sciences, law, religion, and the human condition. Some of these are connected topics and so might be made broader - the human condition, religion, ethics, and intolerance are all interconnected things and must be looked on as such. Political sciences, law, and geography could work together in a category as well. Generally, this helps us to see what he might want to discuss in today's world.
Diderot might be fascinated by our issues with religious intolerance of the type that I addressed not too long ago in my paper about misconceptions of Muslims. Rather than the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the motivating emotions might have held more import for him. The creation of madrases and the conflict in the middle east would for him have been significant both religiously and politically.
The ideas that Richard Dawkins brought up in his talk would have been of special consequence to Diderot, especially because in many ways they both rivaled and supported his own ideas. (Though Diderot was ultimately atheist, he was a long time in becoming so. There was no sudden transformation from Roman Catholicism, but a gradual change.) Diderot would have been interested also by Dawkins' thoughts on the scientific method and the need for evidence to prove points. As we all know, this especially was a novel idea at the time, one that was taken up gladly by many great thinkers.
The voting system or Supreme Court of the United States might draw him because of his own thoughts on the creation of laws. "There is no true sovereign but the nation; there can be no true legislator but the people." Though the United States was only just being created in his time, Diderot's ideas here reflect those of our founding principles. Addressing religion in politics, he says, "...disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs." Generally, the policies of the United States would have appealed to Diderot.

Baron De Montesquieu

Important events in the Baron de Montesquieu's life: 

1689- Born to a noble family

1715- Married Jeanne de Latrigue, a Calvanist

1716- Inherited his uncle's fortune

1721- Published Persian Letters, describing French and Persian civilization

1726- Sold his office in Parliament

1728- Took a seat in the Académie Française with the help and votes of Madame de Lambert's salon.

1728->1729- Traveled around Europe, taking notes in his notebook 

1734- Published Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Declention of the Romans 

1748- Published an essay on the English constitution

1750- The Spirit of Laws is published. It's comprised of 1086 pages discussing mainly political power, separation of powers, and climate.

1755- Died of a fever. Left behind an article on taste meant for Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopedia.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine lived an unpredictable lifestyle, moving from England, to America, back to England, to France, and back to America.  He also had a variety of professions, such as an apprentice corset-maker, a seaman, a schoolteacher, a shopkeeper and an inventor.

Paine was born in Norfolk, England in 1737.  He attended school for a short while, until his family could no longer afford it.  He was married twice, but had no children and was unhappy in marriage.  He tried a variety of different jobs that either failed financially or he became uninterested in.  The only one he continued was his job as an excise officer, and it was doing this that he met Benjamin Franklin, who helped him move to America in 1774.

In Philadelphia, he became a journalist, and published articles in the Philadelphia Magazine.  Perhaps it was his unhappy and unsteady life in England that caused his resentment towards Brittan, as he quickly started to oppose Brittan and became committed to fighting for America’s independence.  He had an enormous amount of faith in America as an independent nation, and believed that for no reason should America need to stay under British rule, since they were clearly the stronger nation.  However, almost immediately after America had won independence, Paine returned to Europe, trying to gain the funds to invent an iron bridge (after his attempt to create a smokeless candle had failed) He then wrote his book The Rights of Man, a radical statement arguing against the resistance to the French Revolution.  The book got him kicked out of Brittan, and so he moved to France.

Paine became a French citizen, stayed there for about ten years, managing various political affairs, and finally, returned to America in 1802.  He died in 1807 due to poor health, poverty and alcoholism. 

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and feminist. She lived form April 27 1759 – September 10 1797. During her life she wrote novels treatises, a travel narrative, and A History of the French Revolution. She is really known for A Vindication of The Rights Of Women. Which said that women were not inferior to men, but were only because they lacked education. She suggested that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and foresaw a social order founded on that reason. In another one of her novels Maria, or the Wrongs of Women Mary stated that women had strong sexual desires and that it was degrading and immoral to pretend otherwise.In 1792 she set out for Paris and saw Robespierre's Reign of Terror, and she collected materials for An Historical and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution: and the effect it has Produced in Europe. Which was criticized for the violence contained inside it.

She died giving birth to her second child Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin who would end up being the person who wrote Frankenstein.

Marquis de Condorcet

Marquis de Condorcet was a Frenchman who was born on Sept. 17, 1743, and died on March 29, 1794. He was a pro-Enlightenment philosopher, and did some work as a mathematician and scientist, becoming a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1769. In 1786 he married his wife, Sophie de Grouchy, who had a salon.
He published multiple essays on philosophy, and some on mathematics. He was an Enlightenment philosopher, which meant he supported using science as reason over religion. He was anti-religion, and was also against slavery, which was not a very common opinion for many of the time.
The Marquis de Condorcet philosophized that over time humanity gets closer and closer to perfection, having started no better than animals, and getting closer and closer to perfection in all manners, including things like ethics, and having equality for all.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was born in 1737 in Norfolk. His father was a Quaker. He went through a series of professions, from a seaman to a teacher, before landing on a excise officer in East Sussex. Paine had two wives and no children, and was never very happy in marriage. He served on the town council, and found more success in debating in taverns then as a store owner. He wrote a pamphlet called The Case of the Officers of Excise and spent time campaigning for excise officers rather then working in his own shop. This led him to the meeting of Benjamin Franklin, who helped him then move to America.

In America, Thomas started working as a journalist. He wrote for the newspaper in Philadelphia and soon after published Common Sense. This made him well known as a revolutionary propagandist and he thought of himself as a strong supporter of American independence. He severely enforced the declaration of independence and strongly criticized the British constitution. Though he was a very controversial person in the new America, this did not help his financial situation. He was so broke that he had to ask for help from the government and his friends.

After the Revolutionary war was one, Paine inevitably became bored and went back to Europe. Note that this was not before he attempted to make a candle that produced no smoke. In Europe, he spent his time in both Britain and France while trying to compile funds for a bridge made of iron, which was another idea he had in America. Since this was not very successful he became a revolutionary again. Paine was so against the views of Edmund Burke, a man who resisted the French Revolution, that he started to write Rights of Men, which expressed his views on the fact that all men should have equal rights. His writing was so outlandish that he was subsequently outlawed in Britain.

After a few years, Thomas became a French citizen and went into the government. For some very complicated reason, the more powerful part of society did not agree with his radicalism, and he was thrown into jail. He was only released when James Monroe secured his release. In prison, Thomas wrote his third piece entitled The Age of Reason, which completely smashed Christianity.

After he was no longer welcome in Paris, Thomas went back to America with a warm welcome from Thomas Jefferson. In his last few years, he became very sick, very poor, and very drunk.

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Joseph Marie de Maistre is a strong opposer of the European Enlightenment. He was born in 1753 and died in 1821. Maistre's family was one of the leading families of Chambéry, Savory in Sardinia. Maistre was a writer about anti-enlightenment. He published 13 volumes of various writing that explained what is wrong with the enlightenment.

Considerations on France was Joseph-Marie de Maistre's first main work. Considerations on France says that a constitution does not explain people's rights. It says that Rights are from people's political tradition. If people do not have this tradition, no constitution would change their actions. His work also says that the Church is the most motivating and effective way to civilize people.

Overall, Maistre's ideas were that a country's constitution should not be written, but instead be instilled upon citizens over time. Based on people's previous actions and surroundings, they will decide what they are allowed to and what is logical for the situation. His Catholic Church bias often influenced his ideas on religion and how countries should be run.

Baron De Montesquieu

Charles-Luise de Secondat, Baron de La Bréde et de montesquieu(WOW) was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the era of enlightenment. Montesquieu is credited for being among the first to extend political forms in society. He was thought of to be the first to survey the varieties of human society and also to study the way it functions. From those ideas he started to form theories on government. He divided the French society into three classes: the Monarchy, the aristocracy, and the commons. He also saw two types of government, the sovereign and the administrative. The administrative were in s=charge of the legislative and judicial part of the government where the sovereingty part of government focused upon independent authority over certain territories. Baron De Montesquieu revolutionized people's ideas of how to rule their land. In my opinion, I believe that without Montesquieu our country wouldn't be as efficient in the way we run it.

Marquis de Condorcet

Marquis de Condorcet was a French philosophe whose ideas and writings were said to embody the ideals of the enlightenment time period. Condorcet was appointed Inspector General of the Mint by his friend Turgot. He later shifted his focus to humanitarianism. He voted against things like the death penalty and he opposed slavery. In 1777, Condorcet was appointed the secretary of the Academy of Sciences. One of his most important works was on probability in math and the philosophy of math. He also worked on the differential and integral calculus.

During the French Revolution, Marquis de Condorcet, supported liberal causes like individual freedon. He later was selected as Secretary of the Assembly. Then, because he opposed some of his own views that were misrepresented by other Philosophes, like Marie Jean Herault de Seychelles, he was called a traitor, and was warranted for arrest. He then went into hiding, but he was arrested a few months later and died soon after in 1794.

Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot is best remembered as the general editor and main contributor of the Encyclopédie, and as a prominent figure of the Enlightenment.

Diderot was born at Langres on October 5^th 1713. He was a brilliant student and enrolled in the Jesuit, as he was decided by others that he should serve the church. However, he was uninterested in religion and gave attention to numerous other studies, including languages, theatre, literature, philosophy, and mathematics. Diderot ended earning a master of arts degree in philosophy during university, and abandoned religion as a career. He refused to enter the clergy, and also declined his father’s wishes for him to study law or medicine. Instead, he became a bookseller and spent his years as a bookseller, tutor, and a translator.

In 1745, André François le Breton hired Diderot for the translation of an English Encyclopedia, Ephraim Chambers's two-volume Cyclopaedia. He and Jean Le Rond D'Alembert, a distinguished mathematician, expanded the translation into a literary and philosophical work for radical and revolutionary opinions, called the Encyclopédie. The Encyclopédie was published in 28 volumes from 1751 to 1772, and contained strong atheistic articles that brought enraged reactions from some readers and the church. Besides the Encyclopédie, he also wrote novels, short stories and plays which radical views and criticism on society delayed their publishing.

Voltaire

Voltaire is actually a pen name for Francois-Marie Arouet. Born in the late 16th century, he was a famous philosopher, writer and essayist. Voltaire went to school in Paris but claimed to learn nothing but "Latin and the Stupidities." His typically critical and cynical views on society soon got him into trouble when he was sent to jail for 11 months for writing a satire of the French government. While there, he adopted the name Voltaire and wrote the play Oedipe, which would become his first theatrical success.

His quick wit and sharp tongue made him popular with French aristocrats, but Voltaire soon got in trouble with the French government again for insulting royalty. He was exiled from France and lived in England for three years, where he was entranced by the scientific discoveries made by John Locke and Isaac Newton. He wrote a book praising the English way of life and then returned to France, where his book was considered an insult. This got him exiled again.

Voltaire later lived with his friend Marquise du Chatelet in Eastern France, where they studied science together for many years. They were both heavily influenced by Newton's discoveries, and many of their experiments focused on his theories of light and gravity. After Voltaire moved back to Paris, he continued to write heated essays and papers about his beliefs. He stayed a firm believer of religious tolerance until his death at the age of 83. A critic of religion until the end, he was banned by the Church from a proper Christian burial and was snuck into the cemetery secretly by some of his comrades.

Voltaire

Voltaire was a French philosopher, poet, dramatist, and historian who forcefully protested against injustice.

Even from childhood, Voltaire was an extremely talented but controversial poet, and he continued to write and develop these ideas as he grew older. His first play, Oedipe, opened in Paris with extreme success, and he became regarded as a leader in French literature.

Some lines that were particularly offensive to high-ranking officials were responsible for Voltaire's exile and later imprisonment in 1717. Again, in 1726, he engaged in a dispute with a very influential aristocrat, which later got him exiled from France once more. Voltaire's revolutionary ideas and his unwillingness to censor them gave him a bad name throughout France, but the opposition he faced only strengthened his opinions of injustice.

He went to England after being banished from France, where his ideas were praised, he earned money, and learned to read and write in English. Here, he also absorbed English thought.

When Voltaire returned to France in 1729, he wrote 24 letters to a friend which were published. These concerned the problem of unfairness in all aspects of life. He called for methods of living like those of Locke, Francis Bacon, and Newton; he wrote of using intellect to further social progress. "It has taken centuries to do justice to humanity," he wrote, "to feel it was horrible that the many should sow and few should reap." He later published many anti-religious pieces in the 1750s to 1760s. Voltaire was a major thinker of the Enlightenment, and his works were responsible for influencing many. (Other Source)

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was an author and a "classic political thinker" from England. His works ranged from historical writings to politics to philosophical pieces. Although he was not necessarily considered a prime "philosophe," his beliefs, ideas, and thoughts originated from philosophy.

Raised in Dublin, Edmond Burke was the son of a successful attorney and attended Trinity College (Dublin). Burke officially pursued a career in narrative works, although his work was greatly influenced by philosophy. He released early works such as A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), and A Vindication of Natural Society (1756). Burke wrote many others, yet he did have much of a social or political presence in a sense that he did not create a new way of thinking or had many followers. Overall, he mainly reinforced the ideas and concepts of conservatism, mainly avoiding introducing anything new or revolutionary. However, he wrote a political piece called Vindication of Natural Society, which introduced a society without civil government, church, and individual property. Although his genre technically falls under politics, this work is a prime example of his philosophical origins as a writer. Burke had always generally supported the Roman Catholic Church from an argumentative standpoint, but he had never been too fond of the Pope.

Burke maintains a fairly significant presence in modern history today, but he did not have the same presence in his time as a writer. His oratory was marginal and his arguments were not exactly delivered powerfully. However, his works are still an important today in the world of philosophy and political/historical writing.

The Life and Times of . . . Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot was born on October 5, 1713 in Langres, France, son of a renowned cutler. As a child he was meant for the Church, but did not end up there ultimately though he was educated by the Jesuits of Langres. As a young man he studied at several schools within Paris, and on September 2, 1732 earned a degree from the University of Paris pronouncing him a master of the arts. His following career was varied and at times dubious - not much is known about this period of his life, though it is to be assumed that he evolved religiously as he entered this time as a Roman Catholic and emerged atheist. If anything, he was a frequenter of Paris's coffeehouses, the site of his meeting with Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1741. Though he may have already undergone his change in ideas, Rousseau encouraged him on the path of philosophe.
In 1743 he married Antoinette Champion, to whom he was unhappily married for the rest of his life. Three children were born of this marriage, but only one survived, Angélique, who was named after his mother and sister. Due to the lack of common interests between Diderot and his wife, he later formed attachments with Madeleine de Puisieux and Sophie Volland respectively. 1745 saw the publication of his translation of Inquiry Concerning Virtue a pamphlet by the popular Earl of Shaftesbury. This helped to spread knowledge of his name and earn some money. A year later saw he put out his own Pensées philosophiques (which translates to Philosophic Thoughts), using the door opened by the translation.
Perhaps due to his success with the Earl's pamphlet, Diderot was asked in 1745 to take on a translation of a book called Cyclopaedia. He agreed, but soon altered the focus of the work, expanding it with the help of myriad philosophes of his time. Many of these, unknown before, went on to make their names using the success of the Encyclopedie. The first volume of this series was sent out in 1751, the last in 1772. Throughout this time, the work itself was greatly censored - certain volumes had to be sold through shady means (as far as book selling goes) and people private to the writing itself turned betrayer to remove polemical content. In 1750 Diderot himself was incarcerated for three months due to his article, Lettre sur les aveugles (An Essay on Blindness). It was largely important because it questioned the deistic idea that an organized universe with universal laws is proof of a god. Even though this prevented continued work on the Encyclopedie for a time, this did not by any means permanently hurt the work. Diderot also did not give up personal writings and persisted in expressing his thoughts, if much more carefully, with Lettre sur les sourds et muets (“Letter on the Deaf and Dumb”). He also wrote several fictional pieces (plays and prose), though they are less well known than his work as a philosopher and scientific thinker. This is not to say however, that Diderot did not fear retribution from the government in relation to any of his works - a prolific writer before, his name was much more scarce following his confinement.
After the final volume of the Encyclopedie was finished, Diderot's life as a writer spluttered and fell. Though he continued on small projects he no longer had any great works to contribute. In kindness, Catherine the Great of Russia purchased his library and gave him a (somewhat honorary) position as librarian with an annual salary that was much needed. He went in person to thank her for this charity in 1773. Diderot died on July 31, 1784 in Paris of coronary thrombosis. A favorite saying of his, one that he went into death with, was that, "the first step towards philosophy is disbelief."

Sources: Britannica, World Book, Gale