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The Limits of Reason. Satire. “Literature that ridicules vices and follies” ( Harper Handbook to Literature 413). Voltaire, Candide (1759). Satirical response to ideas expressed by Leibniz (German mathematician/philosopher): this is “the best of all possible worlds”
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Satire • “Literature that ridicules vices and follies” (Harper Handbook to Literature 413)
Voltaire, Candide (1759) • Satirical response to ideas expressed by • Leibniz (German mathematician/philosopher): this is “the best of all possible worlds” • Pope (English poet): “Whatever is, is right”
Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (1729) • Irony (contradiction between what is stated and what is intended): “Modest” • Parody: the essay parodies the rational, reformist vision of Enlightenment thinkers
William Hogarth (1697-1764) • Visual Satires • Gin Lane • Beer Street • “Marriage a la Mode” series
Philosophical Challenges to Reason • Rousseau (1712-1778) • Kant (1724-1804)
Rousseau, Origin of Inequality among Men (1755) • Society is the source of conflict among people • In the “state of nature”: no property, no strong interpersonal ties: equality • Society gives rise to esteem, and from esteem comes “vanity and scorn,” “shame and envy”: inequality
Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762) • “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” • The state is “the general will” of the citizens: unlike Hobbes and Locke, for whom the social contract gives power to a ruler • The general will is always right • Anyone disagree? That person should “be forced to be free”
Rousseau, Emile (1762) • Education begins at birth and lasts for 25 years • Reason and intellect develop from ages 12-15 • Nature and “hands-on” experience essential for the development of reason—send boys outdoors, don’t restrain them • Girls should get domestic education
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781) • Rejected Locke’s idea of the tabula rasa • Kant said, “though our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that [all knowledge] arises out of experience” • Forms of intuition and categories of thought exist from birth and shape/organize our understanding of sense experience • That is, there are limitations to human intellect
Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788) • “Categorical imperative”: before doing something, we should be able to accept our decision as a standard for all humankind to follow • It is not enough for our actions to have good results, but we must will to do good. • Kant emphasizes truth/morality as something we struggle to find rather than (in mainstream Enlightenment view) as self-evident
Rococo, 1715-50 • From rocaille, rock or shell ornamentation • Luxurious and ornate like Baroque style, but more playful and intimate (not spatially expansive and complex like the Baroque style) • Characterized by curves rather than geometrical regularity