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Origins of the French Enlightenment
Although the first major figures of the Enlightenment came from England, the movement truly exploded in France, which became a hotbed of political and intellectual thought in the 1700s. The roots of the French Enlightenment lay largely in resentment and discontent over the decadence of the French monarchy in the late 1600s. During the reign of the wildly extravagant “Sun King” Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), wealthy intellectual elites began to gather regularly in Parisian salons and complain about the state of their country. The salons only grew in popularity when Louis XIV died and the far less competent Louis XV took over.
Gradually, complaints in the salons and coffee shops changed from idle whining into constructive political thought. Especially after the works of John Locke became widespread, participants at the salons began to discuss substantive political and social philosophies of the day. Before long, cutting-edge thought in a variety of disciplines worked its way into the salons, and the French Enlightenment was born.
The Philosophes
By the early 1700s, coffee shop gatherings, salons, and other social groups were popping up all over Paris, encouraging intellectual discussion regarding the political and philosophical status of the country. Moreover, members of these groups increasingly clamored to read the latest work of leading philosophers. These nontraditional thinkers came to be known as the philosophes, a group that championed personal liberties, studied the work of Locke and Newton, denounced Christianity, and actively opposed the abusive governments found throughout Europe at the time. As varied as they were, the leading French philosophes generally came from similar schools of thought. They were predominantly writers, journalists, and teachers who were confident that human society could be improved through rational thought.
Philosophes and the Church
A large part of the philosophes’ attacks was focused on the Church and its traditions. In matters of faith, many of the prominent philosophes were deists—they believed in an all-powerful being but likened him to a “cosmic watchmaker” who simply set the universe in autonomous motion and never again tampered with it. Moreover, they disdained organized religion and the Church’s traditional idea of the “chain of being,” which implied a natural hierarchy of existence—God first, then angels, monarchs, aristocrats, and so on.
The philosophes also raised objections against the decadent lifestyles of leading Church representatives, as well as the Church’s persistence in collecting exorbitant taxes and tithes from the commoners to fund outlandish salaries for Church officials. What the philosophes found most appalling, however, was the control that the Church held over impressionable commoners by instilling in them a fear of eternal damnation. As a result, they provoked the Church by challenging doctrines, such as the existence of miracles and divine revelation, often disproving specific tenets with simple science. The Church, in turn, hated the philosophes and all they stood for.
Literacy
Complementing and enabling the socially and politically active atmosphere was the dramatically improving literacy rate in France. Beyond just talking about revolutionary ideas, more and more French people, especially in Paris and its surrounding areas, were reading and writing about them as well. As readers anxiously awaited more literature from the philosophes, the positive response that the writers received compelled them to write more. The scholarly atmosphere at the time also provided women of French society—albeit still within traditional roles as salon hostesses—with an opportunity to contribute to the conversation.
Montesquieu
One of the leading political thinkers of the French Enlightenment, the Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755), drew great influence from the works of Locke. Montesquieu’s most critical work, The Spirit of Laws (1748), elaborated on many of the ideas that Locke had introduced. He stressed the importance of a separation of powers and was one of the first proponents of the idea of a system of checks and balances in government. Although Montesquieu’s work had a great effect on the development of democracy, Montesquieu himself believed that no one governmental system was better than the others, but rather that different forms were better than others in certain situations.
Voltaire
The primary satirist of the Enlightenment, François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire (1694–1778), entered the literary world as a playwright. In and out of prison and other various predicaments for most of his young life, Voltaire spent a period of exile in England during which he was introduced to the works of Locke and Newton. The two thinkers had a profound impact on the young Voltaire, who became wildly prolific in the years that followed, authoring more than 60 plays and novels, including the satire Candide (1759), which has since earned distinction as one of the most influential literary works of all time.
Voltaire was an avowed deist, believing in God but hating organized religion. As a result, he made Christianity—which he called “glorified superstition”—a frequent target of his wit. He was also an ardent supporter of monarchy and spent a considerable amount of time working toward judicial reform. He also extolled the virtue of reason over superstition and intolerance, effectively becoming the voice of the Enlightenment. Although many noted that Voltaire never offered any solutions to the problems he criticized, he never aspired to do so, still causing considerable change by merely pointing out issues and criticizing different philosophies.
Diderot
The third major figure of the French Enlightenment was Denis Diderot (1713–1784), a writer and philosopher best known for editing and assembling the massive Encyclopédie, an attempt to collect virtually all of human knowledge gathered in various fields up to that point. Beyond simple facts, definitions, and explanations, the Encyclopédie also included space for philosophes, including Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, to discuss their thoughts on various topics. Due to the highly scientific—and thus non-traditional—nature of the Encyclopédie, it was met with a significant amount of scorn. Diderot was widely accused of plagiarism and inaccuracy, and many considered the collection to be an overt attack on the monarchy and the Church.
The Encyclopédie was one of the primary vehicles by which the ideas of the Enlightenment spread across the European continent, as it was the first work to collect all of Europe’s knowledge in one place and let readers draw their own conclusions. Not surprisingly, the power establishment in Europe, especially the Church and monarchy, hated the Encyclopédie, as it implied that many of their teachings and doctrines were fraudulent. In response to attempted bans, Diderot printed additional copies and distributed them in secret.
Events
1715
Louis XIV dies; Louis XV takes French throne
1748
Montesquieu publishes The Spirit of Laws
1751
Diderot publishes first volume of Encyclopédie
1759
Voltaire publishes Candide
Key People
Louis XIV
“Sun King” whose late-1600s extravagance prompted disgruntled French elites to congregate in salons and exchange ideas
Louis XV
Successor to Louis XIV; ineffective ruler who allowed France to slide into bankruptcy; his ineptness greatly undermined authority of French monarchy
Baron de Montesquieu
Philosopher whose The Spirit of Laws (1748) built on Locke’s ideas about government
Voltaire
Primary satirist of the French Enlightenment; best known for Candide (1759)
Denis Diderot
Primary editor of the mammoth Encyclopédie, which attempted to aggregate all human knowledge into one work
