HIST 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Mary Wollstonecraft, Enlightened Absolutism, Denis Diderot
Document Summary
Communicating ideas of societal change to the masses. Humans shining a light into the darkness of human superstition. Almost exclusively affected men of middle class (?) Look within oneself instead of to heaven. Scientific rev. empowered ppl to not need to believe in a particular religion. God created the world and then stepped away to let it work itself out. Reason and observation alone were evidence enough that god existed. Clockmaker god - he created the clock (universe) and set things in motion, he didn"t need to tinker with it then on. He gave humans the ability to figure out science etc. It was up to humans to figure out the laws of society. Sought to remove power from organized religions to grant more power to individuals. Believed enlightened absolutism could know what the people wanted more than the people themselves did. Promised equality for all humans regardless of their background. Human progress is an inevitability of knowledge.
