Thesis: Confident in the power of knowledge, enlightenment thinkers used every means at their disposal to shed light on the problems of humanity.  They believed that reason could erase superstition, religious fanaticism, ignorance, and political tyranny.
 

I. The Birth of the Enlightenment (Review Hunt, pp. 603-609) A. Popularization of Science B. Challenges to Religion C. Travel Literature and the Challenge to Custom and Tradition D. The Expansion of Learning and Literacy Reading and the growing Middle Class Increased number of Schools Pleasure Reading –the Printing Press E. Raising the Women's Question (Notes on Early Modern Marriage) Mary Astell, Reflections on Marriage (1706)

Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

II. The "The Republic of Letters" A. The Men and Women of the Letters (Hunt, pp. 613-15) "Philosophes" - new secular intellectual (excerpts) Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia (1751-1781) Voltaire’s Philosophical Letters (1764) "Natural rights" guaranteed by "Natural Law" Salons - Madame Geoffrin's Salon in 1715 (p. 614)

III. Conflicts with Church and State (Hunt, pp. 615-17) Voltaire – attack on the Church and Religion Against intolerance - "l'infame" (the detestable thing) Deism and Atheism  IV. Individual and Society (Hunt, pp. 617-20) Adam Smith and Enlightened Self-interest Wealth of Nations (1776) (excerpt) Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Individual and the "General Will" The Social Contract (1762)	"The Kiss" a scene from Rousseau's The New Heloise (1761)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	V. Spreading the Enlightenment (Hunt. pp. 620-21) Spread in countries with a large middle class Scientific societies, ex. French Royal Academy 1666; English Royal Society 1662 Informal clubs & coffeehouses Museums, ex. British Museum in London & Louvre in Paris VI. Limits of Reason: Romanticism and Religious Revival (Hunt, pp. 622-24) Goethe and the Romantic Spirit Hasidism Methodism