HEMOW Lecture 01
Why history?
• History as ‚continuation of politics with other means‘.
History as mean to understand modernity. How our world has become modern.
Dimensions of analysis:
• Social structures: groups society consists of, their behavioral patterns,
interrelations
• Economic structures: how economy organized? How ppl generate mean for
survival?
• Political structures: who has pol. Power? Who not? How pol. Organized
domestically & internationally?
• Cultural repertoires: expressions, norms, conventions, arts, characteristics of
societies in historical periods.
I Europe at time of Enlightenment:
• Europe estate-based societies, based on landownership & traditional relations (pre-
modern patterns).
• Dynamic: Industry, trade & banking; religion, emerging science, rising literacy &
printing press.
Life of stability, but from the corner change.
II Enlightenment as historical concept:
Prelude: Scientific revolution:
• Invention of telescope (1609)
• Rationalism (Descartes) (Systematic doubt about perception & ideas,
deduction & logic/mathematic).
• Empiricism (Bacon)
• Emergence of fundamental & applied science.
• Organization of science with help of the state.
,Key assumptions shared by Enlightenment thinkers and society:
• World is knowable & guided by natural (¬ supernatural forces)
• Scientific method will be able to answer all questions about nature & society.
• Nature & society controllable & manipulable through application of universal
knowledge.
• Humanity & society can be improved (belief in progress).
III Enlightenment as intellectual & social phenomenon:
• Rational religion: deism (God as watchmaker/almighty intelligence; rejection of
miracles).
• Dismissive of organized religion (tolerance, room for individual experience). Catholic
church seen as unenlightened, keeping people stupid, being intolerant for other
beliefs/ideas.
• Republic of letters because intercultural, international intercourse between
intellectuals as equals.
IV Enlightenment Political Ideas – Natural Law:
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679):
Issue: Legitimacy of state power; to establish sovereignty of state (Hobbes lived in times of
war, needed strong state which people want to obey)
By idea of a social contract:
o Imagine state of nature, how human is without societal influence
o Fundamental equality
o Competition –> War of all against all (all want to improve individual position)
Solution –> Social contract, that is the authority of the state. To bring us together
peacefully under sovereignty of state, that we must obey. State maintains order,
should be able to force us to obey. This is state’s legitimacy.
John Locke (1632-1704):
• Adjustment to Hobbes’ state of nature: individual freedom rights & natural law.
People are creatures of reason, have moral intuition (we still need limited
government to keep those in place who flee the rule) –> Locke enlightened optimist
while Hobbes enlightened pessimist.
• Only limited government justified (the implicit consent of governed; parliament &
representation). Government can only act upon ones property with the proprietors
consent.
, • Property as absolute value (Labor as justification for property [I work on/for it, so I
can take possession of it] –> justification for colonialism).
Montesquieu (1689-1755):
• Issue not government’s legitimacy, but protection of liberty in society.
• Trias Politica: Separation of power (executive, legislature, judiciary), none can
impose absolute power.
Rousseau (1712-1778):
• Issue is political freedom. How can we be free?
• Critique of French hierarchical society & civilization (having to behave a certain way,
living in the eyes of others, society corrupts, not natural) –> how to create society in
which people really can be free?
• Criticizes economic inequality.
• Social contract: giving up own freedom while remaining free as society. If you’re able
to fully identify with society, you can still be free when this society is free. As long as
people identify & agree with general will they will feel free. Even if they don’t agree
with individual matters, they identify with movement of whole society.
Condorcet (1743-1794):
• Women’s rights: natural equality, dicerences between men & women based on
social context.
• Abolishing slavery: natural rights for all, principles & utilitarian objections.
V Enlightened Despotism:
• Reform program by hereditary rulers:
o Curtailing medieval forces & customs.
o Centralization of government, taxes, infrastructure, laws.
o Secular legitimization of their rule (progress, rationality, utility).
• Driven by Philosophes but also military necessity.
• Limitations to ability to reform hierarchical society.
Catalyzed societal unrest (could not deliver), church & nobility resurged, became stronger
in the end.
,
Why history?
• History as ‚continuation of politics with other means‘.
History as mean to understand modernity. How our world has become modern.
Dimensions of analysis:
• Social structures: groups society consists of, their behavioral patterns,
interrelations
• Economic structures: how economy organized? How ppl generate mean for
survival?
• Political structures: who has pol. Power? Who not? How pol. Organized
domestically & internationally?
• Cultural repertoires: expressions, norms, conventions, arts, characteristics of
societies in historical periods.
I Europe at time of Enlightenment:
• Europe estate-based societies, based on landownership & traditional relations (pre-
modern patterns).
• Dynamic: Industry, trade & banking; religion, emerging science, rising literacy &
printing press.
Life of stability, but from the corner change.
II Enlightenment as historical concept:
Prelude: Scientific revolution:
• Invention of telescope (1609)
• Rationalism (Descartes) (Systematic doubt about perception & ideas,
deduction & logic/mathematic).
• Empiricism (Bacon)
• Emergence of fundamental & applied science.
• Organization of science with help of the state.
,Key assumptions shared by Enlightenment thinkers and society:
• World is knowable & guided by natural (¬ supernatural forces)
• Scientific method will be able to answer all questions about nature & society.
• Nature & society controllable & manipulable through application of universal
knowledge.
• Humanity & society can be improved (belief in progress).
III Enlightenment as intellectual & social phenomenon:
• Rational religion: deism (God as watchmaker/almighty intelligence; rejection of
miracles).
• Dismissive of organized religion (tolerance, room for individual experience). Catholic
church seen as unenlightened, keeping people stupid, being intolerant for other
beliefs/ideas.
• Republic of letters because intercultural, international intercourse between
intellectuals as equals.
IV Enlightenment Political Ideas – Natural Law:
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679):
Issue: Legitimacy of state power; to establish sovereignty of state (Hobbes lived in times of
war, needed strong state which people want to obey)
By idea of a social contract:
o Imagine state of nature, how human is without societal influence
o Fundamental equality
o Competition –> War of all against all (all want to improve individual position)
Solution –> Social contract, that is the authority of the state. To bring us together
peacefully under sovereignty of state, that we must obey. State maintains order,
should be able to force us to obey. This is state’s legitimacy.
John Locke (1632-1704):
• Adjustment to Hobbes’ state of nature: individual freedom rights & natural law.
People are creatures of reason, have moral intuition (we still need limited
government to keep those in place who flee the rule) –> Locke enlightened optimist
while Hobbes enlightened pessimist.
• Only limited government justified (the implicit consent of governed; parliament &
representation). Government can only act upon ones property with the proprietors
consent.
, • Property as absolute value (Labor as justification for property [I work on/for it, so I
can take possession of it] –> justification for colonialism).
Montesquieu (1689-1755):
• Issue not government’s legitimacy, but protection of liberty in society.
• Trias Politica: Separation of power (executive, legislature, judiciary), none can
impose absolute power.
Rousseau (1712-1778):
• Issue is political freedom. How can we be free?
• Critique of French hierarchical society & civilization (having to behave a certain way,
living in the eyes of others, society corrupts, not natural) –> how to create society in
which people really can be free?
• Criticizes economic inequality.
• Social contract: giving up own freedom while remaining free as society. If you’re able
to fully identify with society, you can still be free when this society is free. As long as
people identify & agree with general will they will feel free. Even if they don’t agree
with individual matters, they identify with movement of whole society.
Condorcet (1743-1794):
• Women’s rights: natural equality, dicerences between men & women based on
social context.
• Abolishing slavery: natural rights for all, principles & utilitarian objections.
V Enlightened Despotism:
• Reform program by hereditary rulers:
o Curtailing medieval forces & customs.
o Centralization of government, taxes, infrastructure, laws.
o Secular legitimization of their rule (progress, rationality, utility).
• Driven by Philosophes but also military necessity.
• Limitations to ability to reform hierarchical society.
Catalyzed societal unrest (could not deliver), church & nobility resurged, became stronger
in the end.
,
