After studying this chapter, students should understand and be able to discuss the following:
The goals and the ideals of the Enlightenment as well as the leading philosophes and their contributions to this cultural movement
The influences on the Enlightenment, especially Greco-Roman classicism, the Scientific Revolution, and the Renaissance
The meaning and significance of Deism and its relationship to the Scientific Revolution
The role played by the Encyclopédie in the Enlightenment
The reasons that both the Physiocrats and Adam Smith encouraged laissez-faire economics instead of mercantilism
The condition of Europe in 1700 and the historical changes that occurred between 1700 and 1789, particularly in England, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia (the great powers) and to a lesser extent in the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal (the almost-great powers)
How the rococo style reflected its origins in France and Austria, where aloof aristocracies dominated society, and how, in England, Hogarth satirized this style in paintings that appealed to middle-class patrons
How the neoclassical style was, in part, a rebellion against the frivolity of the rococo style and, in part, a reflection of devotion to Greco-Roman values, especially love of country and virtuous behavior
How seventeenth-century England and France, two of the age's leading political powers, represented two contrasting approaches to monarchy, and the impact this difference had on artistic and literary developments
The characteristics of the rococo, along with leading exponents of this style and their contributions
The characteristics of neoclassicism, along with leading exponents of this style and their contributions
The new ideas that originated in the political philosophy of Montesquieu and Rousseau, and their later influence
The characteristics and leading composers of rococo music
The defining role played by Haydn and Mozart in originating classical-style music, and their major contributions to this style
The historic "firsts" of the Age of Reason that became part of the Western tradition: the emergence of the middle class as a potent force for change; the literary form of the novel; in music, the sonata form and the symphony; a democratizing tendency in culture; a progressive view of history; the principle of government by consent of the governed; and the beliefs that the least amount of state interference in the lives of citizens is best and that all people are created equal
The role of the Age of Reason in transmitting the heritage of the past: making the idea of absolutist government an indefensible concept, renewing democratic ideals, reviving and adapting classical principles and forms to new conditions in the neoclassical arts and architecture and classical music, making the civilization of Rome and its fate a comparative model for Western states, continuing the new science and applying its methodology and principles to the Enlightenment, and modifying the baroque into the rococo style
