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The Enlightenment: International writers
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What was the name ot Jonathan Swift's hero that, among other places, visited the land of the Lilliputians?
In The Enlightenment, the world was seen as a machine. People saw there was something wrong with this machine... ... and that it was time to fix it. The Church and the monarchs had power and lived in luxury; while the people lacked both power and money. During The Enlightenment, people thought that Science was the solution that would end these injustices.
Some ideas became important: That knowledge is gained by scientific experiment That society can be changed That humans are very smart creatures! These ideas were connected. People now believed that humans could find a solution for a better society using reason, as in other scientific experiments. At this time people were exploring the world... even in literature.
In Jonathan Swift's book, "Gulliver's Travels", Gulliver was on his way to Asia but due to several mishaps he is castaway on a series of four islands. On the first Island he meets the Lilliputians: throngs of tiny people who wage war over silly things. On the second island "Brobdingnag", it's Gulliver's turn to feel small: because this is an island of giants. The third island "Laputa", is a flying island. Scientists - smart enough to invent just about anything - live here.
But they don't use their intelligence for anything useful. On the fourth island live the "Houyhnhnms". They look like horses, but are wise and noble. There is also a race of dirty, cruel, smelly creatures: the "Yahoos" - and they look like humans. Gulliver is ashamed of looking like the Yahoos.
When he finally returns home he can't bear the sight of his family since they remind him of the disgusting Yahoos. Gulliver's Travels is actually a critique of the Church, society, and the British colonisation of other countries. Writers in the Enlightenment era often disguised their critique this way, to avoid punishment from those in power. Gulliver wasn't the only one to find himself washed ashore on an island. In Daniel Defoe's book: Robinson Crusoe, Robinson is castaway on an deserted island.
To survive he uses his reason. He studies nature and makes experiments... and this way solves all his problems. ... But who's this? Oh, it's Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher.
In his book Emile - about a child's education - Rousseau states that it's more sensible to learn from nature than from books. He believed that Robinson Crusoe was the only book a child needed to read. Put Robinson down now, Rousseau... Oh, we're in the next book: Candide ... or The Optimist, by Voltaire.
This is Candide and his philosophy teacher, the "optimist" Doctor Pangloss. They encounter lots of misery, but Doctor Pangloss always believes that: We live in the best of worlds. Eldorado is one of the places Candide and Pangloss visit: a town with streets of gold. Here there is religion but no priests to order the people around and everything works really well! Voltaire's critique of religion is obvious in his books.
He, like many Enlightenment thinkers, believed in a God that had created the world, but pulled back and didn't interfere in human lives. This is called Deism. In the end, Candide realises that Doctor Pangloss is wrong: they don't live in the best of worlds. He concludes that you need to make your life better using what you've got. He expresses this in this way: We must cultivate our garden!
Voltaire did sometimes criticise the monarchy, but he believed that people were too stupid for democracy to work, and the best thing was an enlightened king as a ruler. But here, Voltaire's opinion differed from the people's: ... The ideas of The Enlightenment eventually led to the French Revolution.