From The Roots of Romanticism (1967 lectures) by Isaiah Berlin

Chapter 2 The First Attack on the Enlightenment

Three principles upon which the whole tradition of Western thought rests:

1. All genuine questions can be answered.

2. All answers are knowable.

3. All answers are compatible with one another.

1. All genuine questions can be answered.

- If the question has no answer, it is not a genuine question.

- We might not know the answer, but it does exist.

- among an intellectual elite

- in the next world, if not this one

- in some Golden Age before the Fall and the Flood

- in the future where we will arrive at the truth

- if not to men, then to God

2. All answers are knowable.

- answers can be discovered by methods which can be taught (eventually) to others

3. All answers are compatible with one another.

- otherwise chaos results.

The Enlightenment Variation upon the Western Tradition of Belief:

If all answers to all questions can be put in the form of reasonable propositions and if all true propositions are discoverable, then there must be a description of an ideal universe- a Utopia.

The Enlightenment philosophes suggested that these answers were not to be obtained in traditional ways (through revelation, dogma or privilege). These answers can only be obtained through the scientific method (deductive in Mathematics and inductive in the natural sciences). There is no reason why these methods, which achieved astonishing breakthroughs in the worlds of physics and chemistry, could not be applied to politics, ethics, and aesthetics. What Newton had achieved in physics, we can achieve in society if we only dispel irrational habits and address our problems with reason.

The problem we face is putting the pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle together, and in the end when all the pieces are fitted, we will have achieved a Utopia. It can be done if we dispel the irrational forces of superstition, ignorance and tyranny.

The Problem of Constructing an Ideal Society:

How should we live?

What form of government should we choose?

Should we obey elites of specialists or should every man have the right to his own particular opinion?

Should the majority rule?

Is a republic preferable to a monarchy?

Is it right for us to seek pleasure, or should we deny ourselves and focus on our duty?

Should one be an ascetic or a voluptuary?

Is the good objective (something eternal and true for all men in all situations), or is it subjective (something which a particular person in a particular situation happened to like)?

Furthermore, certain universal ideals may be incompatible with each other:

Virtue consists in knowledge (and truth cannot make us miserable.)

All virtues are compatible with one another (freedom is compatible with equality; justice is compatible with mercy).

Cross-currents in Enlightenment Thought

All the philosophes basically agreed on the notion that the principles upon which a virtuous society would be based could be obtained by scientific methods. However, they had contrasting opinions on many fundamental issues:

Human nature:

Voltaire believed that man is hopelessly jealous, envious, wicked, corrupt and weak. Therefore, society needs a government that should exert the most strenuous possible discipline on individuals; otherwise, we will probably be unable to cope with life at all.

Locke believed that human character is a malleable substance, a clay which competent educators and legislator can mold into a perfectly proper, rational state.

Rousseau believed that man is basically good (neither wicked, nor neutral) and has been ruined by institutions of his own making.

The philosopes also had contrasting opinions on the nature of the soul.

They differed in their belief about whether a ruling elite is necessary. (The mob will never learn; we are born with an inequality of gifts; unless this natural; elite rules, we are bound for catastrophe.) Others believed that in matters of ethics and politics, each man is his own expert. (We are all capable of determining right from wrong, and we have run into trouble only when we have been misled by corrupt aristoicrats, clergy, and kings.)

Voltaire believed that what men really want is happiness, contentment and peace. This can be achieved by living simply in a garden, pared and pruned, and deferring decisions to a wise philosophe who can teach us to be knowledgeable about the essential schools of knowledge: physics, chemistry, and mathematics.