The 18^th Century Enlightenment: A Reassessment of Civilization, a Shift in Conceptions of Human Nature and Nature

	Human Nature	Nature	Amerindian
17^th century Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees. 1660	Human nature was a cluster of fixed, rather negative ingredients: Mankind was restless, self-deceiving, wretched	Francis Bacon: a mixture of mystery and threatening force; natural philosophers like Bacon sought to control and dominate.	part of nature, therefore brutish and uncivilized.
John Locke (1632-1704), Essay Concerning Human Understanding , 1690; Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693	Human nature not fixed but malleable and plastic; shaped by environment. Mankind good or evil because of “education” broadly defined.
18^th century Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, 1749; Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality, 1755	Human nature endowed with an innate sense of compassion prior to reason; hence mankind naturally good. Social life and society corrupts this nature.	Nature seen as a living system of which humans are a part and not apart; Nature deemed “good” as opposed to artifice and superficial appearances. To be in harmony with Nature is considered a moral good.	part of nature, therefore uncorrupted, natural, and noble.

Newton

Montesquieu

Mary Astell

Francoise Graffigny

Voltaire

Lessing

Adam Smith

Becarria

James Cook

Bougainville

Diderot

Herder

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792