CRIMES OF REASON

Published: The economist; economist.com

Level of difficulty: ****

“The ideas that shaped western thought on science, morality and politics sprang from the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement which flourished in Europe in the 18^th century. Are these ideas mankind’s finest intellectual achievement – or, as it is once again fashionable to argue,  a  catastrophic error?”

1. What was the motto of The Enlightenment?
2. What two goals did Enlightenment scholars have?
3. What two concepts emerging in the modern world have shaped The Enlightenment?
4. The start of The Enlightenment can be said to be…………………………………..when…………...............
5. Had Newton made God unnecessary and what were his views as to his discoveries and God?
6. Why did faith “retreat” in that case?
7. A. What three concepts were the results of the emphasis on reason?

B. What, according to the scholars of The Enlightenment, could “Man” achieve through reason?

       8.    What was the criticism offered by the first group of critics offered by Blake? (Be general)

       9.    A. The second group of critics headed by Herder thought that…………………………………………….

              B. What was the danger in Enlightenment thinking according to Herder?

     10.    Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer reached the conclusion that “The Enlightenment had

               been doomed all along to serve totalitarian aims”. How did they reach this conclusion?

     11.     What examples do Adorno and Horkheimer give to the outcomes of knowledge without ethics?

    12.      Modern environmentalism dates back to……………………………………………………………………………..

    13.      John Gray made the following observation concerning the Soviet collapse: “The Soviet

                Collapse is probably best interpreted not as a victory for Western capitalism, but instead as a decisive moment in the global counter movement against westernization.” What radical change in Mr. Gray’s opinions is this view proof of?

   14.      On what grounds would Enlightenment thinkers have condemned Stalinism acc. to the text?

    15.     The major difference between Kant and other Enlightenment thinkers is that while the former……………………………………………………the latter ……………………………………………………………..

   16.      In paragraph 26 it is stated that “Voltaire would have relished the fact that today’s enemies of The Enlightenment are its obedient children.” What is this conclusion based on?

  17.       State one general advantage and four disadvantages of Western modernity.

  18.       Isaah Berlin admires Enlightenment thinkers for their…………………………………………………………

NOW DECIDE WHAT THE FOLLOWING REFER TO:

1. “Their” in the phrase “Their goal was not mainly to gain…” in paragraph two.
2. “These contending views” in the phrase “The debate between these contending views …” in paragraph three.
3. “This way” in the phrase “Only in this way could man be…” in paragraph eight.
4. “This was so” in the phrase “This was so not only of Voltaire…” in paragraph twelve.
5. “It” in the phrase “Which expands wants faster than it can meet them…” in paragraph eighteen.
6. “From the first” in the phrase “From the first it follows that…” in paragraph twenty two.

CRIMES OF REASON / KEY

Being, by and large, a factual text, the questions are mainly search reading. However, it is a brilliant, timeless and informative text which should be read through and exploited with a teacher with the know how to enable the students to broaden their horizons. It is only in this way that the text will come alive; otherwise, it will just wash off the students leaving no trace.

1. Have the courage to know
2. To gain a greater understanding of the physical world and to bring reason to bear to man’s place within it.
3. Liberalism and capitalism.
4. 1687/ Newton published his “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”
5. No; he regarded his discoveries as not merely consistent with God but tantamount to proof of it.
6. If the intellect could comprehend the Universe in its seemingly limitless complexity, then surely it could also comprehend justice, authority, right and wrong.
7. Skepticism, tolerance and regard for the individual. Through reason man could master nature and himself and the universal rules by which man should live his life.
8. That scientific inquiry was doomed to miss the point.
9. That it got the answers to its questions wrong / That in order to hasten progress towards the universal system, men would consider it their duty to eradicate so called inferior specimens.
10. Mankind had sunk into an abyss of hitherto unimaginable cruelty.
11. Industrial dehumanization, concentration camps, atomic bombs.
12. The 18^th century ( or to Rousseau)
13. He had become an agitated anti-Enlightenment thinker.
14. The case against Stalinism follows from the Enlightenment regard for the individual and from its insistence on dissidence and tolerance.
15. (Kant) would insist that reason does point to universal moral code; might argue that the legitimacy of any morality rests ultimately on the extent to which it enables humans to flourish.
16. Because they appear to regard religious belief as a personal matter; as a matter of individual conscience.
17. Nuclear war, crime, poverty and environmental concerns versus standards of material and emotional well-being unimaginable in earlier times.
18. The intellectual power, honesty, lucidity, courage and disinterested love of the most gifted thinkers of the 18^th century remain to this day without parallel. 

REFERENCES / KEY

1. Montesquieu, Diderot, Smith and others.
2. Whether the legacy was for good or evil
3. All ideas must face scrutiny
4. The Enlightenment challenged faith and…
5. Technology
6. That different cultures can support different systems of values.