3.1: The Enlightenment (18th century)

 

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The 18th century is also known as the “Century of Enlightenment”. The development of capitalism, based on both industry and colonialism, led to radical changes in political structures, as seen in the French, American, and Haitian revolutions. Accordingly, Enlightenment thinking (also known as “The Enlightenment”) rejected aristocratic privileges based on family names and promoted equal rights before the law, prioritized reason over traditional beliefs, and trusted that research, science, and industrial development would produce happier societies.

The development of the steam engine marked a milestone in industrial development.

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The Rise of Capitalism, the Enlightenment, and Neoclassicism

 

“Is there anything more tiring than the company of those who don't appreciate a man for what he is, but for what his grandparents were?” —José Cadalso (1741-1782), in Moroccan Letters, 34 (1789).

“¿Habrá cosa más cansada que la compañía de los que no estiman a un hombre por lo que es, sino por lo que fueron sus abuelos?”.           –José Cadalso (1741-1782), en Cartas marruecas, 34 (1789).

Mercantilism, from the 15th to the 17th centuries, had shifted the economic axis of much of Western Europe. The economy, based on land and agricultural production (feudalism), was transformed into a system dominated by commercial expansion (mercantilism), which, by the 18th century, could already be clearly identified as capitalism. The development of banking and industry is an indicator of this new system. In a consumerist and profit spirit, it was a priority to generate greater and faster means of production with technical advances such as the mining pump and the steam engine. There was also competition for the mass and efficient transport of raw materials to offer new and more sophisticated products to societies that were always interested in consuming more.

The engine of the new economic system was the bourgeoisie —the merchants who lived in the “burgos” or cities—which became a very prominent class. Many bankers, for example, could influence highly indebted monarchies and nobles. Urban growth was also notable, encouraging the enrichment of occupations such as stockists, artisans, doctors, lawyers, journalists, and court employees, who could afford luxury clothing, cuisine, theatre, and books, among other things, and thus influence collective tastes.

The political system that developed in conjunction with mercantilism was the centralized monarchy, which eliminated excess borders between small fiefdoms, facilitated trade, and favored imperial projects around the world. These monarchies gave rise to complex national states that needed an increasing rationalization of their institutions, promoting the relevance of the professional middle class (lawyers, professors, state employees). However, in the 18th century, the hierarchical authoritarianism of these monarchies was more of an obstacle than an advantage for the bourgeois classes, who sought a more direct influence in state control. In this spirit, the revolutions in England (1688), the United States (1787), and France (1789) occurred, which sought to give political power to “ordinary” citizens, who were economically dominated by merchants and industrialists. This is how democracy was reinvented in the name of capitalist values: economic freedom (to trade), political equality (to undo aristocratic hierarchies), social fraternity (circles of political and economic support).

In the field of ideas, the mercantile economy favored scientific experimentation and humanism, gradually supplanting hierarchical and theocentric ideology by empirical observation and rationalist logic. By the middle of the 18th century, bourgeois liberalism was the vanguard of Western thought with three basic beliefs: 1) reason was a “light” capable of solving all the problems of life; 2) the government must take responsibility for the well-being of its people; and 3) the individual had the right to educate himself and to defend himself from political, religious and ideological authoritarianism. These were the postulates of the Enlightenment, whose most famous exponents came from the two economic and military powers of the time: Great Britain (John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith) and France (René Descartes, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, François de Voltaire). In fact, French is becoming increasingly fashionable, and owning the French language has become a sign of high culture.

A milestone in the influence of the Enlightenment was the publication of the first Encyclopedia in France, between 1751 and 1765, designed as an instrument to educate society and thus ensure the end of the Old Regime, arguing that monarchical absolutism was based on the people's ignorance, which allowed it to dominate. Thus, the European intelligentsia developed a system of ideas that rendered bourgeois power convenient and logical, while portraying aristocratic power as unjust and impractical. The lights of reason would make the world (centered on Europe) “progress”, removing it from the superstition, irrationality and tyranny attributed to the so-called “Dark Ages”, that is, the feudal and aristocratic era.

In several senses, then, it can be said that the Enlightenment of the 18th century constitutes the hegemonic consolidation of what had begun with the Renaissance of the 15th century. The bourgeoisie, a rising minority class during the Renaissance, emerged as the politically and ideologically dominant class in the 18th century. Faith is transferred from God to man (anthropocentrism), and progress is viewed as giving meaning to life; what is modern is considered superior to what is traditional. A secular and even anti-clerical culture (secularization) is favored. Reason and rigorous observation (rationalism and empiricism) are the basis of truth and of what is credible for purposes useful to social improvement. The philosophy of utilitarianism and pragmatism is developed under the formula of obtaining “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people” (Epicurus). We are seeking principles and knowledge that are universally applicable (universalism, encyclopedism). Greco-Roman sources serve as the basis for scientific, philosophical, legal, and political thought (classicism). It believes in democracy, freedom, equality and fraternity (liberalism).

In Western arts, one manifestation of the Enlightenment is neoclassicism. If the Renaissance, in order to oppose feudal theocentric aesthetics, claimed the humanist heritage of the Greek and Roman classics, the Enlightenment revalued the restraint and balance of this classical heritage to oppose the excess of the Baroque, associated with aristocratic ostentation. Instead, they seek harmony, balance and symmetry. Everything that is disproportionate and exaggerated is considered monstrous in neoclassical aesthetics. The arts in general must have a useful purpose, which can be didactic (teaching), moral (purifying passions), or social (satirizing bad habits to correct them). That's why fables, essays, and satires come into fashion. The theater seeks to build customs with comedy and to cleanse the soul of passions with tragedy. Originality is often considered a defect, and it is estimated that masterpieces can be achieved through rational formulas, imitating Greco-Roman models in architecture, sculpture, painting, and literature. Academicism prevails, and creativity must be subject to clear rules. Theater and narrative, for example, must return to the three units established by Aristotle: of action, place and time; the French add the unity of style. “Good taste” (bourgeois) requires rejecting the vulgar and the exaggerated: the arts must represent a stylized, idealized reality, in which elegance is as important as sanity. The language does not admit rudeness; it must be friendly, measured, and clear.

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Baroque vs. Neoclassical Aesthetics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fuentes

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• Alonso, E. et al. Goya and the Spirit of Enlightenment. Boston: Little Brown, 1989.
• Blanco Aguinaga, Carlos, et al. Social history of Spanish literature. Akal, 2000.
• Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to Hispanic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Garcia de Cortázar, Fernando and José Manuel González Vesga. A brief history of Spain. Editorial Alliance, 2017.
• Glendinning, N. A Literary History of Spain: The Eighteenth Century. London: Berrn; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1972.
• Kattan Ibarra, Juan. Cultural perspectives of Spain. NTC Publishing, 1990.
• Polt, J. H. R. 18th Century Poetry. 4th edn, Madrid: Castalia, 1994.