LATE ENLIGHTENMENT:  NATURE AND MORALITY

NATURE VERSUS CULTURE = fundamental dichotomy of Enlightenment
central theme of Enlightenment = critique of custom, tradition, religion; instead
  NATURE is seen as source of both reason and morality (eg Locke)
  (Voltaire's Candide is exception: = satire on idea of nature as moral)

18TH C. MATERIALIST PHILOSOPHY: Encyclopédie urges direct study of nature,
empirically knowable through observation; natural laws seen as moral laws

Robert Anchor, The Enlightenment Tradition: "Materialism rescued man from supernatural
determinism, only to turn him over to the determinism of nature."

LA METTRIE: most extreme statement of Enlightenment materialism (exile in Prussia with Frederick II)
1748 L'homme machine (Man, A Machine) extends Descartes’ idea that animals are
automatons or machines to include men: purely physical character of man, stress on pleasure, food;
basic laws of nature: self love, self preservation, pursuit of happiness, physical gratification
all aspects of human life including moral and intellectual functions
                 derive from sensations of pleasure versus pain (= right vs wrong)
   "Feeling teaches us what we should not do, because we would not wish
   it done to us." (Note stress on feeling; similar to Rousseau)

BARON VON HOLBACH: System of Nature 1770 determinism, fatalism, everything happens
by necessity; but Holbach also wants educational reform to eliminate religious influences.
              uses "nature" as weapon against custom, tradition, existing order.

Major issues in late Enlightenment:
1 ) how can social or political reform be possible:
if everything is determined how can change ever occur?
          Enlightened Despotism seen as one solution:
             men can be changed from above; enlightened despot eliminates irrational,
             customary restrictions, so human actions can be in tune with natural law.

2) whether individual self-interest is in harmony with the good of the whole?
   strong "yes" to this question given by optimistic natural law theorists such as:

French PHYSIOCRATS: Francois Quesnay, Economic Table 1758
       agriculture as central to economy, opposed to tariffs, customs
       motto: “LAISSEZ FAIRE, LAISSEZ PASSER”  (let it be done, let it pass)

English UTILITARIANS (JEREMY BENTHAM)
          pursuit of individual good automatically results in general good;
          pursuit of pleasure, profit leads to "greatest good of greatest number."

LIMITS OF "NATURAL" MORALITY: MARQUIS DE SADE (1740-1814)

"Sadism" = “philosophy in the bedroom”: pornographic fusion of sex and power
Imprisoned 27 years for writings such as Justine 1791, Juliette 1796,
rejects idea of nature or natural law as source of morality
view of Nature: by sanctioning everything, nature prohibits nothing;
   nature is omnipotent, amoral, meaningless, indifferent to man, criminal
              (cf Candide: nature is indifferent to human innocence or guilt)
 no moral standards or principles in nature: only egotism & nihilism
 individual urge to happiness and pleasure conflicts with social harmony
 rule of nature = pursuit of individual pleasure at expense of others
Human natural freedom knows no moral limits: essence of freedom is power
 over others, including power to harm; no "natural" sanctions against crime

IMMANUEL KANT: "COPERNICAN REVOLUTION" IN MORALITY
1797 Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals -- principles of moral action
            located in man, not nature; human morality consists of acting according. to the
Kantian categorical imperative "act so that the maxim of my action can be universally
      legislated to all mankind." (“Do unto others as you would have them...." but now
      a freely chosen human mandate, not a religious requirement)