The concept of human dignity in the French and American Enlightenments: Religion, virtue, liberty.

摘要

While scholars have emphasized the Enlightenment as a secular movement pointing to the prominent place of reason and science, the goal of this dissertation is to prove that the central focus of the international Enlightenment is not a move toward secularism, but consists instead in the underlying belief in human dignity. Although historians and scholars point to the correlation between the notion of human dignity and natural rights, I take a much broader view of the concept, placing it at the center of religious thought, views on the place of religion in the state and in society, virtue, self-reliance, and anti-slavery sentiment. By doing so, this dissertation ultimately shows that religion had an important role in Enlightenment thought since religious notions were central to the concept of human dignity. My study on church/state relations offers an original view of this theme by showing that those who argue both for and against religious establishment did so based on their understanding of human dignity. Finally, underlining the place of human dignity in Enlightenment thought, I offer a glimpse into commonalities behind French, British, and American eighteenth-century thought.; To prove my thesis, my methodology consists in illustrating key themes that illustrate the central place of human dignity in Enlightenment thought. Themes include the broad definition of the philosophe, ties between religious thought and human dignity, definitions of virtue and its limits, natural law and their basis in the concept of dignity, dignity and the move toward anti-slavery sentiment, and finally the ways in which the concept of human dignity plays an important role in views of the importance of religion in the state. Because this study covers such broad themes, I will base my study and evidence on eighteenth-century texts from French, British, and American authors.; Textual evidence illustrates certain key conclusions of Enlightenment thought. First, because of the religious basis of the concept of human dignity itself, the Enlightenment, with a few exceptions, did have a strong religious bent. Its emphasis on virtue, liberty, and rights were founded on religious beliefs, such as the belief in God and in a future life. The philosophes underscored the importance of religion as the best means to virtue and liberty, as did clergymen. Although I found differences of thought among clergymen, deists, and materialists, what united them was the common emphasis on human dignity. It is through an understanding of this concept that one can see ways in which the French and American Enlightenments, often contrasted, share similar goals.