Enlightenment

Johann Gottfried Herder

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Voltaire
Johann Gottfried
Herder
German philosopher, theologian and literary critic

 Was born into a poor household in Prussia

 Had to educate himself from his father’s Bible

and songbook

 Enrolled at the University of Königsberg

 Later met the young Goethe, who was inspired

by his criticism
An essay on Shakespeare started it all…

"A poet is the creator of the nation around him, he gives them a world to see and
has their souls in his hand to lead them to that world.”

To him such poetry had its greatest purity and power in nations before they
became civilized

He tried to find such virtues in ancient German folk songs and mythology
 On a trip to Eastern Europe…

Herder wrote several predictions:

that Slavic nations would one day be the real power in Europe

more specifically, he praised Ukraine's beautiful skies, blithe temperament, musical

talent, bountiful soil
One of his related predictions was that the Hungarian nation would disappear, become
assimilated by surrounding Slavic peoples
 This prophecy caused considerable uproar in Hungary and is widely cited to this day
Gotthold Ephraim
Lessing
German philosopher, writer, poet, dramatist
and art critic

 Was born in a small town in Saxony

 His father was a Lutheran minister and

theologian

 Enrolled at the University of Leipzig

 Was the first german theatre’s critic of plays

and acting

 Was the first dramaturge

  In Hamburg he tried with others to set up the German National
Theatre

 Today his own works appear as prototypes of the later

developed bourgeois German drama

 Lessing advocated that dramaturgs should carry their work out

At the theatre… working directly with theatre companies rather than in isolation

 Eg.: Miss Sara Sampson (first bourgeois tragedy), Minna von

Barhelm (model for classic German comedies), Nathan the Wise
(first German tragedy of ideas)
 Lessing outlined the concept of the religious
"Proof of Power”

How can miracles continue to be used as a

base for Christianity when we have no proof
of miracles?

Lessing’s Ditch Historical truths which are in doubt cannot

be used to prove metaphysical truths (such
as God's existence)

”That, then, is the ugly great ditch which I

cannot cross, however often and however
earnestly I have tried to make that leap."
Voltaire
French Enlightenment writer, historian and
philosopher

 Was famous for his wit, criticism for Christianity

 Was born in Paris to a French noble family

 His name is an anagram of AROVET LI, the Latinized

spelling of his surname
 Candide
In his work, he attacks the passivity inspired by Leibniz's
philosophy of optimism through the character Pangloss's
frequent refrain that circumstances are the "best of all possible
worlds”

He addresses social and political ways of the time

The received forms of moral and metaphysical orthodoxy: some

were written to deride the Bible

Voltaire's ironic style, free of exaggeration, is apparent,

particularly the restraint and simplicity of the verbal treatment
He was a deist, challenging the orthodox by asking: "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is
evident?”

"It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should
tolerate each other.

I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers.

What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam?

Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?"

His religious tolerance

Thank you for
your attention!
By: Anna Virág Németh
 Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthold_Ephraim_Lessing
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Herder