1715: Panoptical Modernity: Versailles/Absolutism/ Persian Harem

Transcription

1 1715: Panoptical Modernity: Versailles/Absolutism/ Persian Harem Week 10 Lecture 2 8 December

2 Modernity = rationalization efficiency centralization bureaucratization Panopticon =- see all Jeremy Bentham ( ) Utilitarian = maximize utility 2

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5 Understand 20th century: Totalitarianism is appealing! And ultra-modern! 5

6 System of checks and balances: INEFFICIENT!!! Late 17 th -c. British: Why can t we have a modern government like France??? Constitution of Mass. Commonwealth John Adams

7 1625: James I dies [ No bishop. No king. ] Son takes throne: Charles I 1632: John Locke is born 1640: Hobbes escapes to Paris to escape civil strife Meets Galileo; fascinated by motion : Great Rebellion Civil war 1646: Prince of Wales [future Charles II] must escape to Paris w/ Hobbes Admirer of absolutism 1647: Charles I kidnapped 1648: End of 30 Years War 1649: Trial and execution of Charles I Regicide shocks Europe 7

8 : Commonwealth established Cromwell crushes Irish opponents Abolishes both monarchy and House of Lords [NB: blood inheritance] 1651: Hobbes, The Leviathan, or, Commonwealth Natural right to self-preservation : Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector Puritan laws: no drink, gambling, theater : Milton, Paradise Lost holy commonwealth 8

9 : Restoration Charles II Catholic leanings; absolutist Great Persecution of Puritans: will attempt to establish holy commonwealth in Massachusetts and Virginia 1661: New Parliament passes legislation forbidding Puritans in Massachusetts Bay colony to hang Quakers : James II [Catholic] 1687: Declaration of Indulgence: suspends laws against Catholics / dissidents Year of Newton s publication of Philosophiae Naturalis / Principia Mathematica 1688: Glorious Revolution: Invite Wm. & Mary of Orange 1689: Bill of Rights: only Protestant can wear the crown Toleration act: tolerates Protestant worship; excludes Catholics, Jews, Unitarians 1690: Locke: Two Treatises: right to revolt 1701: Act of Settlement: Protestant succession 9

10 System of checks and balances: INEFFICIENT!!! Late 17 th -c. British: Why can t we have a modern government like France??? Constitution of Mass. Commonwealth John Adams

11 17 th century: THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM 1638: b. Louis XIV 1643: d. Louis XIII : regency of Louis XIV Anne of Austria [Spain] and Cardinal Mazarin [Italy] rule in his place [ regency ] La Fronde nobles try to overthrow monarchy Court leaves Paris [Louvre]; in hiding at Fontainebleau 11

12 1661: 23 yr. old Louis XIV Assumes the throne Invents culture of absolutism Definition of Absolutism: The ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or check by any other agency e.g., judicial, legislative, religious, economic, or electoral. NB: MODERN NOT MEDIEVAL!!! Pope/bishops/nobility (castles) 12

13 No checks on absolute power Judicial --- law courts Legislative --- congress or parliament Religious --- bishoplords, papacy Economic --- unlimited right to tax/ spend taxation without representation Electoral --- elections 17th-c. absolutist government: Modern 1) Scientific rationality and mathematical certainty extended to politics 2) New passion for centralization, bureaucracy, and efficiency 3) Eliminate opposition voices 4) Destroy all other allegiances: everything owed to central ruler 13

14 L état, c est moi. (The state is me.) Eugene Ionesco L Etat c est moi and what a state it s in!! 14

15 17th-century Absolutism: Five elements 1. Legislative: rule without consent and counsel of nobility [i.e., Second Estate ] 1614: last meeting of the Estates General Henry IV --- assassinated in 1610 Eliminate possibility of being checked by nobility / aristocrats [British House of Lords ; USA Senate ] 15

16 What s the problem with the Estates General not meeting since 1614? Because they re changing!!! And they re your source of money!!! And more than that --- the Third Estate is now the class that has the fluid capital!!! You need their taxes!!! Three Orders [Estates] : 13th c. 18 th c. How did the Third Estate get to be like this??? 16

17 2. RELIGIOUS: 1685 Revocation of Edict of Nantes (1598) Abolish religious toleration and opposition Appoint all its bishops; make them absolutely dependent on you [and not, e.g., the Pope] Gallicanism = French Catholicism 17

18 invincible reason. 18

19 Mediation: Louis XIV follows the example of James I: No bishop, no king. 19

20 Remember Fontainebleau! And la Fronde 1685: Revocation of Edict of Nantes 20

21 3. Lettre de cachet = sealed letter [cacher = to hide ]: a letter signed by the king commands recipient to obey orders without delay and without explanation Lettre de cachet used to authorize someone s imprisonment [e.g., in Bastille] indefinitely without due process NB: against British principle of writ of habeas corpus [you have the body] 21

22 cf. Man with the Iron Mask --- fictional brother of Louis XIV [novel of Alexandre Dumas]: imprisoned for the rest of his life without legal representation L: Deliverance of the Count de L Orges / R: Discovery of the Iron Mask 22

23 4. Versailles: Louis XIV abandons the Louvre for Versailles 23

24 Gather everyone out in the country [away from Paris and possibility of uprising] Put them under surveillance A culture of absolute dependence on / revolving around the sun-king Key to Versailles: SURVEILLANCE 24

25 Milwaukee Sentinel Journal 29 May

26 The New York Times 24 Nov

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28 Modernity as Rationalization / Mathematics: Cartesian Geometry 28

29 Cartesian coordinate system Plot x on vertical and 1,2,3,4,5 on horizontal 29

30 Versailles Architecture: Cartesian Geometry Versailles Landscape: 30

31 palace approach 31

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34 What is the cultural meaning of this architecture / landscape? Cartesian Geometry : order, rationality, civilization 34

35 Versailles as the global center of MODERN RATIONAL ORDER Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte; Home of Nicholas Fouquet, finance minister of Louis XIV NB: Fouquet not a noble!!! newly-rich Third Estate 35

36 Vaux-le-Vicomte :: U.S. Capitol RATIONALITY!!! Lawmakers reason: rational discussion [neo-classical, not Gothic] 36