The so-called French Enlightenment was like an explosion whose brief glare is far overshadowed by its destructive effects. The English-Scottish-American Enlightenments, in contrast, produced the greatest political freedom and economic prosperity in world history.
Two Visions of the Enlightenment
By Robert Curry
“Fontenelle [was] the most representative of all the figures of the Enlightenment…”
Isaiah Berlin
“If America was the embodiment and natural home of the Enlightenment,…then the American who best personified the Enlightenment ideal was Benjamin Franklin.”
Isaac Kramnick
Prof. Kramnick is the editor of The Portable Enlightenment Reader. He selected a painting of Franklin for the cover of the book--Benjamin West’s Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky. If Prof. Berlin had selected the cover illustration, perhaps he would have chosen a painting of Fontonelle instead.
In his brief discussion of the academician Bernard Le Bovier de Fontonelle, Prof. Berlin explains that he led a “very careful and rational life.” Fontonelle, he also tells us, wrote this: “A work of politics, of morality, of criticism, perhaps even of literature, will be finer, all things considered, if made by the hands of a geometer.” A geometer is, of course, a person skilled in geometry.
These two accomplished scholars seem to be presenting two very different visions of the Enlightenment. According to one vision, the Enlightenment’s center of gravity was unquestionably in France and its ideal was skillfulness in abstract rationality.
Franklin personified a very different vision of the Enlightenment. Capturing the incredible range of Franklin’s gifts and the extent of his contributions is a challenge—and “abstract rationality” doesn’t even come close. The story of the lightning experiment is a great place to begin to understand him.
Franklin did more than just explain lightning, more even than lay the foundation for our modern understanding of electricity and the very technology you are using at this moment to read these words. He went on to make an urgently-needed practical application of his new-found scientific understanding by developing the world-changing technology of the lightning rod. Then he published the technological know-how, sharing it freely with the world. He demonstrated that we could understand nature and that our understanding of nature could change the world for the better for everyone. If a church happened to be struck by lightning and burned, it meant that the church fathers had neglected to install a lightning rod, not that that week’s sermon had perhaps found disfavor with God. Here Franklin the scientist and technological innovator meets up with Franklin the philanthropist who instigated, organized and supported financially and otherwise so many projects to improve the life of his fellow Philadelphians.
Of course, Franklin the statesman played an important role in shaping both the Declaration and the Constitution, two of the most world-changing achievements of the American Enlightenment, and of the Enlightenment overall. Characteristically, in the course of his many trips back and forth across the Atlantic in the political service of the colonies and the new nation, he also seized the opportunity to discover and map (modern satellites confirm quite accurately) the Gulf Stream, improving trans-Atlantic travel by ship forever. Franklin, the man who has been called “the First American,” genuinely seemed to welcome every opportunity in his life-long adventure of making a better world.
These two representative figures make it crystal clear that there is a world of difference between the French Enlightenment, as represented by Fontonelle, and the American Enlightenment, as represented by Franklin. Consequently, when someone makes a general statement characterizing the Enlightenment overall, it makes good sense for us to ask “which Enlightenment?”
Back to summary...
