Two Views of a Utopian Future: Marquis de Condorcet and Karl Marx

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/workbook /ralprs24d .htm br 1 match (internet http /lois2 .uhv .edu /whatsnew /newsletter /summer03 /books .htm Name of Student : Title of Subject "Two Views of a Utopian Future : Marquis de Condorcet and Karl Marx " Name of Professor : Date : The central tenet of the Enlightenment was in infinite perfectibility of man . And the corollary to this notion was the philosophy of history . History was not just the blood-spilt annals of the kings , but it also has an underlying theme , and this theme is "progress . The beginnings of mankind were rude and barbarous , and by gradual steps man progressed . As he shed his ignorance and beastly passions he attained refinement and transformed society into a more comfortable , humane and just place . This was the outline of the philosophy of history that the learned men of the Enlightenment were beginning to cherish . The destination of progress is Utopia - a society that is perfect , i .e . there are no grievances or discomfort . These new philosophers of history were thus known as Utopians . However , two distinct schools of thought emerged when contemplating the process by which mankind attains Utopia . These two schools are generally described as French positivism and German idealism . We first take into account the French positivist school , of which Condorcet was a part . German idealism was indeed a reaction to French optimism , and so will be tackled second , along with Marx . In France the champion of the Enlightenment was Voltaire . In his novel Candide he lampoons the philosophy of the German polymath Gottfried Liebniz , which describes the existing or reality as "the best of all possible worlds " Voltaire saw that the world was riddled with ignorance , injustice , cruelty , superstition , and so on , and his moral sense was outraged that anyone could describe this as being the best of all possible worlds that God could have created . He advocated the application of reason in all possible spheres , so that Science would be able to know the exact causes behind horrors of human society . Only when these impediments were removed would mankind be put on the road to unhindered progress "Chance is a word void of sense " says Voltaire "nothing can exist without a cause "[1] Cultivation of scientific knowledge , according to Voltaire , was the immediate goal of mankind . French positivism was thus little more a fervor inspired by the historical record of mankind 's apparent progress . Progress was taken to be a natural law , so that it was superfluous to talk of the individual role of man in the scheme of progress . The philosophers , however , did not think it amiss to facilitate...