11 - Enlightened primitivism

Summary

The Enlightenment is usually taken to be a progressive movement, devoted to the values of modern commercial society, turning its back on an obscurantist and primitive past in the search for a new era of material well-being and rational social organization. Yet it is notorious that the same period is also one in which a new esteem is accorded to more primitive forms of society and art: the noble savage, the folk bard, the Spartan citizen. Nor is this simply a reaction on the part of the enemies of enlightenment. We saw the modern Perrault giving new life to the ancient, irrational world of the folktale; by the same token, it is often the same people who are attracted both by the advanced values of the Encyclopédie and by the myths of ancient simplicity. Primitivism seems paradoxically to be a constituent part of the Enlightenment. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the significance of this enlightened primitivism in the writings of a small number of philosophers and moralists on either side of the Channel.

To do this I should like to concentrate on two small countries, Geneva and Scotland. In 1750 Geneva was independent, though much influenced by France; Scotland, on the other hand, was governed from London, but was actively defending or re-creating its cultural identity, partly perhaps as an alternative to the political autonomy lost with the Union of 1707.