Chapter 6, The Moral Sciences Summary and Analysis

The scientific and rational mindset of the enlightenment wasn't limited to the natural sciences. Enlightenment thinkers believed that mankind and society were also the proper subject of study and sought to develop a new "social science" that would put ethics and politics on the type of firm foundation they had developed for subjects like chemistry or physics. One of the leaders in this movement was the one of the same scientists that had been instrumental in the development of chemistry, Turgot. Turgot was made finance minister and controller general of France under Louis XVI during a time of increasing turmoil and financial instability. Turgot believed that if he rationalized policy to be more in line with what he saw as man's nature, he would be able to create an objective science of politics and stabilize...