1. the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
Logical Thinking Spreads From Science &
Natural Law to
Society &
Politics
Key Ideas:
Reason 
Predictable
Laws
lead to
progress
Skepticism = the refusal to grant that there is any knowledge or justification
Associated with Descartes & Hume

2. The Scientific Revolution
Agenda
Learning Outcome
I can understand how the ideals of the Renaissance and the Reformation created Scientific Revolution and how it changed society.

3. Revolution in science
Why might ideas of the Renaissance have inspired people a revolution in scientific thought??
What challenges do you predict scientific minded people encountered during this time?

4. Background: Between about 1500 and 1700, scientists, or “natural philosophers” as they were called, developed a new worldview that became the basis of modern scientific study. Planetary motion, the composition and movement of matter on earth, the biological systems of plants and animals all were the focus of study during this period. Scientists began to envision a complex universe which could best be understood through experimentation and mathematics. These curious investigators of nature organized into the scientific disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) we know today during this period known by historians as the “scientific revolution”.

5. What is Galileo’s friend telling him to be careful about? WHY?
Giovanni Ciampoli, Italian monk, letter to Galileo, 1615.
Your opinion of the phenomena of light and shade on the clear and spotted surfaces of the Moon assumes some analogy between the Earth and the Moon. Someone adds to this and says you assume that the Moon is inhabited by humans. Then another starts discussing how they could be descended from Adam or how they could have gotten out of Noah’s ark, and many other extravagant ideas that you never even dreamed of. It is indispensable, therefore, to remove the possibility of malignant rumors by repeatedly showing your willingness to defer to the authority of those who have jurisdiction over the human intellect in matters of the interpretation of Scripture.

6. The scientific method
Francis Bacon, English natural philosopher, The Establishment of Scientific Thinking, Men have sought to make a world from their own conception and to draw from their own minds all the material which they employed, but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have the facts and not opinions to reason about, and might have ultimately arrived at the knowledge of the laws which govern the material world…

7. ASSIGNMENT #4: INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE AND POLITICS COSMOS EPISODE– When Knowledge Conquered Fear (11-30) How was the Scientific Revolution a significant change in the way people viewed their world? Take notes on key people, events, ideas in the film about Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley that will help you answer this question.

8. FROM SCIENCE TO PHILOSOPHY… The Scientific Revolution and discovery of natural laws prompted many who were not scientists, but were philosophers and writers, to wonder if they could apply the same ideas of questioning and searching for natural laws to SOCIETY and GOVERNMENT. The ENLIGHTENMENT was a new intellectual movement that stressed REASON and QUESTIONING and the power of INDIVIDUALS to make conclusions for themselves about society and politics.

9. Time for a self quiz: are you an enlightenment thinker?
Are you secretly a 1780s person stuck in 2016? Take this quick quiz to find out! On the back of Assignment #6: Number your paper 1-13 and write Agree or Disagree As you read the following statements.

10. 1. I believe that truth can only be discovered through reason logical thinking – for example, the scientific method. Nothing should be accepted on faith alone.
2. I believe that human nature is generally good and people are reasonable.
3. Society and people are constantly improving and moving in a good direction.
4. It is important that people are granted individual rights that the government needs to protect.
5. I enjoy having intellectual conversations with other people about the nature of life and society.
6. I would prefer to have these conversations in a comfortable living room with lots of snacks.
7. I believe that people are a clean slate when they are born and that their experiences and education make them what they are.

11. 8. If the government doesn’t protect your rights, you have the right to overthrow it.
9. The best kind of government is one where there are separate government bodies, like a congress and president, where each branch can “check” the other.
10. Society is actually bad: people are born free with potential, but society chains them down.
11. The best type of government is one that does what most of the people want all of the time.
12. Rights for prisoners are important: torture should not be allowed and the death penalty abolished.
13. Education, for both men and women, is one of the most important things for human beings.

12. How to score your quiz
If you answered I AGREE with questions you are in line with one of the most outspoken writers and thinkers of the Enlightenment: Voltaire, a writer who influenced other Enlightenment thinkers and leaders across Europe and beyond.

13. #6 Refers to the “salons” where enlightenment thinkers would gather and share work
Unlike Socrates, who faced persecution and death as a philosopher, Enlightenment thinkers were hosted by wealthy nobles in their fancy living rooms. However, many thinkers faced opposition from their governments.

14. If you answered I AGREE to #7 and #8, then you agree with John Locke – optimist of the Enlightenment who thought that people were a blank slate when they were born and that education could make society good.
He also had ideas about government that we use in our constitution today.

15. If you answered I AGREE to #9 you got your ideas from Baron de Montesquieu who believed in the separation of powers, like our government today.

16. If you answered I AGREE to #10 and #11 then you identify with Jean Jacques Rousseau – pessimist of the Enlightenment. He believed society chains people down and limits their freedom. He did think, optimistically, the best society is one that responds to the “general will” – what most people want.

17. If you AGREE with #12, you agree with Cesare Beccaria who tried to limit the widespread torture that was acceptable as punishment for crimes in the 1700s.
#13: ALL Enlightenment thinkers agreed in the need for education, but some were against education for women. Mary Wollstonecraft argued that the need to be educated was important for men and women equally.

18. Main idea: The ideas of these Enlightenment (aka “The Age of Reason”)
Intellectual Revolutionaries - Enlightenment Political Philosophers
Main idea: The ideas of these Enlightenment (aka “The Age of Reason”)
political philosophers challenged traditional powers during the 17th & 18th Centuries.
Baron de Montesquieu
Voltaire
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Mary Wollstonecraft

19. Directions: - Watch Enlightenment Intro Video
Carefully read political philosophers Quotes on the handout I’ve given you and fill in the Enlightenment thinkers chart with a partner.
Watch Review videos below if you have time