1. René Descartes ( )
Discourse on Method (1637)
Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am.”)
Cartesianism/Cartesian Dualism
Two kinds of reality: “thinking substance”
and “extended substance”
Coordinate geometry

2. Science and the Church
Catholic Church and Galileo. Reaction
of Descartes
Protestant vs. Catholic reactions

3. Science and European Governments
Encouragement of rulers: technological
and practical advantages
1662 Royal Society of London founded in
England
1666 Royal Academy of Sciences founded
in France
Publication and dissemination

4. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
( )
1945 Royal Society admits women
14 Jan 2005 Larry Summers questions scientific
abilities of women
Canadian Association of University Teachers

5. Sir Isaac Newton ( )
Principia: The Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy (1687)
Conflict with Cartesians over role of God

6. Theory of gravitation: attraction and repulsion
between objects
Other discoveries: about nervous system,
colours
Inventing calculus (at same time as Gottfried
Leibniz ( )
1660s Newton builds reflecting telescope
James Gregory ( )

7. 18th c. Age of Enlightenment
Intellectual ferment based on belief in human
progress
Changing views of God and the supernatural

8. Early 18th c. Time of religious enthusiasm
Music (e.g. J.S. Bach, Crucifixus from
B Minor Mass, 1714)
New forms of religious
observance e.g. Lutheran Pietism

9. Methodism
John Wesley ( )
Good works, preaching to ordinary people
Equality of all Christians in God’s eyes
Charles Wesley ( )

10. J.C. Lavater (1741-1801) - Physiognomy
F.A. Mesmer ( ) - Mesmerism
Freemasonry

11. Philosophes – Enlightenment thinkers
Increasing role of public opinion with rising
literacy rate
Proliferation of publications
Censorship and its evasion

12. Paris as centre of the Enlightenment
Salons, hosted by salonnières
Publication of Encyclopédie, ed.
Denis Diderot ( )

13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)
Artificial, corrupt nature of society
Discourses on Arts and Sciences (1750) and
Origin of Inequality (1755)
The Social Contract (1762)

14. François-Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire
( )
Advocate of tolerance
1727 Witnesses state funeral of Newton
Friend of royalty, esp. Frederick II (the Great)
of Prussia (r )