1. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
Toward a New Worldview
The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

2. Introduction
Profound change in the European world-view in the late 16th and 17th centuries
Primary cause was the Scientific Revolution (1543-present)
The most profound change in human history?
New intellectual climate differed from medieval & early modern world-view:
Rejection of authority
“Best” knowledge was practical
Demystification of the universe
Scientists of this era differed from predecessors in combining mathematics and experiment
-rejection of authority. Mostly Church authority, several crises contributed to this.
-”best” authority was practical. Bacon: “purpose of knowledge was to ease man’s estate” Descartes: purpose of knowledge “to make us, as it were, masters and possessors of nature”
Demystification of the universe: e.g., heavenly realm above the moon was no longer of eternal bodies that had no matter or weren’t physical
Experiment was different from Observation, which the ancient did.

3. Introduction Roots – science & technology from:
Ancient Egypt – pyramids, mathematics
China – movable type, paper, astronomy
Islam – medicine, ancient Greek texts, astronomy, mathematics
Medieval Europe – alchemy, herbalists, cathedrals
Translation of all of these materials into the vernacular

4. Scientific Thought in 1500 The Aristotelian/Ptolemaic Universe
Geocentric
10 separate, transparent, crystal spheres
First 8 held the moon, sun, planets, stars
Heaven lay beyond the 10th sphere
Angels kept the spheres moving
Common sense backs this up. The sun appears to move around the Earth
The Church invested greatly in this world-view
God had deliberately placed earth at the center of the universe
Earth was special
The Church invested greatly in this world-view: put man in the center of the universe, most important part of God’s creation

5. The Geocentric (Ptolemaic) Universe
                                                                                                  
The Geocentric (Ptolemaic) Universe
The Geocentric Universe

6. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
Polish monk
Observed patterns of star and planet movement for 25 years
On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies (1543)
Heliocentric Theory
Called into question the literal truth of the Scriptures
Copernicus waited until he was near death to publish his findings.
Why???
Called into question the literal truth of the Scriptures. There are a few passages where God, for example, makes the sun stand still. This implies that the earth is still and the sun moves around it.

7. The Heliocentric (Copernican) Universe

8. C. Johannes Kepler ( )
Mathematical laws govern the motion of the planets
Elliptical orbits
Planets do not move at uniform speeds in their orbits

9. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Ingenious scientist
Proves many of Aristotle’s ideas wrong
Objects fall at the same speed
Improved on the Telescope
Jupiter had 4 moons

10. Galileo Galilei ( )
Made observations that proved the Copernican view of the universe
Moon- uneven
Sunspots
Wrote in the vernacular
His findings help further Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory
Video
Among observations: moons of Jupiter, that is that there are planets with their own satellites: this also goes against the conception of perfect crystal spheres.

11. Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615)
Written to address the conflict between the Bible and heliocentric theory
Argued that the Bible must be interpreted in light of scientific knowledge
Argued for a non-literal interpretation of the Bible
Galileo declared the Bible teaches how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go
The letter began Galileo’s troubles with the Catholic Church

12. Trouble for Galileo
1616- Catholic Church tells Galileo not to support the ideas of Copernicus
1632- Publishes Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
The book clearly supports Copernicus
Video
1633 – Church forced Galileo to recant; placed under house arrest.
His ideas live on though! Why?

13. The Scientific Method
Logical procedure for gathering and testing ideas.
1. Problem or question arising from an observation
2. Hypothesis is formed.
3. Test the hypothesis.
4. Analyze and interpret the data
Results either confirm or disprove the hypothesis
Video

14. René Descartes (1596-1650) French mathematician and philosopher
A transitional figure between the medieval past and modern science
A rationalist
Mathematician: invented the Cartesian Coordinate system and analytic geometry, among other things.
Promoter of deductive reasoning. Wanted science to be like Euclid: deductions from self-evident starting points.

15. Discourse on Method (1637)
Descartes wished to develop a method that could be used to yield scientific truth
Argued that abstract reasoning and math were a more reliable path to truth; our senses could deceive us
Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”)
Cogito ergo sum was one of Descartes’ “axioms”, that is, certain and self-evident truths that other truths could then be deduced from using a deductive method.

16. Isaac Newton Great English Scientist Video
Defines the Theory of Gravity
Comes up with 3 laws of motions
1. An object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest, unless acted on by an outside force.
2. Acceleration of an object will increase if the amount of force is increases. (F= MxA)
3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

17. Other Inventions Evangelista Torricelli- Barometer
Gabrial Fahrenheit- Thermometer- 32 is freezing
Anders Celsisu- Thermometer- 0 is freezing
William Harvey- The heart acts as a pump for blood.
Edward Jenner- Vaccine for smallpox

18. More Discoveries Robert Boyle- Father of Modern Chemistry
challenges Aristotle’s idea of 4 elements (fire, water, air, earth)
Proposed that matter was made up of smaller primary particles. (atoms)

19. Consequences of the Scientific Revolution
Rise of the “Scientific Community”
--Royal Society of London (1662)
--Academy of Royal Sciences (1666)
The modern scientific method
A universe ordered according to natural laws

20. Significance of the Scientific Revolution
Contributions of these scientists made the universe comprehensible for the first time
The individual became much more important; collective authority was not the source of wisdom…individual intellect was
After the Revolution, God was viewed by many as either a remote “master mechanic”, or his existence began to be doubted
Began long adversarial relationship between science and religion
The Revolution laid the foundation for the Enlightenment of the 18th century…

21. The Enlightenment
Intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries…a product of the Scientific Revolution
Key principles of the Enlightenment:
Belief in human reason
Belief in the scientific method
Progress, or “easing man’s estate”
Enlightenment ideals often came into conflict with religion
Blossomed in 18th century France
Philosophers and philosophes
Philosophers and philosophes the latter were a group of writers, like Voltaire, who tried to popularize the ideas of the Enlightenment as opposed to the scientists and thinkers that came up with theories and discoveries, like Descartes and Galileo.
Public vs. “the people” audience for the philosophes was really a small educated group, there was no real wide-spread enlightenment yet. Thinkers often spoke in the name of “the people” nonetheless.

22. Two Views on Government
Thomas Hobbes- Wrote Leviathan in 1651
He felt that all humans were selfish and wicked.
Governments are needed to keep order. Without them life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

23. Two Views on Government
To escape this life people gave up their rights to a strong ruler.
This agreement is called the “social contract.”
The ruler needs total power to keep order.
Absolute Monarchy is the best type of government

24. Two Views on Government
John Locke
Better view of Human nature
Humans can learn from mistakes and are reasonable beings
People could govern themselves

25. Two Views on Government
All men are born free and equal.
All have 3 NATURAL RIGHTS
LIFE
LIBERTY
PROPERTY
The job of the government is to protect these rights.
If the government fails people have the right to overthrow it.
His ideas justify the overthrow of James II and help inspire the American Revolution

26. The Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation

27. The Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

28. The Declaration of Independence
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

29. The Declaration of Independence
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

31. Video

32. The Philosophes French Philosophers
Believed that you could apply reason, logical thinking, to all aspects of life, not just science
Beliefs
Truth can be discovered by reason. Reason is the absence of intolerance, bigotry, or prejudice.
Nature is good and reasonable. Natural for humans, just as there are natural laws in nature
Society can be set free through reason

33. Famous Philosophes Francois Marie Arouet- Voltaire
Criticized religion. He saw it as intolerant
Montesquieu- believed that the British government was the best because of how the power was divided.
His ideas became the basis for the idea of “Separation of Powers.”
“Power should be a check to power.”
Rousseau- Civilization corrupts people. Social contract- people give up power to kings, if kings misuse power, you have the right to rebel
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
Beccaria- People should receive a speedy trial, torture should not be used, and death penalty should be outlawed

34. Social Contract

35. Voltaire- Quotes Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.
If God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
It is dangerous to be right, when the government is wrong.
Love truth and pardon error.
Men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue that makes us different
I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

38. The “Woman’s Question” in the Enlightenment
Most philosophes agreed that the nature of women make them inferior
Mary Astell ( )
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, 1697
Better education and equality in marriage
Mary Wollstonecraft
Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792
Subjection of women by men wrong

39. Salons Place where ideas were spread during the Enlightenment
Usually held in the homes of wealthy women.
At the salon’s philosophers of the day will talk about their ideas and opinions.

40. America Many of these ideas become popular in the Americas
Our founding fathers apply these ideas
Many ideas of the Enlightenment form basis for our government today.

41. U.S. Constitution: An Enlightened Document
Enlightenment Idea
Locke- Government’s power comes from the consent of the people.
Montesquieu- Separation of Powers
Voltaire- Free Speech and Religious Tolerance
Beccaria- Accused have rights, no torture
U.S. Constitution
Preamble- “We the people, Limited power of federal government
Federal system of gov., powers divided among 3 branches, system of checks and balances
Freedom of speech and religion
No cruel and unusual punishment

42. Adam Smith
If individuals work for their best interests, the world will be orderly and progressive
Major contribution is the idea of laissez faire capitalism- capitalism without any government interference in the economy
Against helping poor workers
Invisible hand regulates economy
Came up with the idea for capitalism, economic system in which money is invested in business ventures with the goal of making a profit
Our economic system
If government allows free trade, everyone prospers

44. Enlightened Monarchs
Monarch’s who make changes to reflect the spirit of the Enlightenment and give more rights to their people
Supported the ideas of the philisophes, but did not want to give up any power

46. Results of the Enlightenment
F.A.S.T.
Fueled democratic revolutions (USA, France, etc)
Applied reason to the human world (government, law, etc) not just science
Stimulated religious tolerance (Freedom of Religion
Taught that our rights come from natural law, not governments