The Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment

According to Locke, what is the purpose of government?

To protect people’s rights

What did Locke say has ruined cities and depopulated countries?

The issue of who should have power

What inherent and sacred rights do all men have according to John Locke

Life, Liberty, and Property

According to Hobbes, what forces us to obey the laws of nature?

The laws themselves

According to Hobbes, what do men desire that is only ended in death?

Power

How did Hobbes describe man?

Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, short, wicked.

What is the purpose of religion according to Voltaire?

To deceive men and to comfort them

“I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write“

Voltaire

“There are truths that are not for all men, nor for all occasions“

Voltaire

“For the laws of nature (as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and in sum, doing to others as we would be done to) of themselves, without the terror of some power, to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like.“

Thomas Hobbes

“Man is free the moment he wants to be“

Voltaire

What did Montesquieu devote himself to?

The study of political liberty

What three bodies did England split its power into?

* Parliament (legislative/lawmaking)
* English Court (Judicial/Carrying Laws Out)
* King (Executive/Interpreting Laws)

Why did Montesquieu believe in the separation of powers?

It prevented one individual from gaining to much power

What idea did Rousseau believe in?

* Individual Freedom
* Abolishing the nobility so that everyone would be equal

What ideas did Voltaire believe in?

* freedom of expression
* religious freedom

What idea did Wollstonecraft believe in?

Women’s rights

What idea did Beccaria believe in?

Governments should seek greatest goods for the greatest number of people

How did most philosophes view women?

* Traditional views


* Different/unequal to men

Which 3 ideas did Wollstonecraft argue?

* Women & men need the same education to be virtuous & useful
* Women can be nurses & doctors
* Women should be able to participate in politics

What was the title of Wollstonecraft’s book?

*A Vindication of the Rights of Women* (1792)

Salon

A social gathering of wealthy women to discuss philosophy

Which 3 principles were examined by enlightenment thinkers?

* Divine Right of Monarchs
* Union of Church & State
* Social Class Division

What was inspired by the theories of the Enlightenment?

The French & American revolutions

What did people begin to question during this time?

The Church’s teachings

Where did people turn for guidance in place of the Church?

Themselves

What took the center stage during the enlightenment?

Reason

Why did philosophers admire Newton?

He used reason to explain Natural Laws

What did people begin to look for during this time?

Laws governing human behavior

What did people want to apply the scientific method to?

All aspects of society:

* government
* religion
* economics
* education

What was the title of Hobbes’ book?

*Leviathan* (1651)

According to Hobbes, what would there be without absolute government?

“war of every man against every man“ life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, short“

What “social contract“ did Hobbes propose?

People gave up their rights to a strong, absolute ruler

How did Locke view men?

As reasonable beings who could govern themselves and were all born free and equal

What did Locke believe you should do to a government who fails to protect your rights?

Overthrow it

Who were the philosephes?

French social critics (philosophers in French)

According to the philosophes, what is reason?

the absence of intolerance, bigotry, or prejudice

How did philosophers believe you could achieve happiness?

By living nature’s laws

Who was the most influential philosophe?

Voltaire (a.k.a. François Marie Arouet)

Which three groups did Voltaire target for ridicule?

The Clergy, Aristocracy, and the Government

Natural Laws

Unchanging laws that exist within nature created by the Creator (God) to govern creation (e.g. gravity, inertia/momentum, natural rights)

The Watchmaker Analogy

William Paley/1802- The idea that, like a watch, the universe and everything in it is too complex to exist without a creator (a watchmaker)

Deism

The religious belief that a creator made the world and made natural laws to run the world, then left (Deists don’t believe in a God listening to their prayers)

Why was Hobbes opposed to a democracy?

It would give a wicked, nasty population control over each other

Tabula Rasa

Latin- “Scraped Tablet” (i.e. blank slate)

* Locke believed that everyone was a blank slate and their character was determined by their environment

What impact did the Renaissance have on the scientific revolution?

people placed less importance on the church

What impact did the Reformation have on the scientific revolution?

Religious leaders influenced people to think about God in different ways.

What primary texts did Europeans use to understand the world?

* Ancient Greek & Roman texts
* The Bible

Scientific Method

Problem/Question → Hypothesis → Experiment → Interpret Data

Copernicus

* **heliocentric theory**- he reasoned that the sun was the center of the universe
* Wrote a book titled *On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies*

Galileo

* Built a telescope and observed the universe
* Also studied motion, discovered the Law of Falling Bodies & that the trajectory of a projectile is a parabola
* Published *Starry Messenger* (1610), describing Saturn’s moons, the Sun’s dark spots, and heliocentricity

Francis Bacon

Developed and pushed for scientific theory

Isaac Newton

* **Law of Universal Gravitation**- Every object is attracted to every other object
* **Law of Attraction**- The attraction is determined by Mass and Distance
* He believed that all parts of the universe worked together like a giant clock with God at the center

Leeuwenhoek

Used a microscope to observe bacteria in tooth scrapings as well as red blood cells

Fahrenheit

* Made a mercury thermometer that showed 32º as freezing
* Also worked on an alcohol thermometer
* Researched how atmospheric pressure affected a liquids boiling point

Andreas Vesalius

Proved Galen’s theory on anatomy wrong by dissecting human corpses

William Harvey

Performed vivisections to learn about the circulation of blood

Edward Jenner

Treating smallpox using inoculation

Robert Boyle

* The founder of modern chemistry, also studied medicine, physics, alchemy, etc.


* Studied the relationship of pressure & Volume with his and Robert Hooke’s air pump
* Proposed that matter could be made up of smaller primary particles

Boyle’s Law

Regarding the relation concerning the compression and expansion of a gas at constant temperature.

Law of Falling Bodies

All falling objects fall at the same speed regardless of their size, shape, or mass (Galileo)

Science

The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observations and experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained

What were the key ideas of the Enlightenment?

All things must be questioned, old ways of doing things should be rethought

“Dare to know, Dare to use your reason, Dare to think for yourself“

Immanuel Kant

“Power corrupts (,) Absolutely“

Montesquieu

Parliament

The British government’s legislative (lawmaking) branch, which consists of the **house of congress** & the **house of lords**

America’s government- Executive Branch

The president enforces laws over a 4 year term

America’s government- Legislative Branch

Law making

* The senate- 100 senators (2 per state), 6 year terms
* The House of Representatives- 435 members (based on state population), 2 year terms

America’s government- Judicial Branch

The Supreme Court (9 justices) interprets laws until death, retirement or conviction by the senate