Before the Scientific Revolution

Before the scientific revolution everyone would believe what others said without proof. If you were playing a board game and won it meant god loves the winner more than than the loser. The purpose of playing the game was to find your rank with god.

Science started by Geocentrism:

Which meant earth sat motionless in the middle and all planets rotate around earth. Then stars and other things sat on the outside and god was out even farther.

Aristotle pushed this idea and people believed him. This was also confirmed by the bible and gravity. Everyone was happy and the church believed it.

In 250 BC Aristarchus proposed Heliocentrism:

This stated that the sun was in the center of the universe not the earth.

Copernicus

No one believe it because Aristotle released a lot of other proof at around the same time this was proposed. Ptolemy also confirmed what Aristotle wrote and no one questioned it.This was until Copernicus realized it wasn’t possible the earth sat in the center. So he looked for trends and patterns and realizes the sun sits in the center. He wrote about it but never published it because he thought people would laugh at him and it was going against the church. He wrote all his ideas in a book and published it after he died. Copernicus got backlash but the catholic church knew he was right because monks were usually astronomers. Martin Luther was also very angry because he was saying the bible was wrong when the bible was the word of god.

Tycho Brahe - He says that the sun rotates around the earth because of the bible. This was Geocentrism.

Johann Kepler was the first to find out about the eclipse. People thought everything was centered but he believed that everything shifted towards the right. People need evidence to believe this.

Galileo

Galileo eventually brought evidence. He had a telescope much better than anyone and he saw the moon. They looked at it and it looked like crap, but before people thought it looked perfect. He also found more moons by Jupiter. Galileo had proof for these things. He also proved venus’s cycle. By presenting this information he is going against the church. He knew this was going to end badly. He also discovered the milky way and how it was just a serious of stars rather than the myth. Galileo confides into the bishop and he said to keep it to himself so they could find a way to present the information in a way that doesn’t undermine the church. The bishop becomes a pope and he says to write a book that presents the idea.

In the book it’s a story of 3 people. THe first person was a heliocentrist, the second person was a geocentric and the third person was an idiot. The name of the idiot was the pope’s real name. This mocked the church, so he was put on trial and charged with heresy. During the trial they told Galileo that they know he is right but he needs to say he is wrong. If Galileo says that the earth is still he can live. But if he goes otherwise he would be lit on fire. From that point on he was under house arrest and not allowed to publish.

After this there was a huge debate on what is right. The debate was science vs religion and evolution vs creation.

Intelligent Decide- Puts the 2 together. God puts us on earth as small creatures intentioned for us to evolve. This shows science and religion is compatible.

Mechanism- States that the universe is like a machine. Humans are a vital part of the universe, without them the world would fall apart.

In religion people were important but not in science. So mechanism was a compromise. (people needed to feel special)

Deism: A religion; a mixture of christianity and logic. The basic idea is that god created the universe perfect because he is perfect. Therefore everything that happens in the universe is perfect. If you have a problem with the universe then it’s your fault. There is a theory that many of the founding fathers were deist.

One thing that deists believed in was no miracles because god isn’t there anymore. Jefferson crossed out all the miracles in the bible and follows what is left which are morals. Deism was a compromise between science and religion.

THOMAS HOBBES

He grows up in England and had a horrible childhood. The king was overthrown and a civil war happened. People with long hair supported the king. When he crossed the london bridge he saw people’s heads on sticks on the bridge. He was horrified.

He wrote a book called leviathan. It was similar to the prince because it was shocking. In the book he asked the question what is our natural state? When you take away things that have an influence on you. Everyone in Europe argues what the natural state is.

“All that is real is material and all that is not material is not real” - A quote from Hobbes book. This means that if you can’t feel of touch something its not real. This is about the soul.

Hobbes had this view that if you were left alone we would be so bad.

If we were left alone we would kill ourselves and others. He says life would be “nasty, brutish, and short”

In life we need to give people 3 things. Equality, Liberty and order. We need a society with these things.

Liberty- Limit on Government

Hobbes believes if you give liberty to people they’ll kill each other. He states: “Equality breeds hatred, enmity, and war.” He says this because not everyone is equal. If someone who deserves more is given the same as someone who deserves less, they will resent each other.

He says man is motivated by pleasure and pain. This leads Hobbes to believe the best way to run society is by an absolute monarchy.

“The dangers of anarchy are greater than those of tyranny” THis says that order should be more preferred than freedom. In the book he writes that its best to have an absolute monarchy.

John Locke

He was outraged by what Hobbes had to say. He writes a book called “Two Treatises of Government” He disputes Hobbes the whole book.

John Locke was an empiricist.

Empiricism- All people are born neutral not good or bad these things happen based on environment.

You are born on a clean slate, and if you were raised in a bad environment they you’re bad. People’s experiences are based on how you see the world.

He says all humans have one desire no matter where you grow up. We all want companionship. We want to be apart of another community with other humans. Locke believes we want to be with people.

Locke believes that we do need a government but they have obligations. There are 3 things the government must give:

1. The right to live

2. The right to Liberty NATURAL RIGHTS

3. The right to property

Both Hobbes and Locke agree we need a government

If theses things are not protected they are allowed to rebel and overthrow the government. More people follow him rather than Hobbes.

Those who agree with Locke are called philosophs.

Adam Smith

Adam Smith takes this to a different level. Much of what John Lock believed is said in the constitution.

Adam Smith wrote a book called the Wealth of Nations. He says that there should be no laws. This is still a popular book today.

“It is good to unleash man’s selfish interests” He says it is good to be selfish.

He promoted a government called “Laissez Faire”meaning to let go. The government should not control us.

Capital is something that brings power. Smith believes since we are selfish we are all going to try to get capital. He says that if you leave people alone it will benefit society because we are benefiting ourselves. Because to get capital we are going to have to make a service that benefits society. People don’t provide these services because they like you, but because they are selfish and want capital.

If you leave people alone they will make services that will benefit society. This is called the invisible hand.

If people are doing bad things in their business then people won’t do business with immoral people.

No one really owned land but they had land. Then Locke talked about private property and it caused an uproar.

Mercantilism - The economy war run by merchants the main goal was to get gold. This was the economic system at the time,

Tariff - Tax on import. Adam Smith realizes tariffs actually hurt people. He realizes the only way it work is Laissez - Faire, the government backs off and peoples greed happens.

Adam Smith believes there are 3 things the government must do:

1. Build roads- If people set up services they need a way to deliver it to people

2. Educate- You need educated workers and customers

3. Protect- We need an army and police

The government needs to leave us alone except do these 3 things. This type of government is called Capitalism.

Religion - You need good religious morals

JJ ROUSSEAU

He disagreed with Adam Smith strongly. He was a huge person. The world is a mess and he writes a series of books to calm everyone down.

He saw the basic fault of capitalism. “Capitalism is inequality” He says

“I would rather be virtuous than wealthy” Being virtuous means being morally good. He is implying that you can’t be virtuous and wealthy. Making money makes you un virtuous because to make max capital you need to compete with others. Rousseau believes that this competition is ripping society apart. Capitalism is tearing society apart.

“Man is born good but corrupted by society” He is positive we are born good and society makes us bad.

“Man is born free, yet everywhere is in chains” This means that when we’re born we can do whatever we want but now society restricts us as we go on in life.

Rousseau believes that the only way to be happy is to leave society. If you were able to mentally leave societies norms you were called a noble savage.

NOBLE SAVAGE- Someone who was able to mentally leave society and its norms

Rousseau criticized everything and asked how we can leave society.

He had a theory in his book The Social Contract on how to live outside of society's norms. He comes up with The General Will. Which is a will of the majority.

He advocates for democracy. It is based on the will of the majority and what the majority wants.

“Majority rules, minority follows” He is really the first one to advocate for democracy.

“I prefer liberty with danger over peace with slavery” He would rather have freedom with danger over peace with slavery.

Democracy means more people will be happy. Democracy was Rousseau’s influence as it is what the US uses now.

BARON DE MONTESQUIEN

He wants evidence on what’s the best government. So he researched on which is the best. The criteria of it was:

1. Prosperity - What was the standard of living?

2. Order - How safe were the the people?

3. Rights / Equality / Liberty

After researching he came to the conclusion that the british government is the best because they had separation of powers. Which is called checks + balances. The government is split into 3 branches:

1. Legislative Branch: Makes laws. In England the parliament makes laws and in the US the congress makes laws.

2. Executive Branch: Enforces laws. The king or queen enforces laws in England, while the president does it in America.

3. Judicial Branch: Interpret laws. If the supreme court thinks a law is not fair then they can overturn it.

All 3 groups have to agree for a law to be a law. We follow his rules.

VOLTAIRE

He is a philosoph (A John Locke follower). This means he believed in natural rights.

“I may not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”

He says he want to protect the rights of controversial speech. He was also a big believer in equality,