The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

The Scientific Revolution

Contextualization (4.1)

• The Catholic Church limited rights during the Middle Ages due to:
  • Fear of losing power.
  • Fear of losing money.
  • Fear of losing people after the Reformation.
• The printing press facilitated the rapid spread of ideas.

The Scientific Revolution (4.2)

• Science was initially termed "natural philosophy."
  • It was based on religion and a simplified understanding of the world.
• The term "scientist" was not coined until the 1830s.

Views of Science in the Middle Ages

• Europeans considered God the center of truth and experience.
  • There was a deep distrust of human perception.
• Inductive Reasoning:
  • Involved making simple, specific observations to form broad generalizations about the world.

Causes for the Scientific Revolution

• Medieval Universities provided frameworks for scholarly inquiry.
• The Italian Renaissance spurred interest in classical knowledge and human achievement.
• Renewed emphasis on mathematics as a tool for understanding nature.
• The Renaissance system of patronage supported scientific endeavors.
• Navigational challenges of long sea voyages necessitated better scientific understanding and instruments.
• Advances in scientific instruments facilitated more accurate observations.

Francis Bacon (1561–1626)

• English lawyer, government official, historian, and essayist.
• Considered the father of scientific experimentation.
• Attacked scholasticism, advocating for empirical observation.
• Championed innovation and change as goals contributing to human improvement.

Francis Bacon (Continued)

• He is considered the father of the Scientific Revolution.
• Deductive Method replaced the Inductive Method.
  • Principles of geometry/logic.
    • The deductive method starts with a few true statements (axioms) with the goal of proving many true statements (theorems) that logically follow from them.
• New attitude toward nature emerged, focusing on understanding and controlling the natural world through experimentation.

René Descartes (1596–1650)

• Gifted mathematician and inventor of analytic geometry.
• Discourse on Method (1637):
  • Rejected scholastic philosophy and education.
  • Favored mathematical models.
  • Famous quote: "I think, therefore I am."
• Believed that (God-given) human reason was sufficient to comprehend the world.

Isaac Newton (1642–1727)

• Discovered the laws of gravity.
  • All physical objects in the universe attract each other.
  • This explained planetary orbits mathematically.
• Explained gravity mathematically, demonstrating how mutual attraction governs the universe.
• Principia Mathematica (1687) outlined these laws.

Isaac Newton (Continued)

• Natural laws:
  • Developed after scientific study.
  • Could be applied to other principles.

Astronomy in the Middle Ages

• Aristotle & Ptolemy:
  • Believed the Earth was at the center of the universe (geocentric model).

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)

• Polish priest and astronomer.
• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543):
  • Proposed a heliocentric (sun-centered) view of the solar system.
  • Challenged Ptolemaic/Aristotelian models.
  • Suggested that the Earth was no different from any other planet.
• His ideas were slow to gain acceptance.

Nicolaus Copernicus (Follow up)

• Copernicus did not face persecution for his heliocentric theory because "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies" was published on his deathbed.

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630)

• German astronomer and Tycho Brahe’s student.
• Advocated for the Copernican view.
• Discovered that planets move in elliptical orbits, not circular ones.
• Determined that the time for a planet to orbit the sun is related to its distance from the sun.
• New Astronomy (1609) influenced Galileo.

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)

• Italian mathematician and natural philosopher.
• Early practitioner of the experimental method.
• Became a high-profile Copernican advocate.
• Articulated the concept of a universe governed by mathematical laws.
• Developed a mathematical formula for the acceleration of falling objects.
• Formulated the law of inertia.

Galileo’s Telescope

• Observed mountains and craters on the moon, suggesting it was terrestrial like Earth.
• Discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter.
• Suggested that the sun could be an independent orbital system within a larger system.
• Expanded the understanding of the universe, making the world seem less small and intimate.

Galileo’s Arrest

• Offended the Pope, leading to his condemnation by the Inquisition.
• He was forced to recant his views and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
• His condemnation hampered further scientific work in Italy.
• Leadership in science shifted to England, France, and the Netherlands (Protestant nations).

The Power of the Printing Press

• Public opinion:
  • Collective effect on political and social life.
  • Views discussed in homes, workplaces, and leisure places.
• Governments had to respond to the people.
• Central European governments began to censor books and imprison authors.
• This raised questions about how governments should deal with the press.

Advances in Medicine

• Middle Ages medicine was dominated by Galen, a 2nd-century AD Greek physician.
  • Anatomy was based on animal dissections rather than human dissections.
  • Believed in two separate blood systems: one for muscles and the other for digestion.
  • Proposed the theory of four bodily humors: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile.

Advances in Medicine (Continued)

• Paracelsus:
  • Rejected Aristotle & Galen.
  • Developed a chemical philosophy based on observation & experimentation.
  • Proposed that disease was based on a chemical imbalance in specific organs.
• Andreas Vesalius:
  • Dissected human bodies, leading to a new understanding of anatomy.
• William Harvey:
  • Demonstrated that the heart was the central point of circulation for blood.

Women in the Scientific Revolution

• Generally excluded from the institutions of European intellectual life.
• Humanism encouraged elite women to read and study classical and Christian texts.

Age of Enlightenment (Unit 4.3)

Enlightenment

• Scientific Revolution:
  • Espoused the scientific method in the study of nature and the universe.
  • Emphasized reason & experimentation as the key to gaining knowledge.
  • Many believed the scientific method could be applied to the study of society/law.

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

• Rationalism: Humans have the ability to understand the world through reason.
• Empiricism: Human knowledge comes through the senses and experience.
• Both argued that what people know is more important than what they believe.
• Logic and reason were more important than superstition, faith, and magic.

The Enlightenment and Religion

• Enlightenment thinkers believed humans could discover truth for themselves without relying on religion.
• However, most Enlightenment thinkers still followed a religion.
• Some philosophers were tolerant of religion, while others were not.

Deism

• God was viewed as a deistic Creator or a cosmic clockmaker.
  • He created the universe and then stepped back, allowing it to run according to natural laws.
• The existence of God was considered a rational explanation for the universe and its form.
• The universe was governed by "natural law", not by a personal God.
  • Deists did not believe in miracles.

Other New Beliefs About Religion

• Atheism: Complete rejection of God and religion.
  • Denis Diderot eventually became an atheist.
• Skepticism:
  • Beliefs of David Hume (1711-1776).
  • Human reason is not sufficient to prove the existence of God or an afterlife.
  • Religion corrupts people.

Other New Beliefs About Religion (Continued)

• Methodism:
  • Founded by John Wesley (1703-1791).
  • Emerged from Anglicanism.
  • Emphasized personal experience with God.
  • Believed anyone could experience salvation.
  • Appealed to the working class.
• Pietism:
  • Combined Lutheranism with an emphasis on moral behavior.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)

• The turmoil of the English Civil War motivated his book Leviathan (1651).
• Leviathan:
  • Justified absolutist government.
  • Argued that humans are fundamentally self-centered.
  • Proposed a social contract where rulers should care for their people but maintain absolute power.

Thomas Hobbes (Continued)

• Hobbes’s Leviathan title page shows the ruler as an absolute lord of his realm but he also cares for the needs of the people that respect his authority.

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Contrasted with Hobbes.
• Wrote "First Treatise of Government" and "Second Treatise of Government."

Locke’s Social Contract

• Government was responsible for and should be responsive to the governed.
• Humans have reason and goodwill.

Other Locke Ideas

• Tabula Rasa (Blank Slate):
  • People are not born good or bad.
  • Motivated by self-interest.
• Natural rights:
  • Right to Life, Liberty, and Property.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Advocated for the consent of the governed.
• Rejected extreme individualism and stressed the role of the individual as a member of society.
• Believed government restricted individual freedom but was a necessary evil.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

• Wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" in 1792.
• Defended the equality of women with men based on human reason.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

• Wrote satire.
• Published works:
  • 1733: "Letters on the English" praised the British for their freedoms.
  • Imprisoned by the French.
  • Exiled in England.
  • 1759: "Candide" was a satire attacking war and religious persecution.

Voltaire’s "Wisdom"

• Politically:
  • Proponent of enlightened despotism.
  • Corresponded with Frederick the Great of Prussia & Catherine the Great of Russia.
• Religiously, he was a deist.
  • "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
• "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

The Encyclopedia

• Edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert.
• Collective work of more than one hundred authors.
• Aimed to secularize learning.
• Banned in France.

Montesquieu and Spirit of Laws (1689-1755)

• Advocated for three branches of government.
• Believed the best government depended on a country’s size, population, customs, and economic structure.
• Believed in separation of powers to prevent any one part of the government from being completely in control.

Beccaria and Reform of Criminal Law

• Beccaria wrote "On Crimes and Punishment" (1764).
• Spoke out against torture and capital punishment.
• Wanted speedy trials.
• Believed the purpose of punishment should be to deter further crimes.
• The purpose of laws is to guarantee happiness for as many human beings as possible.

Adam Smith

• Wrote "Wealth of Nations" (1776).
• Advocated for capitalism and laissez-faire economics.
• The "invisible hand":
  • Argued that the best way to create economic growth is for people to pursue their own self-interests.
• Rejection of mercantilism.