Chapter 21 - Reading 1

• European 18th century: Christian faith was the answer to most basic questions   * Some began to embrace rational inquiry and pursue the new science
• Western science increased the political and military powers of Europeans
• Joseph Banks (president of the Royal Society) linked scientific inquiry to real-world applications and economic purposes
• Intellectual debate divided thinkers   * Ancients: authority of Aristotle and other classical authors as the foundation of knowledge in fields such as medicine, math, and astronomy.   * Modern: rejected classical authority & Christian theology, human reason as the key to knowledge, contradicted traditional Christian conceptions
• Deductive reasoning: arguing from general principles to specific truth
• Rene Descartes   * Axioms of true philosophy had to be firmly grounded in the human capacity to reason   * Logic could result in a unified system of truth   * Systematic doubt as key to knowledge   * Ability to reason as proof of existence
• Modern science based on experimentation and observations of the natural world
• Sir English Bacon:   * Main proponents of an inductive approach to science   * Controlled observations to larger truth
• Tycho Brahe:   * Using only the naked eye to observe   * Challenged Aristotelian concept of an eternally unchanging celestial sphere   * Demonstrated that a bright supernova had emerged beyond the Earth's atmosphere
• Johannes Kepler:   * Applied Brahe's data to analyze the orbit of the planet Mars   * Showed that planetary motion was elliptical rather than circular   * Challenged Aristotle and Christian teaching that all celestial motion was circular (perfect movement for perfect heavenly domain) and reinforced Galileo
• Identical laws prevail throughout the universe and those laws can be described using math
• New ideas caused discomfort in the early 17th century. A century later, science was on the rise and more Europeans began to reason and use their senses to observe nature.
• Isaac Newton   * Used deductive thinking to establish general principles   * Used Bacon's inductive approach to experimental science   * The universal law of gravitation: All matter exerts gravitational attraction in inverse proportion to mass and distance   * Inventors of differential calculus
• Tension between science and faith began to ease starting the early 18th century.
• Scientists began to systematically collect and organize a catalogue of the world's flora
• Carl Linnaeus   * Pioneering figure in modern botany   * Gathered plants specimens, restored botanical gardens, send his students around the world to gather specimens for study   * Published his classification of living things     * The Linnaean system orders species into hierarchical categories: genus/order/class/kingdom   * Developed the binomial system of Latin names of organism     * World's plants already had names but fit not consistent network of classification     * Created a single knowledge system
• Joseph Banks   * Adept at deriving practical economic lessons from Carl Linnaeus's works   * Leading figure in the drive for improvement: using scientific methods to increase the productivity of existing land and bring new land under cultivation   * Bring insights gained from natural science to agriculture   * Improve soil by sowing clover and turnips in fields   * Selective breeding of livestock to boost the production of wool, meat, and milk   * Wealthy gentle famer, invested in water engineering tech   * Experimented with crop rotation and crossbreeding farm animals
• Agriculture revolution led to more arable land for planting and greater efficiency in production   * Increased food supplies supported urbanization during the industrial revolution
• Agriculture led to greater inequality   * Village society was oriented toward stability and security; common access to pasture and woodlands   * New law allowed the English gentry to accumulate larger landholdings; allowing them to enclose common lands as private property   * Food security matter less than productivity and profitable crops sales   * Rural families could no longer sustain themselves; they drift to cities and coal mines for employment   * "One person's improvement, therefore, could be another's ticket to unemployment."   * Interests of the gentry was well represented in the Parliament and in the courts, those of the poor were not.
• Joseph Banks advocated for improvement on the imperial stage   * Globalizing the practical application of science through his advocacy of economic botany   * Developed a experimental facility at Kew Gardens     * Scientists brought new plant specimens from around the world to be examined, catalogued, and cultivated     * Biological diffusion       * British Navy needed secure supplies of timber, English botanists identified South Asian mahogany as a supplement to British and North American oak   * Use of science to justify the dominance of the British elite at home and abroad     * Believed that they would ultimately benefit from scientifically rational agriculture.
• British colonization in Ireland   * Claimed that the Irish were not using land efficiently, legally seized to make it more civil.
• Australia   * Regarded as empty land because its aboriginal inhabitants had not improved it
• Justified their empire by claiming it created the best possible life for locals

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