The Scientific Revolution

AndThe Enlightenment

Mr. Giesler Global Studies

New Ideas About The UniverseThe Universe of Aristotle and Ptolemy

Throughout the Middle

Ages, European scholars

believed that the Earth was

the center of the universe.

1500s, European

scientists began to

challenge this thinking

Scientist began to

question the old ideas of

the world.

TTYN: Identify as many ‘old’ ideas which scientists began to questionScientific Revolution: A New Way of Thinking!

Copernicus challenges Aristotle and Ptolemy (leave off the ‘p’) Using math, suggested the universe was heliocentric, or sun-

centered

Galileo Has Copernicus’s Back"father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern

physics",the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science." 

Early 1600s, Italian astronomer Caused an uproar within the Church On Trial; threatened with death Forced to rescind …. not empirically proven

Gravity

English scholar, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-17272) Used mathematics to prove the existence of a force that kept planets in their orbit around the sun…the same force that made objects fall towards EarthTheorized that nature follows uniform laws

New Approach to Investigation

Perform experiments to test hypothesis

Scientific Method

Identify problem

Form hypothesis

Record results

Analyze results, form conclusion

New Ways Of Thinking

Scientific Method ScholarsFrancis Bacon, experimentation to

gain scientific knowledge

Rene Descartes, reason key

Believed everything should be doubted until proved by reason

Relied on math, logic

Ideas of both continue to influence modern scientific methods

Experimentation

Observation

Human Reasoning Rene Descartes “Father of Modern

Philosophy” 

His fundamental break with Scholastic philosophy was twofold.

First, thought that the Scholastics’ method was prone to doubt given their reliance on sensation as the source for all knowledge.

Second, he wanted to replace their final causal model of scientific explanation with the more modern, mechanistic model.

Reason over Tradition

"I think, therefore I am" 

Descartes method required:

Accepting as "truth" only clear,

distinct ideas that could not be

doubted

Breaking a problem down into

parts

Deducing one conclusion from

another, and

Conducting a systematic

synthesis of all things. Descartes

based his entire philosophical

approach to science on this

deductive method of reasoning. 

The Impact of Bacon and Descartes Each of these pioneers advocated the complete overthrow of all the

methods and most of the results of the authorities that came before

them.

They each demanded a new standard of precision, since there were

so many examples of sloppy reasoning and observation that littered the

path of the science of the past.

A commitment to doubt in general and a concern about the

"deceptions of the senses“.

Believed in the reduction of problems to their smallest constituent

parts as a general principle.

Their ideas and the ideas of other thinkers during the Scientific

Revolution paved the way for other changes that would occur in Europe

in the 1700sIf a man shall begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts;but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in

certainties.“ – Francis Bacon

The School of Athens, 1511Raphael

1: Zeno of Citium 2: Epicurus 3: unknown 4: Boethius or Anaximander or Empedocles?

5: Averroes 6: Pythagoras 7: Alcibiades orAlexander the Great? 8: Antisthenes or Xenophon? 9: unknown  or the Fornarina as a

personification of Love  or (Francesco Maria della Rovere?) 10: Aeschines or Xenophon? 11: Parmenides?

12: Socrates 13: Heraclitus (Michelangelo) 14: Plato (Leonardo da Vinci) 15: Aristotle 16: Diogenes 17: Plotinus (Donatello?) 18: Euclid or Archimedes with students (Bramante?)

19: Zoroaster 20: Ptolemy? R: Apelles (Raphael) 21: Protogenes (Il Sodoma, Perugino, or Timoteo Viti)

Now The Why?

Causes of the Scientific Revolution

Medieval Intellectual Life and Medieval Universities

The Italian Renaissance

Renewed emphasis on mathematics

Renaissance system of patronage

Navigational problems of long sea voyages

Better scientific instruments

Consequences of the Scientific Revolution

Rise of the “Scientific Community”

Royal Society of London (1662)

Academy of Royal Sciences (1666)

Scholars could engage in discourse about theories and ideas,

this expanding knowledge

The modern scientific method

A universe ordered according to natural laws

The GREATEST impact was on how people thought and

believed TTYN: Answer the following questions in short-answer format

What are the causes and consequences of the Scientific Revolution

Who is impacted by the Scientific Revolution? How are

people/groups impacted?

Natural Laws

TTYN: Can you describe what natural laws are?

Laws that govern human beings

Scholars thought they could solve the problems of society

By way of the Scientific Revolution, this new way of thinking

lead to the Enlightenment

TTYN: What does it mean to be an enlightened thinker?

The Age of Enlightenment

1700s, the period in which people rejected traditional ideas

and supported a belief in human reason

Logical thought can lead to truth is called Rationalism

New ways of viewing authority

Progressive, Rationalistic, Humanistic worldview

Emerged out of the Scientific Revolution and culminated in

the French Revolution

Spokesmen = Rising Middle Class

Paris = Center of Enlightenment

Optimism about mankind’s abilities

Distrust of Tradition and Revealed Religion

Scientific method could be applied to society as well

Society can get better as risks are taken

Man is naturally good

Good life is on earth

So, What Was It?

The Old Regime

TTYN: Describe the ‘Old’ Regime? Who were they? What was the problem?

Built on tradition

World of hierarchy, privilege and inequality

Allied with the Church

Challenged by the reform impulse of supporters of the

Enlightenment

The Big FourTTYN: Can you identify these guys?

Locke

Voltaire

Rousseau

de Montesquieu

What Were The Enlighten Thinkers Up ToThe Idea of Progress

The anti-religious implications of

the Enlightenment

The relativity of truth and morality

John Locke’s New Psychology

Essay Concerning Human

Understanding (1690)

-- “Tabula Rasa”

“Tabula Rasa” - Concerns itself with determining the limits of human

understanding in respect to God, the self, natural kinds and artifacts,

as well as a variety of different kinds of ideas. It thus tells us in some

detail what one can legitimately claim to know and what one cannot. 

The human mind at birth is a complete, but receptive, blank slate (scraped tablet or tabula rasa ) upon which

experience imprints knowledge.

The Philosophes

France – The host of most (not all) of the Enlightened Thinkers.

TTYN: Why France?

18th century French intellectuals

Interest in addressing a broad audience

Committed to reform

Celebrated the scientific revolution

The “Mystique of Newton”

Science applied to society

All the same, the concepts of religious freedom for all, equality

before the law and the supremacy of human reason were

proclaimed loudly and clearly by the heroes of the movement. In

France they were called the philosophes.

Embraced scientific progress and geographical discoveries,

and were dismayed at the corruption, superstition, hypocrisy

and injustice condoned if not fostered, by the church and the

state.

Believed that ignorance was evil and they blamed this evil on

the religious and political leaders, leaders who claimed to be the

special agents of God's revelation in order keep the common

people shackled in ignorance. 

Divine Right

Philosophes believed that human progress would only come

through intellectual and spiritual enlightenment—not blind

obedience to authority.

Enlightened humanity could bring an end to poverty,

injustice, racism, and all the other ills of society.

The Philosophes

TTYN: You’re a peasant or farmer in France during the early 18th century and while sipping your coffee coolatta at the local Starbucks and you listen on conversation between two philosophes – what is likely going through your mind and what might be your initial impulse?

The Philosophes

The Problem of Censorship

The attempt of the Old Regime to control new thinking

Publishers and writers hounded by censors

Over 1000 booksellers and authors imprisoned in the Bastille in the early

1700’s

Battling censorship

Authority Reacts

Diderot’s Encyclopedia

Ultimate strength of the philosophes lay in their numbers,

dedication and organization

Written between 1751-1772

Attempted to illustrate all human knowledge

Emphasis on practical science

The encyclopedia was not just a massive compilation of what was

known at the time about all things scientific and philosophical. It

was also an expression of the radical and controversial ideas

espoused by the philosophes.

Many of its articles reflected the impious attitudes of its

contributors like Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau, for example.

As such it served as a manifesto for a new way of looking at the

world.

TTYN: Before there was the internet, where would you go for information on a particular subject?

Back to The Big Four

Locke's Political Philosophy , which he expounds on in his Two

Treatises of Government  focuses on five central topics

The state of nature

Natural law

Property

Consent and toleration goes into these topics in more depth

than is possible in a general account and provides much useful

information on the debates about them.

Much of Locke's work is characterized by opposition to

authoritarianism.

Back to The Big Four

Much of Locke's work is characterized by opposition to

authoritarianism.

This opposition is both on the level of the individual person and

on the level of institutions such as government and church.

For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to

search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of

authorities or be subject to superstition. 

Locke’s ultimate goal was aimed at refuting the patriarchal

version of the Divine Right of Kings doctrine…that people are not

naturally free and all legitimate gov’t is absolute!

VoltaireRole of the Church - The Roman Catholic Church which in France

had become the only official state-sanctioned religion

Voltaire argued that people should be permitted to worship as

they pleased or not at all.

Jean Calas Case

Hated hated the Catholic Church

Believed that God had created everything but then let it evolve

on its own

A Treatise on Tolerance that focused entirely on the Jean

Calas case

Small Group ActivityRefer to Notes PacketA Treatise on Tolerance

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau in favor of direct democracy….totally against a

monarchy (in any fashion)

TTYN: Describe both a monarchy and direct democracy

Believed that under any other type of gov’t, people are forced to

give up liberty

The Social Contract - "All men are born free, but everywhere they

are in chains.“

Had an impact on the French Revolution, it also had a profound

influence on the Declaration of Independence adopted in 1776 by

the new United States of America.

 A Discourse on the Sciences and Arts - argues that the progression

of the sciences and arts has caused the corruption of virtue and

morality.

The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

citizens making policy and law decisions in person, without going through representatives and legislatures

A monarchy is a form of government in which total sovereignty is invested in one person

Interested in Politics not so much science

 Spirit of the Laws.

Inspired by the British political system

Advocated a separation of powers amongst the various

branches of government.

The English constitution had divided state powers into three

independent branches of government: the executive, the

legislative, and the judicial.

Believed this would create a system of Checks and Balances.

TTYN: How does Montesquieu’s political philosophy relate to

your life?

Baron de Montesquieu

Checks and Balances. Separation of Powers

“Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.” -

Montesquieu

“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.”

Hobbs

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers

are punished unless they kill in large

numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” -

Voltaire “All mankind…being all equal and independent no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty” -

Locke

All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one

was born with a knowledge of God.

Voltaire

"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the

understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher

than reason." - Immanuel Kant

Quotable Quotes