PrductivityStudent 

Toward a New Worldview

1540-1789

Major Breakthroughs of the Scientific Revolution

Scientific Thought in 1500

What is natural philosophy?

➔ The study of the nature of universe, its purpose, and how it functioned.

➔ What we would call “science” today.

➔ Based on the ideas of Aristotle.

◆ Model of the universe: Earth is in the middle

◆ Aristotelian philosophy fixed perfectly with Christian

doctrines by Thomas Aquinas

● “Great Chain of Being”

The Aristotelian Universe - Earth was the center of the universe.

Who is Ptolemy?

➔ Hellenized (Greco-Roman) Egyptian scholar

Ptolemy’s Teachings

1. Planets move in epicycles.

2. Earth was the center of the universe.

* Ptolemaic astronomy requires complex calculations.

Origins of the Scientific Revolution

Causes of the Scientific Revolution

(1) Medieval universities layed down the foundations of new views.

❖ Established new professorships of mathematics, astronomy, and optics.

(2) Renaissance ideas stimulated scientific progress.

❖ Renaissance patronized scientific investigations.

❖ Took interest in realism and use of geometry to convey perspective.

   

(3) Technological Developments

❖ Printing press allowed knowledge and new ideas to circulate faster across

Europe.

❖ Navigation and cartography critical in the development of new instruments:

telescope, barometer, thermometer, pendulum clock, microscope, and air pump.

➢ Allowed sailors to make more accurate observations.

Role of Centuries-old Practices

➔ For many years, many believed that the changing relationship between planets and

stars influence events on Earth.

➔ Magic/alchemy

The Copernican Hypothesis

What led to the departure from medieval thinking?

➔ The desire to explain and thereby glorify God’s handiwork

Who is Nicolaus Copernicus?

➔ A Polish cleric

➔ Studied astronomy, medicine, and church law.

➔ Challenged Aristotelian physics

Copernican Theory

1. Sun is the center of the universe.

2. Earth revolves around the sun.

3. Earth rotates on its axis.

4. The universe is “unthinkably large.”

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

➔ Published at the year of his death; 1543

Different Reactions to the Copernican Hypothesis

➔ Protestant scholars took an interest in Copernicus’ ideas, while others accepted his

criticisms of Ptolemy, but also rejected the heliocentric model.

➔ Was not declared false by the Catholic Church (who initially ignored his teachings) until

1616.

   

Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo: Proving Copernicus Right

Who is Tycho Brahe?

➔ Danish nobleman and astronomer.

➔ Casted horoscopes and based his daily life on astrological

principles.

Brahe’s Significance

❖ Created new tables of planetary motions: Rudolphine Tables.

❖ Known for his accurate planetary observations.

★ He had an assistant...Johannes Kepler.

Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer.

What did Kepler do?

❏ Developed three laws:

➔ Orbits of the planets around the star are elliptical.

➔ A planet moves faster when close to the sun and vice versa.

➔ Orbital period is related to a planet’s distance from the sun.

❏ United natural philosophy with mathematics.

❏ Completed the Rudolphine Tables.

❏ First to study the field of optics.

❏ Created the basis for integral calculus and advances in geometry.

★ Then came Galileo Galilei.

Galilei was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher.

What did Galileo do?

❏ Created the experimental method → a new method of learning was developed.

❏ Formulated the law of inertia: rest is natural state of objects, unless stopped by some

force.

❏ Discovered the moons of Jupiter → provided new evidence for Copernican theory.

★ Works of Copernicus and his supporters were included in the list of forbidden books.

❏ Published Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World (1632)

➢ Put on trial for heresy and imprisoned.

   

Newton’s Synthesis

By 1640, the science community has accepted the works of Brahe, Kepler, and

Galileo.

Who is Isaac Newton?

➔ An English scientist.

➔ United experimental and theoretical-mathematical sides of modern

science.

➔ Believed in alchemy.

Newton’s Significance

❖ He published Principia. ➢ Created a set of laws that explained motion and mechanics.

■ Law of Universal Gravitation

➢ Synthesized mathematics with physics and astronomy.

Important Changes in Scientific Thinking

Bacon, Descartes, and the Scientific Method

Major Achievement (17th c.): Better ways of obtaining knowledge

Two Important thinkers:

Francis Bacon René Descartes

● English politician and writer. ● Rejected medieval way of thinking. ● Formalized the empirical method

(empiricism/inductive reasoning) ○ Knowledge is based on

experiment and experimentation.

● His followers created the Royal Society, which met weekly to discuss and conduct experiments.

● Discovered analytic geometry → provided scientist with a new tool.

● Stressed mathematics and deductive reasoning (rationalism).

○ Human reasoning is the best way of understanding.

○ Everything should be doubted until proven.

● Cartesian dualism: mind (immaterial) and body (material) are two independent substances that make a human being.

   

★ Bacon and Descartes’ different philosophy of knowledge highly influenced the scientific

method based on experimentation and mathematical reasoning.

Medicine, the Body, and Chemistry

Galen’s Explanation

● The body contained four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile.

● Illness is a result from an imbalance of humors. ○ Bloodletting is the solution.

★ GALEN’S MEDICAL VIEWS WERE CHALLENGED:

Who is Paracelsus?

➔ Swiss physician and alchemist

➔ “Father of Modern Medicine”

Paracelsus’ Explanation

● Disease caused by chemical imbalances.

Who is Andreas Vesalius?

➔ Flemish physician.

➔ Studied anatomy by dissecting human bodies.

➔ Major Work: On the Structure of the Human Body

Who is William Harvey?

➔ English royal physician.

➔ Discovered how blood was pumped by the heart and circulated throughout the body.

Who is Robert Boyle?

➔ Found modern science of chemistry.

➔ Discovered Boyle’s Law: the pressure of a gas varies inversely with volume.

Who is Anton van Leeuwenhoek?

➔ “Father of Microscopy”

➔ Developed powerful microscopes.

➔ First to see and write about bacteria, yeast plants, etc.

   

Empire and Natural History

Scholars published new works regarding the different forms of life in other parts of the world.

↓

Encyclopedias

❖ Included realistic drawings, illustrations, and descriptions

Government began sponsoring scientific expeditions for both profit and obtaining knowledge.

↓

Other countries began to invest invest in science as their empires expanded.

People enjoyed reading “the accounts of naturalists, who braved the

heat, insects, and diseases of tropical jungles to bring home exotic

animal, vegetables, and mineral specimens.”

↓

They began collecting natural history which led to the establishment of

museums.

Science and Society

1. The rise of the national scientific community sought expansion of knowledge.

2. Creation of the modern scientific method; a new way of obtaining knowledge that is

both experimental and theoretical.

The Enlightenment

The Emergence of the Enlightenment

What is the Enlightenment?

➔ A period of philosophical, social and civil development in the 18th century.

Three Main Concepts

(1) Rationalism - Methods of science could be applied to understanding all aspects of life.

(2) Social science - The scientific method could discover laws of human society.

(3) Creation of better societies and better people.

   

★ People began to wonder whether religious truth could ever be known.

○ Enlightenment thinkers wanted to go beyond antiquity.

Pierre Bayle

Bayle was a Huguenot well-known for his work Historical and Critical

Dictionary which concluded that nothing can be ever known beyond all

doubt, a view known as skepticism.

Baruch Spinoza

Spinoza is a Dutch Jewish philosopher who believed that the mind and

body are united. He was excommunicated for his concept of a

deterministic universe in which good and evil are relative values.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Leibniz is a German philosopher and mathematician known for his

optimistic view of the universe.

John Locke

Locke is a physician and member of the Royal Society, known for his

theory about how human beings learn and form their ideas from

experience (Essay Concerning Human Understanding). His work Two

Treatises of Civil Government concluded the sovereignty of the

Parliament against the authority of the Crown.

The Influence of the Philosophes

In the mid-eighteenth century, France became the center of Enlightenment thought, where a

group of French intellectuals, or philosophes emerged.

One of the greatest philosophes: Baron de Montesquieu

➢ His work The Persian Letters was an influential satire and considered the first major

work of the Enlightenment.

   

➢ Wrote The Spirit of Laws: studied republics, monarchs, despotism

➢ Stressed:

○ Separation of powers

○ Balance of power

Who is Voltaire?

➔ Also known as François Marie Arouet.

What did he do?

❏ Wrote volumes of work, mostly satire.

❏ Still believed in strong monarchy.

❏ Pushed for freedom of religion.

★ Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the

Crafts

Goal: “change the general way of thinking.”

Edited by Diderot and d’Alembert who reached out to other philosophes to

include their ideas in this work. The Encyclopedia was believed to have the

power of improving society and the people. It widely read and extremely

influential.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

➔ Contributed his articles on music to the Encyclopedia. ➔ Division of gender roles: women and men are different beings; women should be

subordinate in social life.

Afraid that other philosophes was plotting against him and broke with them.

➔ Contribution to The Social Contract

1. Governments govern with the consent of the general will.

2. Popular sovereignty: Sovereignty lies in the hands of the people.

The International Enlightenment

Enlightenment Outside of France

1. The Scottish Enlightenment emphasized common sense and scientific reasoning.

a. Led to the creation of the first public education system.

   

b. David Hume - became a central figure who emphasized skepticism and civic

morality.

c. Adam Smith - attacked laws and regulations that prevented trade and commerce

in his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

2. The British North America Enlightenment great influenced by Scottish and English

thinkers.

a. Idea of checks and balances would later on influence the American government.

i. American Enlightenment Leaders: Benjamin Franklin & Thomas Jefferson

3. The Enlightenment in German-speaking states.

a. Immanuel Kant - greatest German philosopher

i. Separated science and morality into separate branches of knowledge.

4. The Northern European Enlightenment (Italy).

a. Cesare Beccaria published On Crimes and Punishment in which he denounced

the use of torture.

Urban Culture and Life in the Public Sphere

What is the Reading Revolution?

➔ A time period in Europe where literacy became more individual and silent and reading

material was broad and diverse.

★ The people read more book regarding the arts and sciences rather than religious and

devotional books.

Institutions and practices contributed to the spread of enlightened ideas:

Salon - A regular meeting held by the upper class in; encouraged

intellectual exchange of ideas on literature, science, and

philosophy.

Libraries - For those who could not afford books.

+ Coffeehouses, book clubs, debating societies,

Masonic lodges, and newspapers

   

* The Enlightenment was accompanied by the rise of Rococo Art.

Race and the Enlightenment

● Europeans believed that they are superior to “barbaric” peoples in Africa and the New

World.

● Scientific racism stressed the inferior nature of other races which contributed to the

growth of slavery.

○ Some individuals was against slavery but only a minority.

Enlightened Absolutism

What is the Enlightened Absolutism?

➔ A term used to describe the rule of monarchs who adopted Enlightenment ideals of

rationalism, progress, and tolerance.

Frederick the Great of Prussia

➔ Believed more humane policies could strengthen the state.

◆ Allowed religious freedom (same for philosophical

matters).

◆ Promoted education; improved schools and allowed

scholars to publish their works.

◆ Abolished torture.

◆ Promoted reconstruction of agriculture and industry.

★ Prussia became famous for their hard work and honesty.

➔ Maintained the social structure.

◆ Kept the serfs on his estates.

◆ Extended the privileges of the nobility

➔ Cameralism

◆ View that monarchy is the best form of government.

Catherine the Great of Russian

➔ Killed Peter III and became Empress of Russia.

◆ “I did not care about Peter, but I did care about the crown.”

   

➔ Greatly adored by the French philosophes.

➔ Catherine the Great had three main goals.

◆ 1: Continue westernizing Russia.

● Imported Western architects, musicians, and

scholars.

● Patronized philosophes.

● Published Diderot’s Encyclopedia (when the French

government banned them).

◆ 2: Domestic reform

● Restricted practice of torture.

● Allowed limited religious toleration.

● Improved education and strengthen local government.

◆ 3: Territorial Expansion

● Takes control of Ukraine and the last descendants of the Mongols, the

Crimean Tatars.

● Along with Prussia and Austria, they each compensate by taking a piece

of polish territory.

The Austrian Habsburgs

Female Monarch: Maria Theresa

➔ Made reforms that strengthened the state.

◆ Church reform

● Limited papacy’s influence.

● Eliminated religious holidays.

● Reduced number of monasteries.

◆ Administrative renovations

● Revamp the tax system; nobles were taxed.

◆ Improve agricultural population

● Reduced power of lords over serfs and (partially free) peasants.

★ Joseph II became ruler.

➔ Abolished serfdom.

◆ Could use cash payments instead of paying through labor.

★ Leopold II cancelled some of Joseph II’s reforms.

   

➔ Peasants had to do forced labor once again.

Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened Absolutism

What is the Haskalah?

➔ The Jewish Enlightenment led by Moses Mendelssohn.

Who is Moses Mendelssohn?

➔ A Jewish Enlightenment philosopher who advocated for their freedom and civil rights.

❏ Most monarch disliked the idea of the emancipation of the Jews (Like Frederick the

Great and Catherine the Great).