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Scientific Revolution
Roots of Modern Science
• Before 1500, scholars referred to Greek or Roman philosophers
or the Bible for guidance
The Medieval View
• During the Middle Ages, people had an earth-centered view of
the world  geocentric theory
New Way of Thinking
• In the mid-1500’s, scholars began questioning the Medieval
View which led to a change in belief called the Scientific
Revolution
• Discoveries helped lead to the Revolution (European
explorations, printing press, etc.)
• As European exploration expanded, people realized how little
they actually knew about the world (animals, plants,
geography, etc.)
Revolutionary Model of the Universe
• First challenge to accepted theology was in astronomy
Heliocentric Theory
• Nicolaus Copernicus challenges the geocentric theory after
25 years of studying the stars, arguing that the planets and
stars rotated around the sun heliocentric theory
• Didn’t publish his book until the year of his death for fear of
religious persecution
• Later astronomers would build on Copernicus’ work
Galileo’s Discoveries
• Built his own telescope to study stars in 1609
• In 1610, he publishes his findings in Starry Messenger
(Jupiter’s 4 moons, the sun’s dark spots)
Conflict with the Church
• Galileo is warned by Protestants and Catholics to stop his
teachings because they conflicted with religions doctrine
• In 1632, he publishes Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems
• The pope summoned Galileo to stand trial before the
Inquisition. He was never again a free man, and the Church
didn’t acknowledge his accomplishment until 1992.
Scientific Method
• Revolutionary thinking paved the way for a new approach
to science called the scientific method
• Question, hypothesis, experiment, data, conclusion
Bacon and Descartes
• Both helped advance the use of scientific method
• Bacon, an English writer, attacked medieval scholars for
relying on Aristotle’s findings
• Stressed the experimental method, rather than just
reasoning with classical philosophies
• In France, Descartes developed analytical geometry which
linked geometry and algebra
• Descartes differed from Bacon in that Descartes believed in
forming conclusions with math and logic rather than
experimentation
Newton Explains Gravity
• By the mid-1600’s, the works of Copernicus, Galileo, and
Kepler led to Isaac Newton’s law of gravity  all things in
the universe attract each other depending on the mass and
distance between them
• His 1687 book Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy became one of the most fundamental science
books in history
Scientific Revolution Spreads
Scientific Instruments
• Zacharias Janssen invents the first microscope in 1590
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek examined red blood cells with the
Janssen’s microscope in 1670’s
• 1643 Evangelista Torricelli develops mercury barometer
(predicts weather)
• Gabriel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius develop the mercury
thermometer
Medicine and the Human Body
• Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius proves Galen’s anatomical
theories wrong
• He dissected human corpses and published his observations in
On the Structure of the Human Body in 1543
• In late 1700’s Edward Jenner develops vaccine for smallpox by
inoculating the patient with cowpox
Discoveries in Chemistry
• Robert Boyle is considered the founder of modern
chemistry
• Challenged Aristotle’s belief that the world was made up of
4 elements- earth, air, fire, and water
• Boyle proposed that elements make up these
phenomenon, and Boyle’s Law (that volume, temperature,
and pressure affect each other)
• These notions of reason and order soon moved into other
fields of life
• People began to question the rights and liberties of the
ordinary citizen
• New ideas on the relationship between citizen and
government led to changes in the political structure
globally
The Enlightenment in Europe
Two Views on Government
• Thomas Hobbes and John Locke proposed two new
conclusions about government and human nature
Hobbes’s Social Contract
• Hobbes argued that there needed to be government keep
order in his Leviathan (1651)
• Hobbes believed that in order to have “law and order”,
people needed to hand over their rights to a strong ruler to
act for them  social contract
Locke’s Natural Rights
• John Locke held a more positive view on human nature
• Believed that as reasonable beings, humans could govern
themselves by improving on their mistakes
• Locke favored self-government over absolute monarchy
• According to Locke, people are born with 3 natural rights
1. Life
2. Liberty
3. Property
• He believed that if the government failed to uphold these
rights, the people had the right to overthrow it
Philosophes Advocate Reason
• Enlightenment reached its peak in France in mid-1700’s in
the city of Paris
• Social critics of the period were known as philosophes
• Philosophe belief rested on five concepts:
1. Reason- the philosophes believed that truth could be
discovered through reason or logical thinking
2. Nature- what was natural was good and reasonable
3. Happiness- urged people to find happiness on earth
4. Progress- the philosophes stressed that society could
improve
5. Liberty- the philosophes called for the rights that English
people had won in their Glorious Revolution and Bill of
Rights
Voltaire Combats Intolerance
• Voltaire published over 70 books of political jargon
• Was sent to prison twice for speaking out against the
French government and the Catholic Church
• “I do not agree with a word you say but will defend to
the death your right to say it” -Voltaire
Montesquieu and Separation of Powers
• Montesquieu devoted his life to political liberty
• Wrote that separation of powers was essential to prevent
any one person or group from gaining too much power in
his On the Spirit of Laws
• his ideas on separation of powers and checks and balances
become the foundation of the US Constitution
Rousseau: Champion of Freedom
• Jean Jacques Rousseau was committed to individual
freedom
• He disagreed with Enlightenment thinkers, arguing that
civilization corrupted people’s natural goodness
• Believed that the only good government was a direct
democracy
• Wrote The Social Comment, a book in which Rousseau
argues that if all people give up a little of their freedom for
the common good everyone benefits (differed from
Thomas Hobbes’s social contract)
• Rousseau’s ideas inspired the thinkers who started the
French Revolution in 1789
Beccaria Promotes Criminal Justice
• An Italian philosophe Cesare Bonesana Becaria believed
that laws exist to preserve social order, not to avenge
crimes
• Criticized common abuses of justice (torturing witnesses
and suspects, irregular proceedings in trials, and cruel
punishments)
• Based his ideas on the fact that the government should
seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people
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Women and the Enlightenment
While many Enlightenment thinkers had progressive ideas
about society and government, most stuck to the
traditional role for women
Many men believed that educating women would lead
them to rebel against their inferior status in society
1694 A Serious Proposal to the Ladies by Mary Astell
addressed the lack of educational opportunities for women
“if absolute sovereignty be not necessary in a state, how
comes it to be so in a family?” –Astell
Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman in 1792, where she disagreed with Rousseau in
saying that women’s education is second to men’s
Women made contributions to the Enlightenment in social
gatherings in salons
Legacy of the Enlightenment
• In just a few decades, Enlightenment thinkers challenged
traditional views such as monarchical divinity, union of
state and church, and existence of unequal social classes.
• Enlightenment thinkers were just that: thinkers, not
revolutionaries
• Enlightenment thinkers produced three other long-term
effects that helped shape Western culture:
1. Belief in Progress
2. More Secular Outlook
3. Importance of the Individual
Belief in Progress
• Pioneers such as Galileo and Newton unlocked mysteries in
nature, leading people to believe in advancement in
science
• Philosophes made people believe that using human reason
could help solve social problems (slavery)
More Secular Outlook
• After the Scientific Revolution, people began to question
the workings of God and realized it was explainable
through science and math
• Thinkers like Voltaire attacked organized Christianity and
promoted tolerance of all religions
Importance of the Individual
• As people began to turn away from the Church and
government in search for guidance, they began to turn to
themselves  rise of individualism
• Philosophes stressed the importance for people to use
their own ability to reason to judge what was right or
wrong
• British thinker Adam Smith believed that the individual
acting in the best interest of himself was beneficial for
economic progress
• During the Enlightenment, the use of reason took stage
The Enlightenment Spreads
• Punishments for spreading Enlightenment ideas consisted of
exile and imprisonment
A World of Ideas
• All of the brilliant scholars of the 1700’s traveled to Paris to
study and philosophize
• Many philosophes met in the drawing rooms of wealthy women
in Paris  salons
Diderot’s Encyclopedia
• With the help of Marie-Therese Geoffrin, Denis Diderot created
a large set of books that he called Encyclopedia, in which many
scholars contributed supplemental works
• The French government banned the book, but Diderot kept
publishing
• Enlightenment ideas were spread through Diderot’s
Encyclopedia, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc.
New Artistic Styles
• Enlightenment ideals were seen in music, art, painting,
architecture, and literature as well
Neoclassical Style Emerges
• 17th and early 18th century art in Europe was baroque. As
the Enlightenment took hold, but changes to “neoclassical”
during the late 18th century. (new classical)
Changes in Music and Literature
• Earlier music was more dramatic, consisting or drama and
choral music. As the Enlightenment gained ground, a
lighter mood genre emerged called “classical”
• Classical music was dominated by Franz Joseph Haydn,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven
• Literature changed as well; writers began writing novels
(plot, suspense, and explored characters)
Enlightenment and Monarchy
• While the Enlightenment reached literature, music, and general
society it also hit government
• Enlightened despots began listening to the demands of Voltaire
to rule justly as monarch in hopes that they would gain support
and win power
• Some of the Enlightened despots were Catherine the Great,
Frederick II, and Joseph II
Frederick the Great
• King of Russia from 1740-1786; he granted religious freedoms,
reduced censorship, and improved education in Russia
• While he believed that certain practices were wrong, such as
serfdom, he did nothing to change it because he needed
landowner support
• His greatest accomplishment was calling himself “servant of the
state”, which promoted the idea that the monarch was in power
to uphold the three natural rights that John Locke discussed
Joseph II
• Son and successor of Maria-Theresa in Austria, he ruled
from 1780-1790
• He stressed religious tolerance for Jews, Protestants, and
Orthodox Christians
• He ended serfdom and ordered that all serfs be paid in cash
Catherine the Great
• Ruled Russia from 1762-1796; regularly wrote with Voltaire
• In 1767, Catherine formed a commission to bring about
changes politically and religiously
• She did little to improve lives of serfs– after the uprising of
1773 she realized she needed support of the noble class to
retain control so she gave the nobles absolute control over
the peasant class
Catherine Expands Russia
• Following the footsteps of Peter the Great, Catherine wages
war against the Ottoman Turks for access to the Black Sea
• Catherine also expanded the empire westward into Poland
• As Russia entered the international dominance scene,
another world power (Britain) was facing colonial uprising
in the Americas.
• The Enlightenment ideas had spread all the way to the east
coast of the United States, where colonial leaders broke
away from the mother country and founded a republic