Chapter 17: Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

Anmerkungen:

• The main branch of scientific study was natural philosophy, which studied the nature of the universe, its purpose, and how it functioned. Main Ideas: Aristotle. Aristotle believed that the earth was the center of the universe was the earth and the moon, sun, stars, planets and Heaven all existed around the earth. Spheres had a perfect “quintessence” or fifth essence. Sublunar bodies (like earth) had four elements. The Light: air and fire, and The Heavy: water and earth. Light elements moved up, heavy moved down.  Ptolemy contradicted Aristotle and said that planets moved in small circles called epicycles, which moved in larger circles. Ptolemy’s model was less elegant, but more accurate

Anmerkungen:

• The origins of the Scientific Revolution began with the establishment of medieval universities.  Philosophy became important alongside law and medicine.  The Renaissance recovered ancient works and ideas and used Arabic commentaries.  Realism made people use geometry to explain the natural world and look at detail. The printing press spread ideas quickly. The Portuguese commissioned mathematicians to make tables to help sailors find latitude.  This led to the invention of the telescope, barometer, clock, microscope and air pump.  The interest in astronomy was the belief that the relationship of the planets and stars influenced earthly events. Astrologers made horoscopes and astrology was used in medicine.  Magic and alchemy:  objects possessed hidden qualities, supported religion.

Anmerkungen:

• Nicolaus Copernicus studied at the University of Krakow and moved to Italy to study astronomy, medicine, and church law at the universities of Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara.  He held a church position in eastern Prussia.  The Copernican hypothesis was the idea that the sun was in the center of the universe and not the earth.  Religious leaders disliked this idea because it went against years of teaching and had no room for heaven.  Copernicus did not publish his works On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres until his death.  The new star of 1572 and new comet of 1577 proved some of Copernicus’s theories.

1. Results

   Anmerkungen:

   • Tycho Brahe: built an observatory in Prague and made the Rudolfine Tables after Rudolf II, collected more data than ever before, believed that all planets revolve around the sun: which revolves around the earth.  His assistant Johannes Kepler carried on his work after his death.  Kepler:  abandoned epicycles and deferents. 1: Orbits were elliptical, not circular. 2: Planets don’t move in uniform speeds in the orbits. 3: Time of orbit relates to distance from the sun.  Wrote “The New Astronomy”. Pioneered field of optics, idea of refraction in the eye, basis for calculus and advances in geometry.  His ideas could have been related to the trial of his mother for witchcraft.

Anmerkungen:

• Galileo Galilei challenged motion.  Acceleration & Inertia.  Discovered first 4 moons of Jupiter. Wrote Siderus Nuncius and Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World. Tried for heresy

Anmerkungen:

• Isaac Newton studied at Cambridge University.  Discovered laws of universal gravitation and centripetal force. The Law of universal Gravitation is the idea that everything in the world is proportionally attracted to each other, by matter and by distance. Published Philosophicae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

Anmerkungen:

• Empiricism was the idea of learning through empirical research, a theory of inductive reasoning, made official by Francis Bacon, “experimental philosophy”, spread with Descartes’ ideas

Anmerkungen:

• Cartesian dualism is the idea that reality could ultimately be reduced to mind and matter.  Descartes’ idea worked with Bacon’s idea to spread. Some of Descartes’ ideas were proven wrong in the future. He got his ideas from an intellectual vision. “quantity of motion”

Anmerkungen:

• Galen: believed the body was made of four humors--blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Illness came from an imbalance in these humors. He was proven wrong by Paracelsus
• Paracelsus: pioneered the use of chemicals and drugs to cure illnesses b/c illness was chemical imbalance.
• Vesalius: studied anatomy from dissecting human bodies of executed criminals. Published On the Structure of the Human Body: 200 drawings.
• Harvey: discovered circulation of blood through veins and arteries in 1628. He was first to explain that the heart worked like a pump and to explain the muscles and valves.
• Boyle: discovered Boyle’s Law; pressure of gas depends on its volume. He was first to make a vacuum and disprove Descartes.

Anmerkungen:

• The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement based on thinking with reason and using science to explain human nature and to improve society. Its three key concepts were thinking with reason, or rationalism, the idea that science can be used to discover laws of human society as well as nature, and the idea of progress, or improvement of people and society.
• Generation between 1687 and 1715 believed that the human mind was able to progress, led to doubt and uncertainty. People asked if conformity in religious matters was necessary. Others asked if religious truths could ever be known for certain (no). Pierre Bayle >> skepticism, Spinoza >> mind & body are one, Locke >> sensationalism

1. Results

   Anmerkungen:

   • Production and consumption of books increased. More art & science books but less religious books. Reading Revolution >> individual silent reading & questioning. Salons or gatherings of French women to discuss literature, science and philosophy. Rococo style >> influenced by women, included soft pastels, ornate interiors, and sentimental portraits. Women got some more rights, but not equal rights.  Lending libraries let poorer people read books. Public Sphere idealized space where people of society could meet and discuss issues.

1. Montesquieu

   Anmerkungen:

   • The Persian Letters, allowed European customs to be viewed in a unique, outside way. The Spirit of Laws, compared forms of governments. Separation of powers.
2. Voltaire

   Anmerkungen:

   • arrested twice for insulting noblemen, wrote about Newton, glorified science and reason as well as the appeal of better individuals and institutions.
3. du Chatelet

   Anmerkungen:

   • studied math and physics, translated Newton’s Principia into French. Argued that women’s limited role in science was due to unequal education.
4. Diderot and d'Alembert

   Anmerkungen:

   • worked together to edit Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Crafts.  The Encyclopedia summed up Enlightenment ideas.

Anmerkungen:

• David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, argued religious skepticism, the human mind is nothing but a bundle of impressions made from experiences and the joining of the experiences, our reason can’t answer any questions that can’t be verified by experience (ex: existence of God or how the universe was made)

Anmerkungen:

• The urge to classify nature led people to classify others by “race” determined by the color of their skin. Carl von Linne wrote in The System of Nature that nature was organized in a God-given hierarchy ordered by races. The Comte de Buffon argued that humans started as one original race but then developed into distinct races through time.  David Hume wrote Of Natural Characters and said that there are four types of humans. In On the Different Races of Man, Kant believed that four types of humans came from the “white brunettes” or northern Germans. Those who were closest to the original race were higher. Of course Europeans put themselves at the top. Europeans used these ideas to justify slavery. Diderot called out European arrogance and exploitation.  James Beattie pointed out that Europeans started out as savages and other nations have great achievements as well.  Johann Gottfried von Herder argued that humans cannot be classified based on skin color.

Anmerkungen:

• 1) Individual Freedom, Attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying, rather than liberating, the individual, spontaneous feeling was better than intellect.  2) Women naturally take a passive role in relationships and society, rejected salons.  3) The Social Contract, the general will & popular sovereignty.

1. Frederick The Great (Pr)

   Anmerkungen:

   • : Invaded Silesia and doubled his population in disobedience to the Pragmatic Sanction.  Started the European War of the Austrian Succession.  Fought against Britain and France for the colonial empire and led to the Seven Years’ War >> goal was to divide Prussia’s land.  Enlightenment ideas >> Frederick wanted to make his people as happy as possible, Religious and philosophical toleration, allowed scientists to post their findings, improved schools, legal system & bureaucracy, laws were simplified, torture abolished, judges decided impartially, promoted reconstruction of agriculture and industry after the wars, still used serfs, extended privileges of the nobility, cameralism >> German science of public administration.
2. Catherine the Great (R)

   Anmerkungen:

   • Married Peter III but had him murdered in order to obtain the crown, three goals: 1) Westernization: imported Western architects, sculptors, musicians and intellectuals. Corresponded w/ Voltaire. Published the Encyclopedia. 2) Domestic Reform: appointed legislative commission. No torture. Limited religious toleration. Improved education and local gov’t. Cossack rebellion >> led to Catherine not reforming the serf system.  Gave nobles absolute control of serfs. Formalized nobles privileges by freeing them from taxes and state service. 3) Territorial Expansion: conquest of Caucasus, partition of Poland (pg. 545), scored victories against Turks.
3. Maria Theresa (A)

   Anmerkungen:

   • limited papacy’s influence in her realm. strengthened the central bureaucracy and revamped the tax system. Reduced power of lords over their serfs and their partially free peasant tenants. 
4. Joseph II (A)

   Anmerkungen:

   • abolished serfdom in 1781, decreed peasants could pay nobles in money instead of labor
5. Leopold II (A)

   Anmerkungen:

   • brought back serfdom

Anmerkungen:

• The Haskalah started with Moses Mendelssohn. The British Parliament issued a law allowing naturalization of Jews but it was repealed b/c of public outrage. Joseph II tried to integrate Jews into society by allowing them military positions, higher education, and removed artisan requirements. Catherine the Great created the Pale of Settlement, an area in Poland where only Jews could live there.  Frederick the Great refused to allow Jews rights.