Thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
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Transcript of Thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Permission Required for Reproduction or Display.1
Thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
Lecture Essential Question:
How do thinkers challenge and change society?
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Background What:
The Scientific Revolution: A period that saw a revolutonary transformation in scientific ideas in physics, astronomy, and biology, in institutions supporting scientific investigation, and in the more widely held picture of the universe generally accepted today.
The Enlightenment: A period of time that slightly overlapped the Scientific Revolution during which European thinkers applied the scientific method to analyzing society, government and religion. EXTREMELY influential on modern government systems.
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Background Where: Europe—very
important because these scientific and social theories were influential in allowing Europeans to achieve world domination between the 16th and 19th Centuries.
When: Scientific Revolution:
16th and 17th Centuries
Enlightenment: : 17th and 18th
Centuries
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Background How:
New knowledge transmitted from Muslim regions after Crusades
That knowledge inspired the Renaissance in Italy which spread North
As feudalism declined and Absolute Monarchs took over, people relied less on the Church
Church sees challenges during Protestant Reformation
Reformation allows people to question authority
More people become literate due to translation of Bible and printing press.
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Background Why:
As the Catholic Church lost power and influence people began to think for themselves and challenge tradition.
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Background
Who Thinkers of the
Scientific Revolution
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The Original Theorists Ptolemy:
First envisioned the geocentric model in ancient Egypt
Aristotle: Supported
Ptolemy’s theory through deduction (thinking)—not observation
Quote: “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.”
Theories of both were incorporated into the Bible and supported by Catholic Church
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Copernicus
1473-1543 (15th-16th Centuries Heliocentric (sun-centered theory) Studied planetary motion for 25 years
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Galileo Galilei 1564-1642 Telescope Experimented with
acceleration (Challenged Aristotle)
Observed Jupiter’s moons and the rings on Saturn
Publicized heliocentric theory
Persecuted by Church Recants (Eppur si muove) Dies under house arrest
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Lectures Multimedia\Hammer and Feather.mp4
Hammer and Feather On the Moon
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Francis Bacon 1561-1626 Spelled out the
Scientific Method Suggested that
because men have to shave daily, throughout life they suffer just as much as women do during pregnancies
Quote: “Knowledge is power.”
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Descartes 1596-1650 Articulated
(explained) the position that we define our own existence.
Quote: “Es cogito ergo sum”
Suggested that our brains and our bodies are two separate things: Dualism Challenged by
modern science
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Isaac Newton 1643-1727 Universal Laws of
Gravitation Gravity Prisms contain the
colors of the rainbow Demonstrated that
gravity explains planetary motion
Quote: “Ouch!” (Hahahahaha—get it?)
“Plato is my friend—Aristotle is my friend—but my greatest friend is Truth.”
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Background
Who Thinkers of the
Enlightenment Philosophes
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Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679
Born the same year as…?
Leviathan (1651) Believed in Social
Contract between leader and led
But Absolute Monarch
Why? Quote: “Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
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John Locke 1632-1704 Social contract also But with an elected
leader And Natural Rights:
Life Liberty Property Became “pursuit of
happiness” in D.O.I.
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Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797 Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792)
Theory: Women are not naturally inferior to men—they just lack education.
Sadly, died in childbirth
Quote: “It would be an endless task to trace the various sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created to feel rather than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms and weakness.”
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Voltaire 1694-1778 Satirist—wrote
sarcastic social criticisms
Quotes: “The Holy Roman Empire
is neither holy, Roman nor an Empire”
“The secret of being a bore is to say everything you think.”
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” (Think Galileo…)
“A witty saying proves nothing.”
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Montesquieu 1689-1755
Separation of Powers
Power should check power Checks and
balances Led to the U.S.
branches of government
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Rousseau 1712-1778 Although earlier
thinkers had talked about it, he finally defined the Social Contract
Rulers rule with the consent of the governed— so no more: Absolute power Divine right Hereditary rule