Transcript The Scientific Revolution

The Scientific Revolution
Outline
Life Before Scientific
Revolution
After the Scientific
Revolution
 World of the Peasantry
 Heliocentric Universe
 Old World Demographics
 Events that had an impact
on Western Culture
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Slavery
Consumerism
Agricultural Innovation
Urbanization
Arts
Religion
 Great Chain of Being
 Copernicus
 Galileo
 Francis Bacon
 Rene Descartes
 Isaac Newton
The World of the Peasantry
 Death is everywhere and unpredictable
 Cyclical, Seasonal
 Ever present spirit world
 The world is big and slow
Demographics
 1 out of 2 die before their 10th birthday
 Average life expectancy = 36 years old
 Infanticide rampant
 Population of Europe around 100 million;
 Paris =
 London =
 Venice =
 Rome =
Cultural Changes
 Slavery and Racism
 The “Consumer Revolution”
 The “Agricultural Revolution”
 4 new methods increase food supply
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Cultural Changes
 Urbanization and Social Structure
 Signs of class
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 The Arts
 Religion
The Great Chain of Being
 God
 Angels (Heavenly Host)
 Man, Human Beings
 Animals
 Plants
 Metals
 Mud, etc.
Before the Scientific Revolution
 Cosmology ordered in relationship to God and
Man
 The design of the universe was seen as sign of
God’s perfection
 Geocentric (Ptolemy)
 Humans in the middle of the cosmos
Origins
 Scientific Revolution =break with the Middle
ages
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Medieval art and scientific advancements
Renaissance Humanism
Voyages of Discovery
Heliocentrism
 1512: Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543)
 1610: Galileo (1564-1642)
Nicolaus Copernicus
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Dedication from The Revolutions of
the Heavenly Bodies
 To Pope Paul III
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I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in
this book which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I
ascribe certain motions to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory
should be rejected. For I am not so much in love with my conclusions as not to
weigh what others will think about them, and although I know that the meditations
of a philosopher are far removed from the judgment of the laity, because his
endeavor is to seek out the truth in all things, so far as this is permitted by God to
the human reason, I still believe that one must avoid theories altogether foreign to
orthodoxy. Accordingly, when I consider in my own mind how absurd a
performance it must seem to those who know that the judgment of many centuries
has approved the view that the Earth remains fixed as center in the midst of the
heavens, if I should on the contrary, assert that the Earth moves; I was for a long
time at a loss to know whether I should publish the commentaries which I have
written in proof of its motion, or whether it were not better to follow the example of
the Pythagoreans and of some others, who were accustomed to test the secrets of
Philosophy not in writing but orally, and only to their relatives and friends, as the
letter from Lysis to Hipparchus bears witness.
Galileo
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The Crime of Galileo:
Indictment and Abjuration of
1633
 Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei, of Florence, aged seventy
years, were denounced in 1615, to this Holy Office, for holding as true a false
doctrine taught by many, namely, that the sun is immovable in the center of the
world, and that the earth moves, and also with a diurnal motion; also, for having
pupils whom you instructed in the same opinions; also, for maintaining a
correspondence on the same with some German mathematicians; also for
publishing certain letters on the sun-spots, in which you developed the same
doctrine as true; also, for answering the objections which were continually
produced from the Holy Scriptures, by glozing the said Scriptures according to your
own meaning; and whereas thereupon was produced the copy of a writing, in form
of a letter professedly written by you to a person formerly your pupil, in which,
following the hypothesis of Copernicus, you include several propositions contrary to
the true sense and authority of the Holy Scriptures; therefore (this Holy Tribunal
being desirous of providing against the disorder and mischief which were thence
proceeding and increasing to the detriment of the Holy Faith) by the desire of his
Holiness and the Most Emminent Lords, Cardinals of this supreme and universal
Inquisition, the two propositions of the stability of the sun, and the motion of the
earth, were qualified by the Theological Qualifiers as follows:
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The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is
absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy
Scriptures.
The proposition that the earth is not the center of the world, nor immovable, but that it
moves, and also with a diurnal action, is also absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically
considered, at least erroneous in faith.
Galileo
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The Crime of Galileo:
Indictment and Abjuration of
1633
 Therefore . . . , invoking the most holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ
and of His Most Glorious Mother Mary, We pronounce this Our final
sentence: We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo .
. . have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of
heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false
and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the sun is the
center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and
that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world; also, that
an opinion can be held and supported as probable, after it has been
declared and finally decreed contrary to the Holy Scripture, and,
consequently, that you have incurred all the censures and penalties
enjoined and promulgated in the sacred canons and other general and
particular constituents against delinquents of this description. From
which it is Our pleasure that you be absolved, provided that with a
sincere heart and unfeigned faith, in Our presence, you abjure, curse,
and detest, the said error and heresies, and every other error and
heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome.
Francis Bacon, 1561-1626
 “knowledge is power”
 Lawyer, Member of Parliament
 authority of ancients should not
constrain modern thinkers
Francis Bacon and Empiricism
 Empiricism, or inductive investigation” (1620)
 First,
 Second,
 Repeat over time
 Accumulate data
 Carefully review and experiment
 Draw appropriate conclusions
René Descartes
 Deductive reasoning, moving from
one certainty to another
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“So long as we avoid accepting as true
what is not so, and always preserve the
right order of deduction of one thing
from another, there can be nothing too
remote to be reached in the end, or too
well hidden to be discovered”
 Nature as a machine, mechanism
Isaac Newton’s (1642-1727) Grand Synthesis
(The Scientific Method)
 Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy (1687)
 He develops this law through
observation and experimentation
 The law is simple, universal, regular
and eternal.
The Enlightenment
PHILOSOPHY AND POWER IN
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE
Europe
ca. 1648
Absolutism
 By the seventeenth century, Europe began to align
along more “national” lines under the leadership of
kings
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Weakening of Papal influence
Decline of Holy Roman Empire
 “National” monarchs began choosing religious sides
 Generally control Church overall
 centralize their power in law, administration and language
 contributed to popular unity in places like Spain, France,
Portugal and England
 Monarchs began declaring absolute power over their
“national” realms
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successfully in France, less so in England
Louis XIV
The Sun King
Absolutism
 French Absolutism
 Subordinate French society and culture to the monarchy
 politics and economy of France under one
government/kingdom
 Louis XIV promoted
economic mercantilism
 a nation-wide tax program
 broad educational programs
 wars of expansion
 Subordinate French nobility to the Versailles court
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The Social Order of the Old Regime: Static,
Hierarchical and Fixed
 In France, society is organized according to the
power hierarchy
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The 3 Estates (~1500-1789)
 Clergy (1-2%)
 Nobility (2-3%)
 Commoners (95%) – of which nearly 80% are
peasants
Elizabeth I
The Virgin Queen
English Constitutionalism
 English Constitutionalism
 The
successors to Elizabeth I lacked the same
absolutist tendencies, mainly because they faced
a powerful and increasingly separated
Parliament
What is Parliament’s role in England in the
seventeenth century?
What governs the relationship between the
monarch and Parliament?
Civil War
 1642-1646: Increased distance of King from
Parliament leads to armed conflict
 Formation of the Puritan Republic
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Cromwell’s goals
Religion
 “Great Britain”
 mercantilism
 Lord Protector
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 1660, British monarchy restored
 2 controversial kings lead Parliament to bring monarchy under
its control by 1688’s “Glorious Revolution”
English Bill of Rights, Examples
 1. That the pretended power of suspending laws, or the
execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of
parliament is illegal.
 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with the laws, or
the execution of law by regal authority, as it hath been
assumed and exercised of late, is illegal.
 4. That levying money for or to the use of the crown by
pretense of prerogative, without grant of parliament, for
longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be
granted, is illegal.
 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and
all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are
illegal.
The Impact of the Scientific Revolution
 People question
previous sources of
authority
Challenge to Great Chain
of Being
 Challenge to Church
authority
 Challenge to absolutism
 Democratic impulse in
allowing anyone to examine
and challenge truth and
develop knowledge
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John Locke
The Science of Human Beings
 Enlightenment
thinkers wish to
improve human
social world
 Reject the past for
faulty foundations
 Put scientific
method to use in
the study of
human beings
Rousseau
What is the Enlightenment?
 Reform for the improvement of mankind:
 Eliminate
 Superstition
 Religious fanaticism
 Ignorance
 Injustice
How Some Enlightenment Thinkers Thought
 Rene Descartes, “I think, therefore I am” -
human existence is based on the certain
ability to think and reason
 John Locke’s tabula rasa or “blank slate” that the human mind is born without the
capacity for processing data and learns how
to process through sensory experience
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “social contract” when human beings agree (implicitly) to
join in contract with each other in order to
live with certain rights, often at the expense
of others-governments usually maintain the
security of those rights
Voltaire
Patrie
The Enlightened Despots and the
Challenge to Traditional Forms of
Power in the West
Enlightened Despotism
 Enlightened despots aim to promote Enlightenment
reform without giving up their absolutist powers
Frederick II
 1712-1786
 Prussian King
 Modernization of Prussia
 Makes it a strong European
state
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Partition of Poland, 1772
 Religious Tolerance
 Reforms Civil Code
 Rulers should always remind themselves that they are men like the least of their
subjects. The sovereign is the foremost judge, general, financier, and minister of his
country, not merely for the sake of his prestige. Therefore, he should perform with
care the duties connected with these offices. He is merely the principal servant of
the State. Hence, he must act with honesty, wisdom, and complete disinterestedness
in such a way that he can render an account of his stewardship to the citizens at any
moment. Consequently, he is guilty if he wastes the money of the people, the taxes
which they have paid, in luxury, pomp and debauchery. He who should improve the
morals of the people, be the guardian of the law, and improve their education should
not pervert them by his bad example.
 Princes, sovereigns, and king have not been given supreme authority in order to live
in luxurious self-indulgence and debauchery. They have not been elevated by their
fellow-men to enable them to strut about and to insult with their pride the simplemannered, the poor and the suffering. They have not been placed at the head of the
State to keep around themselves a crowd of idle loafers whose uselessness drives
them towards vice. The bad administration which may be found in monarchies
springs from many different causes, but their principal cause lies in the character of
the sovereign. A ruler addicted to women will become a tool of his mistresses and
favourites, and these will abuse their power and commit wrongs of every kind, will
protect vice, sell offices, and perpetrate every infamy....
 The sovereign is the representative of his State. He and his people form a single
body. Ruler and ruled can be happy only if they are firmly united. The sovereign
stands to his people in the same relation in which the head stands to the body. He
must use his eyes and his brain for the whole community, and act on its behalf to the
common advantage. If we wish to elevate monarchical above republican
government, the duty of sovereigns is clear. They must be active, hard-working,
upright and honest, and concentrate all their strength upon filling their office
worthily. That is my idea of the duties of sovereigns.
Catherine II
 1729-1796
 The “Great”
 Expansion of Russian Empire
 Improvement of
administration
 Modernize and Westernize
 Education
 Legal reform
 Enlightenment
connections
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Voltaire
Catherine’s Civil Code
 6. Russia is an European State.
 7. This is clearly demonstrated by the following Observations: The
Alterations which Peter the Great undertook in Russia succeeded with the
greater Ease, because the Manners, which prevailed at that Time, and had
been introduced amongst us by a Mixture of different Nations, and the
Conquest of foreign Territories, were quite unsuilable to the Climate. Peter
the First, by introducing the Manners and Customs of Europe among the
European People in his Dominions, found at that Time such Means as even
he himself was not sanguine enough to expect....
 9. The Sovereign is absolute; for there is no other Authority but that which
centers in his single Person, that can act with a Vigour proportionate to the
Extent of such a vast Dominion.
 10. The Extent of the Dominion requires an absolute Power to be vested in
that Person who rules over it. It is expedient so to be, that the quick
Dispatch of Affairs, sent from distant Parts, might make ample Amends for
the Delay occasioned by the great Distance of the Places.
 11. Every other Form of Government whatsoever would not only have been
prejudicial to Russia, but would even have proved its entire Ruin.
Catherine’s Civil Code
 12. Another Reason is: That it is better to be subject to the Laws under one Master,
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than to be subservient to many.
13. What is the true End of Monarchy? Not to deprive People of their natural
Liberty; but to correct their Actions, in order to attain the supreme Good.
14. The Form of Government, therefore, which best attains this End, and at the
same Time sets less Bounds than others to natural Liberty, is that which coincides
with the Views and Purposes of rational Creatures, and answers the End, upon
which we ought to fix a steadfast Eye in the Regulations of civil Polity.
15. The Intention and the End of Monarchy, is the Glory of the Citizens, of the State,
and of the Sovereign.
16. But, from this Glory, a Sense of Liberty arises in a People governed by a
Monarch; which may produce in these States as much Energy in transacting the
most important Affairs, and may contribute as much to the Happiness of the
Subjects, as even Liberty itself....
33. The Laws ought to be so framed, as to secure the Safety of every Citizen as much
as possible.
34. The Equality of the Citizens consists in this; that they should all be subject to the
same Laws.
Catherine II and the Serfs
 The Governing Senate. . . has deemed it necessary to make known that the
landlords' serfs and peasants . . . owe their landlords proper submission and
absolute obedience in all matters, according to the laws that have been enacted
from time immemorial by the autocratic forefathers of Her Imperial Majesty
and which have not been repealed, and which provide that all persons who
dare to incite serfs and peasants to disobey their landlords shall be arrested
and taken to the nearest government office, there to be punished forthwith as
disturbers of the public tranquillity, according to the laws and without
leniency. And should it so happen that even after the publication of the present
decree of Her Imperial Majesty any serfs and peasants should cease to give the
proper obedience to their landlords . . . and should make bold to submit
unlawful petitions complaining of their landlords, and especially to petition
Her Imperial Majesty personally, then both those who make the complaints
and those who write up the petitions shall be punished by the knout and
forthwith deported to Nerchinsk to penal servitude for life and shall be
counted as part of the quota of recruits which their landlords must furnish to
the army. And in order that people everywhere may know of the present
decree, it shall be read in all the churches on Sundays and holy days for one
month after it is received and therafter once every year during the great church
festivals, lest anyone pretend ignorance.
Joseph II
 1741-1790
 Holy Roman Emperor
 Legal reform
 Education
 Medicine
 Religious tolerance
 Despot in foreign policy
The Ideals of Joseph II
 I determined from the very commencement of my reign to adorn my
diadem with the love of my people, to act in the administration of
affairs according to just, impartial, and liberal principles;
consequently, I granted toleration [in 1781], and removed the yoke
which had oppressed the protestants for centuries.
 Fanaticism shall in future be known in my states only by the
contempt I have for it; nobody shall any longer be exposed to
hardships on account of his creed; no man shall be compelled in
future to profess the religion of the state if it be contrary to his
persuasion....
 Tolerance is an effect of that beneficent increase of knowledge
which now enlightens Europe and which is owing to philosophy and
the efforts of great men; it is a convincing proof of the improvement
of the human mind, which has boldly reopened a road through the
dominions of superstition . . . and which, fortunately for mankind,
has now become the highway of monarchs.
Reform under the Despots
 Systems of civil justice
 Frederick II
 Joseph II
 Catherine II
 Education
 Joseph II
 Prussia
 Catherine II
 Religion
 The Jesuits
 Joseph II
 Agriculture
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Joseph II
Leopold II
physiocrats
The Enlightenment’s Impact Elsewhere
 The Enlightenment
influenced some
monarchs to adopt
reform. It also
encouraged the public to
demand change
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Public Opinion
Political Reform
John Wilkes and the Wilkes Affair
 Wilkes(1725-1797) a controversial figure in Great
Britain
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Radical politician
Rakish reputation
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Hellfire Club
 Publishes the North Britain
 Criticizes King in no. 45
John Wilkes and the Wilkes Affair
 The Stuart line has ever been intoxicated with the slavish doctrines of
the absolute, independent, unlimited power of the crown. Some of that
line were so weakly advised, as to endeavour to reduce them into
practice : but the English nation was too spirited to suffer the least
encroachment on the ancient liberties of this kingdom. " The King of
England is only the first " magistrate of this country ; but is invested
by law " with the whole executive power. He is, however, " responsible
to his people for the due execution of " the royal functions, in the
choice of ministers, equally with the meanest of his subjects in his
particular duty." The personal character of our present amiable
sovereign makes us easy and happy that so great a power is lodged in
such hands ; but the favourite has given too just cause for him to
escape the general odium. The prerogative of the crown is to exert the
constitutional powers entrusted to it in a way, not of blind favour and
partiality, but of wisdom and judgment. This is the spirit of our
constitution. The people too have their prerogative, and, I hope, the
fine words of DRYDEN will be engraven on. our hearts,
 Freedom is the English subject's Prerogative.
North American Revolution
John Locke, Concerning Civil
Government, 1693, second
essay, Ch. 19
 Secondly: I answer, such revolutions
happen not upon every little
mismanagement in public affairs.
Great mistakes in the ruling part,
many wrong and inconvenient laws,
and all the slips of human frailty will
be borne by the people without
mutiny or murmur. But if a long train
of abuses, prevarications, and
artifices, all tending the same way,
make the design visible to the people,
and they cannot but feel what they lie
under, and see whither they are
going, it is not to be wondered that
they should then rouse themselves,
and endeavor to put the rule into
such hands which may secure to
them the end for which government
was at first erected... of the
Enlightenment
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration
of Independence, 1776
 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established
should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their
future security.
 THESE are the times that try men's souls. The
Thomas Paine
The American Crisis,
1780-1783
summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in
this crisis, shrink from the service of their
country; but he that stands it now, deserves the
love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny,
like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have
this consolation with us, that the harder the
conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What
we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is
dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon
its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so
celestial an article as freedom should not be
highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce
her tyranny, has declared that she has a right
(not only to tax) but "to bind us in all cases
whatsoever," and if being bound in that
manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a
thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression
is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong
only to God.