THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The Scientific Revolution is a period in the late 1500s in Europe when European thinkers created the scientific method.
The scientific method is a procedure for scientists to follow when coming up with new scientific theories Muslims (Moors) on the Iberian Peninsula preserved the science and philosophy of the Romans and Greeks, which allowed Europe to begin the Scientific Revolution. Not only did Muslim scholars preserve ancient texts, but added to them in the fields of science, algebra (itself, an Arabic word), law, medicine, and more. Once Muslim ideas culturally diffused across Europe, Christian (Humanist) thinkers argued about them and created scientific method to evaluate them. European Christians funded the Scientific Revolution by donating more money to observatories to gather data about the stars and planets than any other group. The main goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement called the Enlightenment was to understand the natural world and humankind’s place in it solely on the basis of reason. The movement claimed the allegiance of a majority of thinkers in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, a period that Thomas Paine called the Age of Reason. German philosopher Immanuel Kant saw the essential characteristic of the Enlightenment as a freeing from superstition and ignorance. At its heart the movement became a conflict between established religion and the inquiring mind that wanted to know and understand through reason based on evidence and proof. The Enlightenment was inspired by a common faith in the possibility of a better world. Enlightenment thinkers wanted to reform society. They celebrated reason not only as the power by which human beings understand the universe but also as the means by which they improve the human condition. The goals of rational humans were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness. The movement led to revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. |
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.JOHN LOCKE ( 1632-1704)
Locke is remembered today largely as a political philosopher. He preached the doctrine that men naturally possess certain large rights, the chief being life, liberty, and property. Rulers, he said, derived their power only from the consent of the people. He thought that government should be like a contract between the rulers and his subjects: The people give up certain of their rights in return for just rule, and the ruler should hold his power only so long as he uses it justly. These ideas had a tremendous effect on all future political thinking. The American Declaration of Independence clearly reflects Locke’s teachings.
Locke was always very interested in psychology. About 1670, friends urged him to write a paper on the limitations of human judgment. He started to write a few paragraphs, but 20 years passed before he finished. The result was his great and famous ‘Essay Concerning Human Understanding’. In this work he stressed the theory that the human mind starts as a tabula rasa (smoothed tablet)--that is, a waxed tablet ready to be used for writing. The mind has no inborn ideas, as most men of the time believed. Throughout life it forms its ideas only from impressions (sense experiences) that are made upon its surface.
Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689–1755).
The French political philosopher Montesquieu developed the theory that governmental powers should be divided between executive, legislative, and judicial bodies. In the late 1780s his theory became a reality when it was adopted as one of the fundamental principles of the U.S. governmental system.To Montesquieu, abuse of power, slavery, and intolerance were evil. His book reflects his idea that government can avoid these evils by separating power into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, by governing with honor rather than through fear, and by upholding human dignity. His book was controversial but also very influential. It inspired France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.S. Constitution. Montesquieu published a defense of L’Esprit des lois in 1750 and in his last years was a contributor to the Encyclopédie. He died in Paris on Feb. 10, 1755.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) For centuries before Copernicus’s time, astronomy had been based on Ptolemy’s theory that Earth was the center of the universe and motionless. The problem was to explain how the other planets and heavenly bodies moved. At first it was thought that they simply moved in circular orbits around Earth. Calculations based on this view, however, did not agree with actual observations. Then it was thought that the other planets traveled in small circular orbits. These in turn were believed to move along larger orbits around Earth. With this theory, however, it could not be proved that Earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus’s revolutionary idea was that Earth should be regarded as one of the planets that revolved around the Sun. He also stated that Earth rotated on an axis. Copernicus, however, still clung to the ideas of planets traveling in small circular orbits that moved along larger orbits.
Copernicus probably hit upon his main idea sometime between 1508 and 1514. For years, however, he delayed publication of his controversial work, which contradicted all the authorities of the time. The historic book that contains the final version of his theory, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), did not appear in print until 1543, the year of his death. According to legend, Copernicus received a copy as he was dying, on May 24, 1543. The book opened the way to a truly scientific approach to astronomy. It had a profound influence on later thinkers of the scientific revolution, including such major figures as Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton.
Frances Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a skeptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. While his own practical ideas about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have a long lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a skeptical methodology makes Bacon the father of scientific method. On 9 April 1626, Bacon died of pneumonia while at Arundel mansion at Highgate outside London. An influential account of the circumstances of his death was given by John Aubrey's Brief Lives, with Aubrey stating he contracted pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat.
Commonalities of these Men
The men of the Age of Enlightenment may have been very different but shared many common characteristics:
*They challenged conventional wisdom, including the Catholic Church.
*They stood up for their beliefs
*They defied the establishment
The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made three sea voyages to India between 1497 and 1524. His voyages opened a sea route from Western Europe to the East and made Portugal a world power.
Locke is remembered today largely as a political philosopher. He preached the doctrine that men naturally possess certain large rights, the chief being life, liberty, and property. Rulers, he said, derived their power only from the consent of the people. He thought that government should be like a contract between the rulers and his subjects: The people give up certain of their rights in return for just rule, and the ruler should hold his power only so long as he uses it justly. These ideas had a tremendous effect on all future political thinking. The American Declaration of Independence clearly reflects Locke’s teachings.
Locke was always very interested in psychology. About 1670, friends urged him to write a paper on the limitations of human judgment. He started to write a few paragraphs, but 20 years passed before he finished. The result was his great and famous ‘Essay Concerning Human Understanding’. In this work he stressed the theory that the human mind starts as a tabula rasa (smoothed tablet)--that is, a waxed tablet ready to be used for writing. The mind has no inborn ideas, as most men of the time believed. Throughout life it forms its ideas only from impressions (sense experiences) that are made upon its surface.
Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689–1755).
The French political philosopher Montesquieu developed the theory that governmental powers should be divided between executive, legislative, and judicial bodies. In the late 1780s his theory became a reality when it was adopted as one of the fundamental principles of the U.S. governmental system.To Montesquieu, abuse of power, slavery, and intolerance were evil. His book reflects his idea that government can avoid these evils by separating power into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, by governing with honor rather than through fear, and by upholding human dignity. His book was controversial but also very influential. It inspired France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.S. Constitution. Montesquieu published a defense of L’Esprit des lois in 1750 and in his last years was a contributor to the Encyclopédie. He died in Paris on Feb. 10, 1755.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) For centuries before Copernicus’s time, astronomy had been based on Ptolemy’s theory that Earth was the center of the universe and motionless. The problem was to explain how the other planets and heavenly bodies moved. At first it was thought that they simply moved in circular orbits around Earth. Calculations based on this view, however, did not agree with actual observations. Then it was thought that the other planets traveled in small circular orbits. These in turn were believed to move along larger orbits around Earth. With this theory, however, it could not be proved that Earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus’s revolutionary idea was that Earth should be regarded as one of the planets that revolved around the Sun. He also stated that Earth rotated on an axis. Copernicus, however, still clung to the ideas of planets traveling in small circular orbits that moved along larger orbits.
Copernicus probably hit upon his main idea sometime between 1508 and 1514. For years, however, he delayed publication of his controversial work, which contradicted all the authorities of the time. The historic book that contains the final version of his theory, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), did not appear in print until 1543, the year of his death. According to legend, Copernicus received a copy as he was dying, on May 24, 1543. The book opened the way to a truly scientific approach to astronomy. It had a profound influence on later thinkers of the scientific revolution, including such major figures as Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton.
Frances Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a skeptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. While his own practical ideas about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have a long lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a skeptical methodology makes Bacon the father of scientific method. On 9 April 1626, Bacon died of pneumonia while at Arundel mansion at Highgate outside London. An influential account of the circumstances of his death was given by John Aubrey's Brief Lives, with Aubrey stating he contracted pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat.
Commonalities of these Men
The men of the Age of Enlightenment may have been very different but shared many common characteristics:
*They challenged conventional wisdom, including the Catholic Church.
*They stood up for their beliefs
*They defied the establishment
The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made three sea voyages to India between 1497 and 1524. His voyages opened a sea route from Western Europe to the East and made Portugal a world power.
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