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The scientific revolution and the age of enlightenment
The scientific revolution and the age of enlightenment
The Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries
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Enlightenment
The enlightenment was the growth of thought of European thinkers in the 1600’s. The spread of enlightenment was a result of the Scientific Revolution during the 1500’s and 1600’s. It resulted as a need to use reason to distribute human laws. It also came about from a need to solve social, political and economic problems.
Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier built the framework for modern chemistry during the enlightenment. Edward Jenner built a vaccine against smallpox, a deadly disease. These sort of scientific successes prompted European thinkers to use reason to find laws to govern the physical world, which they called natural laws. Natural laws are laws that govern human nature.
Two prominent “thinkers” during the enlightemnet were Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Thomas Hobbes wrote a book about his ideas called the Leviathan. In his book he argued that people were naturally cruel, greedy and selfish. He thought that if people were not strictly controlled, they would fight, rob and oppress one another. He believed society must be ruled by an Absolute Monarch....
Mini-Q Essay A time period known as The Age of Reason or The Enlightenment was when philosophy, politics, science and social communications changed drastically. It helped shape the ideas of capitalism and democracy, which is the world we live in today. People joined together to discuss areas of high intellect and creative thoughts. The Enlightenment was a time period in which people discussed new ideas, and educated people, known as philosophers, all had a central idea of freedom of choice and the natural right of individuals. These philosophers include John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
The Enlightenment was a great upheaval in the culture of the colonies- an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries which emphasized logic and reason over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers believed that men and women could move civilization to ever greater heights through the power of their own reason. The Enlightenment encouraged men and women to look to themselves, instead of God, for guidance as to how to live their lives and shape society. It also evoked a new appreciation and
The English Enlightenment represented innovation in technology, advancement of communication, and the destruction of absolutism, all of which significantly affected American culture. Scientific discoveries in Europe, mainly cultivated by Isaac Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus, served as the pinnacles of scientific rationalism, or the science that provides answers to questions reached through human inquiry, not scriptures of the Bible. These findings went completely against religious ideals of the era, one example being the discovery of craters on the moon, which proved that all things created by God are not perfect. The printing press allowed scientific ideas to be effectively spread across the world. The upset of religion by science extended throughout Europe, into Britain, and eventually to the American colonies. As religious beliefs were replaced by scientific fact, universities in North America grew and became secular. In Europe, absolute monarchs were ousted and established churches were denied the right to have hierarchical power. The rise of science was reflected by new political ideas as well. Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, Rousseau’s The Social Contract, and John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government justified the ostracism of absolute monarchs through the principle of government based on social contracts, not divine rights. The social contract was created to protect what Locke described as the Natural Rights of Man- life, liberty, and pr...
The Enlightenment was the time period that followed the Scientific Revolution and was characterized as the "Age of Reason". This was the time when man began to use his reason to discover the world around him rather than blindly follow what the previous authority, such as the Church and Classical Philosophers, stated to be true. The Enlightenment was a tremendously broad movement that dominated much of the European thinking during the 18th century, however, several core themes that epitomized the movement were the idea of progress, skepticism against the Church, and individualism.
Enlightenment had an enormous impact on educated, well to do people in Europe and America. It supplied them with a common vocabulary and a unified view of the world, one that insisted that the enlightened 18th century was better, and wiser, than all previous ages. It joined them in a common endeavor, the effort to make sense of God's orderly creation. Thus
The Enlightenment was a spread of ideas that occurred in Europe in which people began to think about humane things and individualism. These ideas caused a reaction in the colonies that is now known as The Great Awakening. During this Great Awakening, preachers called ‘New Lights’ spread their ideas to the people, causing mass effect. This leads to the Great Awakening causing a democratic spirit to emerge among the people.
The Enlightenment is a unique time in European history characterized by revolutions in science, philosophy, society, and politics. These revolutions put Europe in a transition from the medieval world-view to the modern western world. The traditional hierarchical political and social orders from the French monarchy and Catholic Church were destroyed and replaced by a political and social order from the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality(Bristow, 1). Many historians, such as Henry Steele Commager, Peter Gay, have studied the Enlightenment over the years and created their own views and opinions.
The Enlightenment had its roots in the scientific and philosophical movements of the 17th century. It was, in large part, a rejection of the faith-based medieval world view for a way of thought based on structured inquiry and scientific understanding. It stressed individualism, and it rejected the church's control of the secular activities of men. Among the movement's luminaries were Descartes, Newton, and Locke. They, among others, stressed the individual's use of reason to explain and understand the world about himself in all of its aspects. Important principles of the Enlightenment included the use of science to examine all aspects of life (this was labeled "reason"),...
Advancement from Enlightenment As the 1900's rolled around, many changes were to come. New leaders, government styles, and new ideas were just the start. The main focus of the Enlightenment era was based on reason, rationalism, and the idea of "Inevitable Progress. " Enlightenment was pushed forward by great people such as Kant, Bulgaria, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Newton, Francois-Marie Ardouet de Voltaire, Thomas Hobbes, to name a few.
Thomas Hobbes believed that without some terrible power to make us observe the laws we will act on our own impulses. For this reason, in 1651 he wrote his most famous work that I previously mentioned, Leviathan. Hobbes
The Enlightenment was an eighteenth century intellectual movement that built the foundation for scientific reasoning and new world exploration. The Enlightenment period produced great and revolutionary minds from Britain, France and Europe with questioning the traditional way of thinking. Philosophers that helped build the early Enlightenment period are Thomas Hobbes and Francis Bacon. They were apart of the early years of the Enlightenment stage with discovering new scientific revolution. With the new technology being developed more and more philosophers wanted to find out what is factual and what is legend.
Hobbes was a strong believer in the thought that human nature was evil. He believed that “only the unlimited power of a sovereign could contain human passions that disrupt the social order and threatened civilized life.” Hobbes believed that human nature was a force that would lead to a constant state of war if it was not controlled. In his work the Leviathan, he laid out a secular political statement in which he stated the significance of absolutism.
Particularly influenced by specific events taking place during their lifetime, each one of them perceived human nature differently and therefore had variant opinions about the role of government under the Social Contract. For instance, Thomas Hobbes saw humans exclusively as self-interested creatures. He believed that everything we do is frivolously premeditated and rationalized in order to accomplish our objectives and satisfy as many of our desires as possible. From these pessimistic views of human nature, Hobbes goes on to suggest why we would be willing to submit ourselves to political authority. According to Hobbes’ hypothesis, life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes talks about his views of human nature and describes his vision of the ideal government which is best suited to his views.
The age of Enlightenment was a progression of the cultural and intellectual changes in Europe that had resulted from the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scientific revolution and the discoveries made about the natural world would ultimately challenge the way people perceived the world around them. Scientist found real answers, by questioning flawed ancient beliefs that were widely held and maintained by the church. Ultimately, these discoveries and scientific advancements would evolve and effect social, cultural, and political developments in Europe over the course of time. The scientific revolution had provided certainty about the natural world that had long been questioned. With these new developments came the progression and influence of thought, rationality, and individualism. These new ideas would be the hallmark for the Enlightenment movement that would shape most of Europe in the eighteenth century.