Transitions of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment Periods

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Transitions of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment Periods

The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were times of great emphasis on reason and questioning of faith. The scientists and philosophes of these eras discovered and taught new ideas that often contradicted what the church and former thinkers had taught and believed before them. Most of the intellectual, political, economic, and social characteristics associated with the modern world came into being during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.1 During the Scientific Revolution, people began to question beliefs that they had always taken for granted. Scientists changed people's views of the world they lived in through discoveries such as the theory of the heliocentric universe. During the Enlightenment, philosophes challenged beliefs formerly held by the church and government by insisting that human reason would lead to the solution of all problems. They believed that man should live his life, make his own decisions, and believe what he wanted based on his own experiences and what he believed to be true. These two revolutions lead to a movement away from the church and faith, and towards a belief in more scientific and mathematical explanations for the way things worked.

One of the aspects of the Scientific Revolution was the popularization of the belief in a sun-centered universe. Before this time, both Aristotle and Ptolemy supported the theory that the earth was the center of the universe and that the stars and planets revolved around it. Also, the realm of God was believed to lie just outside of this universe. This was known as the geocentric theory and the Catholic Church also strongly supported...

... middle of paper ...

...s or herself. The former influence that faith and the church had on everyday life was questioned during these eras and a strong turning from former beliefs was widely evident as the thinkers of this time proposed new ideas on logic and reason.

1 Perry M. Rogers, ed. Aspects of Western Civilization: Problems and Sources in History

(Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall, 1998) 3.

2 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 11.

3 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 12.

4 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 14.

5 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 9.

6 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 16.

7 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 3.

8 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 4.

9 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 29.

10 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 31.

11 Rogers. Aspects of Western Civilization 35.

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