The Age of European Enlightenment

1. 21 The Age of European Enlightenment

2. The Age of European Enlightenment • The Scientific Revolution • The Enlightenment • The Enlightenment and Religion • The Enlightenment and Society • Enlightened Absolutism

3. Enlightenment Salon

4. Introduction • Scientific Revolution • Transformed every part of the world • Impact of science on every area of life remains a dominant theme • Eagerness to embrace scientific change is one of the primary intellectual inheritances from that age

5. Introduction (cont’d) • Movement fostered by the Enlightenment • Confidence in reason, over tradition and religion • Innovation and improvement

6. Global Perspective:The European Enlightenment • How did Enlightenment values as well as Enlightenment admiration of science become one of the chief defining qualities of societies regarded as advanced, progressive, and modern? • How has the political thought of the Enlightenment influenced the development of modern political philosophies and modern governments?

7. Global Perspective:The European Enlightenment (cont'd) • How could modes of thought developed to criticize various aspects of eighteenth-century European society be transferred to other traditions of world civilizations?

8. The Scientific Revolution

9. Scientific Revolution • A new view of the universe in 1500s, 1600s • Not everything actually new • Reexamined and rethought older knowledge and made new discoveries • Slow-moving, complex movement • Brilliant people suggested erroneous as well as useful ideas

10. Scientific Revolution (cont’d) • Limited to a few hundred people • Authority and application of scientific knowledge • Comes to define modern Western civilization • Achievements in many areas • Astronomy most captures attention

11. Ptolemaic system • Standard explanation of the place of the Earth in the heavens • Combination of mathematical astronomy of Ptolemy (Almagest, 150 C.E.) with the physical cosmology of Aristotle

12. Ptolemaic System (cont’d) • Geocentricism • Earth as center of universe • System of concentric spheres • Outer region was realm of God and angels • Numerous problems • Planets appeared to move backward • Ptolemy presented epicycles as the solution

13. The Ptolemaic System

14. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) • Polish astronomer • On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres • Challenged Ptolemaic universe • Ptolemaic ideas (i.e., epicycles) applied to heliocentric universe • Earth moved about sun in a circle

15. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) (cont’d) • System no more accurate • A way of confronting some difficulties in Ptolemaic astronomy • Allowed people to think in new directions

16. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) • Danish astronomer • Spent most of life opposing Copernicus • Suggested that moon and sun revolved around the Earth • Other planets revolved around sun • Astronomical observations with the naked eye • Constructed most accurate tables of observations

17. Tycho Brahe

18. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) • German astronomer • Influenced by Renaissance Neo-Platonists • Kepler believed that to keep sun at center the concept of circular orbits had to be abandoned • Proposed that orbits had to be elliptical • Used Copernicus’s sun-centered universe and Brahe’s empirical data

19. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) (cont’d) • On the Motion of Mars (1609) • New problem: Why were planetary orbits elliptical?

20. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) • Turned a telescope to the sky • Mountains on the moon • Spots moving across the sun • Moons orbiting Jupiter • Heavens far more complex than anyone knew • Concept of a universe totally subject to mathematical laws

21. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) (cont’d) • Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of the World • Supported the Copernican system • Condemned by Catholic church

22. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) • “Father of empiricism and experimentation” • Novum Organum (1620), New Atlantis (1627)‏ • Attacked scholastic belief that knowledge was already discovered and only required explanation • Urged contemporaries to strike out on their own in search of new understandings of science

23. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (cont’d) • Desirability of innovation and change • Human knowledge should produce useful results • Science had a practical purpose and the goal was human improvement • No major scientific contributions, simply directed people to new method and new purpose

24. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) • Addressed question of planetary motion • Basis for physics for 200 years • The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Principia Mathematica) • Gravity: physical objects moved through mutual attraction • Explained how planets moved in an orderly manner • Proved relationship mathematically

25. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) (cont’d) • Upheld importance of empirical data, observation • Observe before attempting to explain • Mathematic application to scientific investigation

26. Newton’s Telescope

27. Women and the Scientific Revolution • General absence of women • Universities and monasteries – institutions of celibate male clerical culture • Women got few opportunities • Generally through marriage or social standing • Noblewomen and women from artisan class

28. Women and the Scientific Revolution (cont’d) • Margaret Cavendish (1632-1673) • Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy (1666) and Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668) • Only woman to attend Royal Society meeting • Criticized the Society for focusing on novel scientific instruments rather than solving practical problems

29. Women and Learning

30. Women of the Artisan Milieu • Artisan women had greater freedom • Astronomy was often studied under the tutelage of husbands or fathers in the workshop • Maria Cunitz – book on astronomy • Two husband and wife astronomy teams • Elisabetha and Johannes Hevelius • Maria Winkelmann and Gottfried Kirch

31. Women of the Artisan Milieu (cont’d) • Women did acquire knowledge of science • Margaret Cavendish, A Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World (1666) • Designed to introduce women to science • The pursuit of natural knowledge was still considered a male vocation

32. John Locke (1632-1704) • Hoped to achieve for philosophy a lawful picture of the human mind similar to that which Newton had presented of nature • Most profound impact on European and American thought during eighteenth century

33. John Locke (1632-1704) (cont’d) • Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) • Rejected idea of original sin • Knowledge derived from sense experience • Humans can take charge of own destiny • Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) • Each person responsible for salvation • Governments should not legislate on religion

34. Locke (cont’d) • Two Treatises of Government (1689) • Law is the voice of reason • Humans are equal and independent • People shouldn’t harm one another because all people are images and property of God

35. Locke (cont’d) • Rulers are not absolute in their power • People enter political contracts with rulers • Rulers are empowered to judge disputes and preserve natural rights • Monarchs who broke trust could be overthrown • Argument used in Declaration of Independence

36. Overview

37. The Enlightenment

38. Enlightenment • Movement of the eighteenth century stating that change and reform were desirable through the application of reason and science

39. Enlightenment (cont’d) • Led by philosophes • Popularized seventeenth-century rationalism and scientific ideas • Exposed contemporary social abuses • Argued that reform was necessary, possible • Problems that they confronted included • Vested interests

40. Enlightenment (cont’d) • Political oppression • Religious condemnation • By mid-century they had brought enlightened ideas to the European public in a variety of ways

41. Voltaire (1694-1778) • François Marie Arouet (Voltaire) • Most influential of the philosophes • Believed that human society should be improved • Letters on the English (1733) • Praised English virtues & criticized French society

42. Voltaire (1694-1778) (cont’d) • Elements of the Philosophy of Newton (1738) • Popularized the thought of Newton • Candide (1759) • Attacked war, religious persecution, and unwarranted optimism about the human condition • Reform, if achieved, might not be permanent • Hopeful but not certain • Pessimistic undercurrent

43. The Encyclopedia (1751-1772) • One of great monuments of Enlightenment • Denis Diderot (1713-1784) • Collective effort of more than 100 authors • Articles from all major French philosophes • Collective plea for freedom of expression • The most advanced critical ideas in religion, government, and philosophy • Looked to antiquity for intellectual models

44. Denis Diderot

45. The Encyclopedia (1751-1772) (cont’d) • Rather than to Christian centuries • Designed to secularize learning • Good life – application of reason to relationships

46. The Encyclopedia Praises Mechanical Arts and Artisans

47. The Encyclopedia Praises Mechanical Arts and Artisans

48. Illustration from the Encyclopedia

49. Map 21–1. Subscriptions to Diderot’s Encyclopedia throughout Europe

50. The Enlightenment and Religion