New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

1. New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

2. ¤The Scientific Revolution¤ • Was not a unified event, but rather a gradual movement that involved around a few hundred brilliant scientists laboring independently over many years in different countries • This “new” science captured the public’s imagination and enabled scientific discovery and knowledge to gain cultural authority. • Many advances in the field of astronomy

3. Nicholas Copernicus • 1473~1543 • Famous for questioning the geocentric view of the universe sponsored by Ptolemy (in which the Earth was believed to be at the center of the universe). • In On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, Copernicus argued that on behalf of a heliocentric view of the universe Top: The new model (sun is center) Bottom: The old model (earth is center)

4. Tycho Brahe • 1546~1601 • Spent much of his life advocating a geocentric view of the universe, but he made more extensive observations of the planets than any of his predecessors • His assistant, Johannes Kepler, used Brahe’s research findings to advance a heliocentric view and demonstrate that planets orbited around the sun in an elliptical fashion in The New Astronomy. Kepler Brahe

5. Galileo Galilei • 1564~1642 • One of the first astronomers to view the sky with the telescope • He popularized a Copernican interpretation of the heavens using the empirical, rational evidence that he found in his research

6. Isaac Newton • 1642~1727 • An English scientist, published his famous Principia Mathematica in 1687 • He asserted (and proved mathematically) that planets and other physical objects moved through mutual attraction, or gravity

7. Philosophy Responds to Changing Science • The revolution in scientific thought extended to the philosophy of the era, which came to see the world in terms of its mechanical principles • The image of God as a divine watchmaker came into vogue at this time, and a new emphasis on mathematics and a mechanical understanding of nature pervaded all fields

8. Francis Bacon • 1561~1626 • Urged his peers to continue their search for the truth in the natural world • In Novum Organum and The Advancement of Learning, he attacked the belief that everything had already been discovered, and he encouraged experiment

9. Rene Descartes • 1596~1650 • Developed a scientific method that relied on deduction more than it did on empirical study and induction • In Discourse on Method, he endorsed the idea that all thought should be founded on a mathematical model, and he rejected outright any thought not postulated on reason Cartesian Oval

10. Thomas Hobbes • 1588~1679 • Was supportive of the scientific movement and befriended Descartes and Galileo. • His Leviathan portrays human beings as materialistic, egotistical, and hedonistic. • He believed human beings were at war with others and themselves. • He felt that rulers should have no limits on their power.

11. The New Science and Religious Faith • Galileo angered the Catholic church because he interpreted scripture in accord with the new science. For his disobedience, he was put on trial and forced to live under house arrest. • Blaise Pascal {1623~1662} was a French mathematician who saw religion as separate from reason and science; he believed that religion required a “leap of faith.” He allied himself with the Jansenists. Pascal’s famous wager with the skeptics was that it was better to believe that God exists and stake everything on his benevolence that not to do so. • Faith in a rational God was an element in the English approach to the new science. Scientific advances came to be interpreted as a fulfillment of God’s plan for mankind.

12. Continuing Superstition • From 1400 to 1700, an estimated 70,00-100,000 people were sentenced to death for magic and witchcraft. Growing religious and political tensions of the age made use of theology that portrayed demons and the Devil as powerful. Cunning folk were believed to possess special powers. Over time, these abilities came into conflict with the sacred rituals of the Christian church, like the sacraments, and the exorcism of demons. The Church Declared that only its priests could possess legitimate magical abilities and that those who practiced magic outside the church were infernally inspired.

13. John Locke • 1632~1704 • Was critical of Hobbes’s views of absolutism and helped lay a foundation for European traditions of liberal political philosophy. • In First Treatise of Government, he rejected the idea of absolute government based on the concept of a patriarchal model of fathers ruling over family. • In Second Treatise of Government, he argued for a government that was both accountable for and alert to the needs of the government. • He believed that human beings were creatures of basically good will that entered into a social contract to preserve their existing liberties and rights.