Chapter 14: New Directions of Thought and Culture in the 16 th and 17 th Centuries

1. Chapter 14: New Directions of Thought and Culture in the 16th and 17th Centuries

2. Leaders of the Scientific Revolutions • Nicolaus Copernicus • Tycho Brahe • Johannes Kepler • Galileo Galilei • Isaac Newton • Francis Bacon • Rene Descartes

3. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke • Hobbes 462-464; Locke 464-466 • Questions • What was Hobbes’/Locke’s view of human nature? • What was Hobbes’/Locke’s political philosophy? • Whose view of humanity and political philosophy is correct? Explain your answer.

4. Thomas Hobbes John Locke English Civil War Human nature Type of Government Nature of Government: Social Contract

5. Thomas Hobbes John Locke English Civil War Selfish Reasonable and Good Human nature Type of Government Nature of Government: Social Contract

6. Thomas Hobbes John Locke English Civil War Selfish Reasonable and Good Human nature Limited Government; Constitutional Government Strong Central Political Authority Type of Government Nature of Government: Social Contract

7. Thomas Hobbes John Locke English Civil War Selfish Reasonable and Good Human nature Limited Government; Constitutional Government Strong Central Political Authority Type of Government Sort out Problems; Protect Natural Rights Sacrifice Liberty for Security Nature of Government: Social Contract

8. Thomas Hobbes: Apologist for Absolute Government • embraced scientific movement • translated Thuclydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War – influenced his basic view of humanity • Leviathan • Aimed to provide a justification for strong central political authority; influenced by English Civil War • Portray humanity/society in a materialistic and mechanical way • Increase pleasure/ minimize pain; driven by physical sensation • Humans exist to meet daily needs not higher moral purpose • Only sovereign commonwealth could help humans meet needs by limiting free exercise of natural human pursuit of self–interest; social/political contract – give up liberty for security • Words/promises insufficient so state needs coercive force’ anarchy worse than tyranny • Opposition from Monarchs, Christian leaders/intellectuals

9. John Locke: Defender of Moderate Liberty and Toleration • Major source of criticism of absolutism and foundation for liberal political philosophy • First Treatise of Government – ended debate on patriarchal model of government • Second Treatise of Government – government must be responsible for and responsive to the concerns of the governed • Humans are creatures of reason and basic good will • The state of human nature – a condition of competition and modest conflict – requires a political authority to sort out problems not impose authority • Social contract is to ensure rights, liberty and property – limit authority of the government • Conflict occurs when government violates natural law – government fails to protect people’s natural rights; people have the right to rebel

10. Letter Concerning Toleration – allow people to make personal determination of how to reach salvation; no religious conformity forced by government; Catholic exception • Essay Concerning Human Understanding – early version of behaviorism; tabula rasa • Believed reason and revelation were compatible

11. The New Institutions of Expanding Natural Knowledge • Belief that genuinely new knowledge about nature and human kind could be discovered • don’t have to look back and recover a better understanding; advance learning • scholasticism/aristotelianism – wanted to preserve traditional outlooks; defend ancients versus moderns

12. establishment of “institutions of sharing”: Royal Society of London (1660); Academy of Experiments (Florence, 1657); French Academy of Science (1666); Berlin Academy of Science (1700) • authorities created through peer review and critiques • natural philosophy separated from religious and political conflict • driven by literate classes outside of elite classes; empire building encouraged scientific advancements • members presented science as an enterprise to aid the goals of government • eventually leads to the Enlightenment Period

13. Women in the Scientific Revolution • Generally excluded from the institutions of European intellectual life • Queen Christina of Sweden (r. 1623–1654): brought Descartes to Stockholm to design regulations for a new science academy • Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673) • Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy (1666) • Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668) • Maria Winkelmann—accomplished German astronomer, excluded from Berlin Academy

14. New Science and Religion • Three major issues: • Certain scientific theories and discoveries conflicted with Scripture. • Who resolves such disputes: religious authorities or natural philosophers? • New science’s apparent replacement of spiritually significant universe with purely material one. • Representative incident: Roman Catholic authorities condemn Galileo, 1633—under house arrest for last nine years of his life • Catholic Inquisition places Copernicus’s On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres on Index of Prohibited Books, 1616 • Roman Catholic Church formally admits errors of biblical interpretation in Galileo’s case in 1992

15. Attempts to Reconcile Reason and Faith • Blaise Pascal; French mathematician • opposed both dogmatism and skepticism • erroneous belief in God is a safer bet than erroneous unbelief • Francis Bacon • two books of divine revelation: the Bible and nature • since both books share the same author, they must be compatible • Economics: technological and economic innovation seen as part of a divine plan—man is to understand world and then put it into productive rational use

16. Continuing Superstition • belief in magic and the occult persisted through the end of the 17th c. • witch-hunts: 70,000–100,000 put to death, 1400–1700; 80% women • village society: magic helped cope with natural disasters and disabilities • Christian clergy: practiced high magic (Eucharist, Penance, Confession, exorcism

17. Baroque Art • 17th c. painting, sculpture, architecture • subjects depicted in naturalistic rather than idealized manner • Michelangelo Caravaggio (1573–1610)