CHAPTER 14NEW DIRECTIONS IN THOUGHT AND CULTURE IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES

AP European HistoryMrs. Tucker

Key Topics

The astronomical theories of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton and the Scientific Revolution;

Impact of the new science on philosophy Social setting of early modern science Women and the Scientific revolution Approaches to science and religion Witchcraft and witch-hunts

Scientific Revolution

Not everything was “new” Much of this was rethinking from the ancient and late middle ages;

The Scientific Revolution was NOT rapid; Term Scientist did not exist until 1830s Scientific societies and academies developed in the

latter half of the 17th century; New knowledge emerged in Medicine, Chemistry,

and Natural history; but the most popular were the strides made in Astronomy;

The Ptolemaic System

Ptolemy wrote the Almagest

Standard explanation of mathematical astronomy since 150 C.E.

Geocentrism Planets moved

uniformly about an epicycle and the center moved uniformly about a deferent;

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)

Polish priest & astronomer

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)

Catholic Inquisition places Copernicus’s On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres on Index of Prohibited Books, 1616

Heliocentric Universe

heliocentric versus geocentric view of the solar system

challenged Ptolemaic/Aristotelian models in use since antiquity

Copernican system no more accurate than Ptolemaic—important as a new paradigm—slow to gain ground

Publishes on deathbed;

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

Believed in Earth-Centered System;

Suggested the moon and sun revolved around earth and other planets revolved around sun;

He produced tremendous astronomical data for his successors to work with;

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Brahe’s assistant and

inherited his work; Belived in Copernican

Theory but found that the motion of planets were elliptical not in epicycles;

Wrote The New Astronomy in 1609 using Copernicus’s sun-centered universe and Brahe’s empircal data.

Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)

Italian mathematician, Physicist, & natural philosopher

broke ground using telescope—found heavens much more complex than previously understood

became high-profile Copernican advocate

articulated concept of a universe governed by mathematical laws

Galileo Facing the Inquisition Representative

incident: Roman Catholic authorities condemn Galileo, 1633—under house arrest for last nine years of his life

Roman Catholic Church formally admits errors of biblical interpretation in Galileo’s case, 1992

Isaac Newton (1642–1727)

English Mathematician and Physicist;

discovered laws of gravity—all physical objects in the universe move through mutual attraction (gravity); explained planetary orbits

explained gravity mathematically

Principia Mathematica (1687)

Isaac Newton

Francis Bacon (1521 – 1626)

English lawyer, government official, historian, essayist

Considered father of empiricism, scientific experimentation

Set intellectual tone conducive to scientific inquiry

Attacked scholastic adherence to intellectual authorities of the past

championed innovation and change as goals contributing to human improvement

two books of divine revelation: the Bible and nature

since both books share the same author, they must be compatible

René Descartes (1596 – 1650)

Gifted mathematician, inventor of analytic geometry

Most important contribution: scientific method relying more on deduction (deriving specific facts from general principles) than empiricism

René Descartes Discourse on Method

(1637)—rejection of scholastic philosophy and education in favor of mathematical models; rejection of all intellectual authority except his own reason

Concluded (God-given) human reason was sufficient to comprehend the world

Divided world into two categories: mind (thinking) & body (extension)

Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)

Most original political philosopher of 17th c.

Enthusiastic supporter of New Science

for absolutist government

Humans not basically social, but basically self-centered

State of nature is a state of war; life in this state is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan

Turmoil of English Civil War motivated his Leviathan (1651)

Leviathan: rigorous philosophical justification

“The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.”

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Most influential philosophical and political thinker of the 17th c.

Contrast with Hobbes First Treatise of

Government: argued against patriarchal models of government

Second Treatise of Government: government as necessarily responsible for and responsive to the governed

Two Treatises of Government

Humans basically creatures of reason and goodwill

Letter Concerning Toleration (1689): argument for religious toleration

Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690): described human mind as birth as a “blank slate” with content to be determined by sensory experience—reformist view, rejects Christian concept of original sin

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

Maria Winkelmann—accomplished German astronomer, excluded from Berlin Academy

Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)

• Married William Cavendish, Marquis of Newcastle in 1645

• Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy (1666)

• Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668)

• Asked to attend a session of Royal Society of London which met with much controversy

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

French Mathematician and Inventor;

Mathematical prodigy – studied Geometry proving Euclid’s 32nd proposition and finding error in Descartes work at 13;

opposed both dogmatism and skepticism

erroneous belief in God is a safer bet than erroneous unbelief

In 1968 a computer programming language was named for him, (PASCAL);

Pascaline

The Pascaline, the first accurate calculator;

Was not a commercial success – although it could do the work of 6 accountants, people feared it would cause unemployment.

Pascal to studying religion after rejection of his calculator;

Believed a “leap of faith” required in religion;

Rise of Academic Societies

The New Science threatened vested academic interests and was slow to gain ground in universities

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)

New Philosophy

Scientific revolution major reexamination of Western philosophy

Nature as mechanism—clock metaphor; God as clockmaker (Deism)

Purpose of studying nature changes: search for

symbolic/sacramental meaning search for usefulness/utility

path to salvation path to human physical improvement

New Science and Religion

Faith in a Rational God 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.

Economics

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

Continuing Superstition

The Hammer of the Witches

The Hammer of the Witches, The Malleus Maleficarum, written by Jacob Sprenger and Heinreich Kramer, 1486, an important medieval treatise on the existence of and how to interrogate witches;

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

Cunning Folk - village society: magic helped cope with natural disasters and disabilities

Christian clergy: practiced high magic (Eucharist, Penance, Confession, exorcism

Review

1. Which of the following does NOT characterize the nature of the Scientific Revolution?

A. It occurred several places in Europe at the same time.

B. It was not revolutionary in the normal sense of the word.

C. It was a complex movement involving many persons.

D. Its proponents were hostile to established Christianity

E. Its proponents believed that the study of nature would shed light on the nature of

the divine.

Review

2. Which of the following figures played a key role in the popularization of the Copernican system?

A. Newton

B. Bacon

C. Locke

D. Kepler

E. Galileo

Review

3. Pascal believed that: A. there was a danger in following traditional religious ways.

B. misery loves company.

C. God’s mercy was for everyone.

D. it is better to believe in God than not to believe.

E. all men and women were destined for salvation.

Review

4. In Thomas Hobbes’s view,

A. man was a person neither good nor evil.

B. a self-centered beast.

C. essentially God-fearing.

D. perfect at birth, but devolved over time.

E. not the creator of human society

Review

5. Most proponents of the new science sought to

A. explain the natural world through the lens of Christian revelation.

B. mechanical metaphors.

C. metaphysical concepts.

D. religious analogies.

E. Aristotelian logic.

Review

6. Galileo believed that all aspects of nature could be described in terms of:

A. virtues and vices.

B. divine harmonies.

C. celestial ratios.

D. logical hierarchies.

E. mathematical relationships.

Review

7. Most English natural philosophers of the seventeenth century believed that:A. religion and science were incompatible.

B. all important contributions to science had been made by Englishmen.

C. natural philosophy revealed deeper truths than theology.

D. religion and science were mutually supportive.

E. nature revealed little about the divine.

Review

8. Tycho Brahe’s major contribution to science was his:

A. discovery of the planet Mercury.

B. proof of the Copernican system.

C. compilation of a large amount of astronomical data.

D. discovery of the moons of Jupiter.

E. support of Galileo.

Review

9. Bacon, Descartes, and Newton all sought to explain the universe in _______ terms.

A. metaphysical

B. symbolic

C. mystical

D. mono-causal

E. mechanistic

Review

10. Descartes divided existing things into two categories, mind and:

A. body.

B. God.

C. metaphor.

D. modality.

E. mindlessness.

Key and Notes

1-D, 2-E, 3-D, 4-B, 5-B, 6-E, 7-D, 8-C, 9-E,10-A

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