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

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

• AP European History
• Mrs. Tucker

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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

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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

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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

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Nicolaus Copernicus (14731543)

• Polish priest astronomer
• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)
• Catholic Inquisition places Copernicuss On the
  Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres on Index of
  Prohibited Books, 1616

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Heliocentric Universe

• heliocentric versus geocentric view of the solar
  system
• challenged Ptolemaic/Aristotelian models in use
  since antiquity
• Copernican system no more accurate than
  Ptolemaicimportant as a new paradigmslow to
  gain ground
• Publishes on deathbed

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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

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Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

• Brahes 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
  Copernicuss sun-centered universe and Brahes
  empircal data.

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Galileo Galilei (1564 1642)

• Italian mathematician, Physicist, natural
  philosopher
• broke ground using telescopefound heavens much
  more complex than previously understood
• became high-profile Copernican advocate
• articulated concept of a universe governed by
  mathematical laws

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Galileo Facing the Inquisition

• Representative incident Roman Catholic
  authorities condemn Galileo, 1633under house
  arrest for last nine years of his life
• Roman Catholic Church formally admits errors of
  biblical interpretation in Galileos case, 1992

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Isaac Newton (16421727)

• English Mathematician and Physicist
• discovered laws of gravityall physical objects
  in the universe move through mutual attraction
  (gravity) explained planetary orbits
• explained gravity mathematically
• Principia Mathematica (1687)

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Isaac Newton
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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

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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

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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

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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
  experiencereformist view, rejects Christian
  concept of original sin

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Women in the Scientific Revolution

• Generally excluded from the institutions of
  European intellectual life
• Queen Christina of Sweden (r. 16231654) brought
  Descartes to Stockholm to design regulations for
  a new science academy
• Maria Winkelmannaccomplished German astronomer,
  excluded from Berlin Academy

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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

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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

• French Mathematician and Inventor
• Mathematical prodigy studied Geometry proving
  Euclids 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)

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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

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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)

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New Philosophy

• Scientific revolution ? major reexamination of
  Western philosophy
• Nature as mechanismclock 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

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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 sciences apparent replacement of spiritually
  significant universe with purely material one.

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Economics

• Economics technological and economic innovation
  seen as part of a divine planman is to
  understand world and then put it into productive
  rational use

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Continuing Superstition
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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

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Continuing Superstition

• belief in magic and the occult persisted through
  the end of the 17th c.
• witch-hunts 70,000100,000 put to death,
  14001700 80 women
• Cunning Folk - village society magic helped cope
  with natural disasters and disabilities
• Christian clergy practiced high magic
  (Eucharist, Penance, Confession, exorcism

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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.

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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

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Review

• 3. Pascal believed that
• A. there was a danger in following traditional
  religious ways.
• B. misery loves company.
• C. Gods 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.

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Review

• 4. In Thomas Hobbess 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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Review

• 8. Tycho Brahes 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.

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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

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Review

• 10. Descartes divided existing things into two
  categories, mind and
• A. body.
• B. God.
• C. metaphor.
• D. modality.
• E. mindlessness.

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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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