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The Scientific Revolution and the Philosophical Response

Chapter 14

Pages 452-466

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Objectives

I. Important Influences of the Enlightenment

II. The Scientific Revolution

III. Philosophy responds to Science

IV. The Age of Reason

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I. Important Influences

A. The Renaissance

B. The Reformation

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A. The Renaissance

• Rediscovery of Classical knowledge

• Humanism:– Secular– Self awareness– Study of Liberal arts

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B. The Reformation

• Ends the monopoly of the Catholic Church.

• Huge explosion of new interpretations of the Bible.

• Demonstrates a challenge to authority.

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II. Scientific Revolution

A. Copernicus

B. Kepler

C. Galileo

D. Sir Isaac Newton

E. Conflict with the church.

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A. Copernicus

• Before Copernicus the Ptolemaic or geocentric view of the Universe dominated.– Accepted by Aristotle and

Ptolemy– The Church taught that God put

us at the center of the Universe.• Copernicus challenged this

view and argued for the heliocentric or sun centered view.

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Ptolemaic

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The Church Position

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The Heliocentric Model

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B. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

• Continued work of Tycho Brahe (1536-1601).

• Proposed 3 laws of planetary motion.– Planets revolve around sun in

elliptical orbit.– Planets move more rapidly as they

approach sun.– Time to complete orbit varies with

distance.

• Development process of Scientific method.

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C. Galileo (1564-1642)

• He built a telescope and studied the heavens.

• His findings proved the Copernican model correct.

• This became a challenge to the church authority.

• He will be forced to recant and under house arrest the rest of his life.

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D. Sir Isaac Newton

• Sir Isaac Newton• World has natural laws

– Laws of Gravity and motion that unified the heavens and the earth

• The world has natural laws to explain it.

• Humans also have laws that govern them.

• We, as humans, can use reason to discover these laws.

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III. Philosophy responds to Science

A. Nature as Mechanism

B. Influence of Francis Bacon

C. Rene Descartes

D. Thomas Hobbes

E. John Locke

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A. Nature as Mechanism

• Science can be used to explain the world– “It is a machine of natural parts, not divine”

Kepler– God may be a designer, but not actively

involved• Europeans looked at the world to discover

knowledge and understand nature, not to understand the divine.

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B. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

• Father of empiricism– Learning through

experience and perception

• Advocated learning– Leave the past (antiquity)– Discover new knowledge

• Knowledge should be useful to humanity

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C. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

• Mathematician– Analytical geometry– Mathematical models

• Believed God have given men reason– Man can use reason

to understand the world

– The power of Science

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D. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Man is self interested• State of nature is war• Hobbes Social Contract:

– People needed to surrender liberty in order to maintain order and security

– Strong central authority is needed

– Without government life would short, nasty and brutish

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E. John Locke. (1632-1704)

• Essay Concerning Human Understanding”– Knowledge is gained from

experience.– Man is Good– Rejected concept of

original sin.• Humans could improve

society through reason.

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John Locke

" Men (are) by nature all free, equal and independent. No one can be put out of his estate ( liberty and property) without his own consent. The only way whereby anyone divests himself of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men, to join and unite into a community for there comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst the other."

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John Locke

• State of nature is freedom– Rejected absolutism– Advocated idea of Social Contract, but with

reason and limited authority• Advocated religious tolerance amongst

Christians• Huge impact on American political thought

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IV. The Age of Reason

A. The Values

B. Long term impact

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A. Values

• Reason– Philosophes viewed reason as the absence of

intolerance and bigotry.– Through reason society could be improved and true

happiness be found.

• Nature– Their were laws of nature for all things.– People could use reason to discover these laws.– These natural laws could be used to explain

economics, politics as well as motion.

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A. Values

• Happiness– People who live in a perfect state of nature will be

happy.– Rejected idea of misery on Earth as a ticket to

heaven.– Believed happiness could be achieved on earth.

• Progress– Society can be improved.– Science can improve society.– Understanding of Natural laws could improve society.

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A. Values

• Liberty– Restrictions on trade, religion and speech

were seen as harmful.– Through reason people could be set free.

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B. The Long Term Impact

• Emphasis on the studying nature.– Belief that Science can explain all?

• Scientific findings challenged the Authority of the Church.– Science conflicted with the Bible.– How can the Bible be wrong?– Conflict still continues today.– Evolution versus Creationism.

• Also challenge authority of oppressive governments• The role of Technology

– Our dependence on it.– It has completely changes our lives.

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With the Enlightenment:

• The State becomes the common bond holding society together.

• The scientist and the university educated scholar become the source of knowledge.

• Natural Law and Reason, rather than revelation or the decrees of the Church become the source of moral authority.

• In the methods of science, European’s believed they had found the source of truth.

• The Enlightenment is an attempt to find the laws of human society in the same way that Newton had found the laws of nature.

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What we know…

• How did the Scientific Revolution challenge the way people saw the world?

• How were nature and reason so important to the Scientific Revolution.

• How did the Scientific Revolution influence the thinking of Locke and Hobbes?

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Terms

• Scientific Revolution

• Copernicus• Kepler• Galileo• Newton• Mechanism• Empiricism

• Bacon • Descartes• Hobbes• Locke