Scientific (Thinking) Revolution
The Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changed the way people looked at the
natural world around them. In previous times, like the Medieval Ages, science was designed to help a person reach a
better understanding of God. The church promoted an understanding of the universe that revolved around the idea that
humans were at the center of God’s attention, and therefore at the center of the universe. Challenging this idea would
undermine everything the church taught, and it was not until the Protestant Reformation (which challenged the religious
authority of the church) and the Renaissance (which shifted the worldview of most people away from religion and
towards humanism) that science began to change as well. This new focus, as well as the introduction of the printing
press (which dramatically increased education in Europe) pushed people to question how the world around them
worked and to figure out the “rules” of the universe. Although a more secular society was not their goal, Martin Luther’s
and John Calvin’s attacks against the authority of the pope provided powerful examples of how to challenge traditional
authority. Their questioning attitudes resulted in a European environment that encouraged the inquiry necessary for
scientific investigation to flourish.
During the Renaissance (from the 1300s until the early 1500s),
science was still considered part of religion, and scientific thought held
that the earth was a stationary object at the center of the universe.
Beginning with Copernicus, however, who taught that the earth revolved
around the sun, Europeans began to reject medieval scientific thought.
Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton developed a new concept of a universe
based on natural laws, not a mysterious God. The new scientific
approach promoted critical thinking. Nothing was to be accepted on
faith. Belief in miracles and superstition was replaced by reliance on
reason and the idea that rational thinking would uncover a plan governing the universe. While this change in
understanding was significant, most scientists of the time were still deeply religious. Their shift in thinking was rooted in
the idea that God had created the universe like a giant clock, which He had set in motion to work according to inviolable
(unbreakable and unchangeable) laws.
This breakthrough in scientific thought was quickly followed by the next logical step – if there were natural laws
that governed the functioning of the universe, then surely there were natural laws that governed human behavior as
well. Scientists and other educated Europeans began trying to figure out what the laws of human nature were, including
an attempt to figure out the best type of government. This 17th and 18th century movement was called the
Enlightenment. Many educated Europeans attempted to apply their understanding of the natural world to this question
of human nature. One English writer named Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan in 1651, where he laid out his theory that
humans in their original state of nature were unhappy because humans were naturally quarrelsome, turbulent, and
warlike. Hobbes believed that natural law supported the idea of an absolute monarch because humans needed
protection from destroying themselves and a powerful ruler was the best source of this protection. Hobbes believed
that humans created a “social contract” (an understood (unwritten) agreement between humans and the government),
in which humans gave up their freedom (the state of nature) to an absolute ruler in exchange for protection.
Like Hobbes, John Locke was interested in the world of science. His book, Two Treatises of Government, written
in 1690, was written to justify a new type of government introduced in England, where the king agreed to give up much
of his power in exchange for a democratic style of government. Locke’s understanding of the social contract was laid out
as an argument in which Locke stated that humans were born basically good and have certain natural rights of life,
liberty, and property that cannot be taken away by anyone. To
protect these natural rights, people enter into a social contract to
create a government with limited powers that will protect their
rights. Locke believed that if a government did not protect these
rights or took too much power for themselves, the people had the
right and responsibility to rebel and replace the government with
one that would respect their social contract. This idea, that the
people give the government limited power and can take it back at
any time, is called “the consent of the governed,” and these ideas
influenced political revolutions in America, France, and Haiti, as well
as many other countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Questions from reading:
1. How did the Scientific Revolution change the way people looked at the world? (What did they think before and
what did they think after)
2. How did the Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance pave the way for people to shift their way of thinking
about science?
3. How did the invention of the printing press affect people in Europe?
4. How did Martin Luther and other religious reformers affect the Scientific Revolution?
5. How were science and religion connected during the Medieval Ages?
6. What change or shift in thinking did the new scientific method encourage?
7. What did scientists of the time compare the universe to?
8. How did the change in scientific thought lead to the change in understanding government and human behavior?
9. What was the Enlightenment?
10. What does Thomas Hobbes believe about the natural state of humans?
11. What type of government does Hobbes believe is the right one, and why does he think this?
12. What is a social contract?
13. What does John Locke believe about the natural state of humans?
14. What type of government does Locke believe is the right one, and why does he think this?
15. What does John Locke believe about the social contract?
16. What does the term “consent of the governed” mean?