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Old Science and Popular Culture in
Europe in the 1500’s
The world is a spiritual world, evil spirits.
The local priest might be illiterate, but a source of comfort.
Witches were suspected and considered bad luck.
Recreation was limited.
Geocentric Theory of the universe.
Scholasticism is believed and God controls an objects
movement.
– Body is made of four humors, each controlling an emotion.
– Bleeding and purging cured…but no dissections allowed!
– Print culture changes this!!!!
– Almanacs spread knowledge.
Four temperamental tendencies
Blood: good spirits
Black: melancholic, depressed
Yellow: choleric, hostile
Phlegmatic: slow and complaisant
The Scientific Revolution Swept Europe
• Experimentation through observation
started the Scientific Revolution.
• Verifying results by the Scientific Method.
• Bacon- Inductive Reasoning
• Descartes- Deductive Reasoning…’Cogito,ergo sum’
Cartesian Dualism
• Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry and
Anatomy
Bacon
Descartes
Scientific Revolution
• Scientific Societies- promoted to research and
spreading knowledge
• Women & Science- considered inferior and
excluded from education, but worked along side of
husbands and fathers (Maria Winkleman, Maria Cunitz
& Margaret Cavendish)
• Religion• Superstition
• Science and the Church
• Spinoza & Pascal
• Deism
• Atheist
Cavendish
The Social Contract
• Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were two English
philosophers who lived through the English Civil War.
• Hobbes thought that man was cruel, and greedy. To
escape anarchy one needed to live by a social contract.
A strong government = peace…..wrote Leviathan
• Locke thought that people were basically good. People
had natural rights, life liberty and the right to own
property. If government violates the rights…then
good-bye government.
Hobbes
Locke
Astronomy
• Geocentric Theory
• Copernicus and the heliocentric
theory. Proved nothing…got
people thinking!!!!
• Tycho Brahe
• Kepler
• Galileo
Brahe
Kepler
Physics, Chemistry and Anatomy
• Anatomy• Vesalius and Harveyexperimentation and observation to
improve medicine.
• Physics• Isaac Newton - Principals of
Mathematics . Newton and Leibniz
developed calculus.
• Chemistry• Robert Hooke - the theory of cells.
• Lavoisier and Boyle –Fathers of
Chemistry.
Harvey
Newton
The Enlightenment
• The Enlightenment Applied
Scientific Ideas to Politics
• The 1700’s are referred to as the
“Age of Enlightenment”
• Science and Reason could explain
everything in the Universe.
• Rationalism - truth is arrived at by
using rational, logical thinking.
Everything in the world can be
explained. (Descartes, Kant,
Leibniz)
Descartes
Enlightenment
• Economic change & political reform….
• Possible AND desirable ….New idea? RADICAL
• Movement of people & ideas….ENLIGHTENMENT
Think of possibilities…not just actualities.
• Apply rules of reason to EVERYTHING….
• CHIEF DUTY: Common desire to reform thought, society,
& government for the sake of HUMAN LIBERTY…In touch
with common people
Influences….
1. Isaac Newton— Avoid metaphysical/supernaturalism. If nature was
rational, society could also be organized rationally…
2. John Locke- Human nature can be molded by changing environment.. soo
change environment!
3. Great Britain—post-1688
4. France & Louis XIV
5. Print Culture—reading is a GOOD thing!!
Great Britain—post-1688
• Enlightened reforms benefit all
• Religious toleration (Voltaire)
• Relative free speech/press
• Limited monarchy & Parliament—political sovereignty
• Courts protected citizens
• Small standing army
• Domestic economy—less regulated
Liberal policies: Prosperity/stability/loyalty
Britain= significantly freer than ANY European nation
France & Louis XIV
• Absolute monarchy
• Large standing army
• Heavy taxation
• Religious persecution
• Restrictions on free speech/press
Print Culture…
• Journals, Books, Newspapers, and Pamphlets
• Printed word  chief vehicle for communication
– Ideas/opinion/thought
• Who are the readers?
Monarchs, Nobles, Upper middle classes – bourgeoisie
• ‘NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER
OF THE PEN OR THOSE WHO BUY INK
BY THE BARREL’
Crusaders of the Enlightenment
-The thinkers of the Enlightenment
were called philosophes.
-were critics of society and
government.
-used the printed word to
spread ideas.
-The Encyclopedia, was published and
edited by Denis Diderot
Philosophes: A bunch of guys sitting around in some
woman’s living room (salon), chatting & discussing
current events—asking themselves:
“What’s wrong with our society?”
“How can we fix it?”
Crusaders of the Enlightenment
Baron de Montesquieu
• The ideas of John Locke inspired
Montesquieu.
• Montesquieu wrote his book, “The
Spirit of the Laws”
• Liked the English government…
separation of powers
• Influenced the U.S. Constitution.
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Voltaire
“Crush the
Infamous Thing”
• Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) was
a famous writer.
• Voltaire was imprisoned for a time in
the Bastille until he fled to England &
liked the English political system.
• A defender of the right to free speech.
• Becomes the symbol of the Revolution.
• ‘I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll
defend to the death your right to say it.’
• ‘Each player must accept the cards life deals him or
her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must
decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.’
• ‘Behind every successful man stands a surprised
mother-in-law.’
“If there were just one religion in
England, despotism would
threaten, if there were two
religions, they would cut each
other’s throats, but there are thirty
religions, and they live together
peacefully and happily.”
~Voltaire
Philosophic Letters on the English, 1733
“Churches hindered the pursuit of a rational life and
the scientific study of humanity and nature”
Rousseau
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote “The Social Contract.”
-said that man had been born pure, but was
corrupted by society.
-The free state of man can only be maintained
if they choose their own government.
-Popular sovereignty is the will of the people.
-distrusted reason and logic.
-thought the individual should be subordinate
to the group or masses.
“Much of world’s evil is caused by
uneven distribution of wealth” Discourse
of the Origin of Inequality, 1755
Mary Wollstonecraft and Adam Smith
-A feminist who wrote “A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman.”
-Advocated education for women and equality with
men.
Physiocrates
-urged a policy of laissez-faire
-limited tariffs or taxes.
-Adam Smith wrote “Wealth of Nations” argued for the
free market or supply and demand.
-The market place was better off without government
interference.
Enlightened Despots
TOLERATION of religious
minorities
REFORM of institutions
ABSOLUTISM (DUH!)
PATRONAGE of philosophes
Enlightened Despots
(ruling based on rational reasoning, ideas are a tool for ruling)
Frederick II (the Great)
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‘First servant of the state’
(r. 1740-1786)
Military Genius
Enforced a centralized
bureaucracy
• Believed in religious
toleration
• Into culture (arts, music,&
thinking)
• Offered little social
mobility
Joseph II of Austria
• (r. 1780-1790)
• Reformed Austria’s social
classes
– Eliminated serfdom
– Edict of Toleration
(1781) Granted religious
toleration & equal legal
status to all
– Wanted to have more
control of the church
Catherine the Great
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(r. 1762-1796) Strong German Ruler
Abolished torture and capital punishment
Believed in equal rights for girls education
Expanded serfdom, even with the Pugachev
Revolt
• Added more territory
Partitioning of Poland
(1772,1793 & 1795)
• Austria, Prussia and Russia wanted
Poland’s land
• Helped to maintain balance of power
• Enlightened rulers laid foundation for the
revolutions to come!!!!
Mid 18th Century Wars
 After the Peace of Utrecht, rivalries start up again
England vs. France and Prussia vs. Austria over
Germany
• Pragmatic Sanction (1713)
• War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748)
• Frederick II (the great) attacked Austria, defying the
Pragmatic Sanction…wanted the resource rich Silesia
• France/Prussia vs. Austria/England
• Treaty of Aix La-Chapelle 1748
• Diplomatic Revolution of 1756- Austria and France
form alliance against Prussia
Mid
th
18
Century Wars
• Seven Years War- 1756-63
‘1st truly world war’
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Frederick invaded Saxony
Prussia/England vs. Austria/France/Russia/Sweden
Treaty of Hubertusburg
England and France kept fighting in Caribbean, India
and North America
• Britain won due to large navy
• Treaty of Paris 1763- England got everything east of
the Mississippi River, and a dominant position in India.
France kept sugar plantations in Caribbean
• American Revolution
• Treaty of Paris 1783- Colonies became free, British lost
areas in Africa, Caribbean and Florida to France and
Spain