THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE
WORLD
 17th C, a Century of Genius
 Consequences of the Scientific Revolution
 -Changed the size of populations
 -Changed the use of raw materials
 -revolutionized production,
transportation,war
Science before the 17th
 DaVinci – dissected human body
 Knowledge of anatomy
 Drew designs for submarines, airplanes
 A lot of his work remained unpublished – he
was an artist
 Europe beginning to be very thoughtful – on
the other hand a great deal of skepiticism
 Think back to Descartes and Bacon
Scientific Revolution
 Conception of the Cosmos – Ptolemy
 Universe made up of spheres – crystals
 All revolved around the earth
 Nearest the earth was the sphere of the
moon
 Beyond the sphere of fixed stars lay
Empryean
 Home of angels and immortal spirits
Nicolas Copernicus
 1473-1543
 “Revolution on the Heavenly Orbs”
 Argues that the sun is the center of the
Universe
 All could be solved through mathematics
 Johannes Kepler
 Carried the Copernican theory one step
farther
 He discovered the orbit of the planets
 Elliptical
Galileo
 1564-1642
 1609 – he built a telescope
 Observed the moon and argued it was not an
orb
 Looked to have a mountainous surface
 He also argued that the moon reflected the
sun, different phases of reflection
 Not itself a luminous object
 Made up of earth like substance – and maybe
all of the planets
 Gravity test – 10 lbs ball and 1 lbs ball from
leaning tower of Pisa
Achievements of Newton
 Universal Gravitation
 -tides could be understood and predicted
 Naval and merchant ships could operate with
more assurance
 1st time, accurate idea of shape and size of all
the continents
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Developed ideas and calculus
-curves and trajectories
Lead to efficiency in artillery
Consequence- made military budgets
increase
 Lead to increased taxes
 Increased firearms led to increased efficiency
in insurrections
 Led to increased strength of state
 This gave Europe an advantage over other
nations
 Development of Steam Engines
 Led to increased industrial and agricultural
production
 Another consequence – Everything seemed
possible to humans
 -they all continued to believe in the existence
of God – but dependency on Divine Powers
began to disappear
 Greatly secularized European Society
 New School of Political Thought develop –
School of Natural thought and the
Enlightenment
Political Theory
 Cannot be treated as science
 Science deals with what does exist, political
theory deals with what OUGHT to exist
 We always deal with what ought to happen
Machiavelli
 Original thinker to propose what ought to
exist
 He separated himself from the moral and
theological philosophy, and dealt with politics
 He described how rulers and governments
ought to actually behave
 We saw this – wearing masks
 He separated himself from moral philosophy,
and took a scientific approach to politics
Natural Right and Natural
Law
 Focused on the question of what is right?
 Natural law – in the structure of the world,
there is a law that distinguishes right from
wrong.
 Right is natural, not a human invention
 This right is not determined , for any country,
by its heritage, traditions, or customs
 Not determined either by actual laws
(positive laws)
 Positive laws can potentially be unfair or
unjust
 We compare positive laws with what we
know about natural laws
 Ie, we know cannibalism is bad, and forcing
orphaned children to work in mines is unjust
 Natural law is not determined by one person,
a king cannot determine what is right or
wrong
 They are universal, the same for all
How do we discover natural
law?
 We discover it by reason
 People argue that all people are rational
 Idea of natural law and faith in human reason
go hand in hand
 Good example of this is international law,
which argues that all countries should work
together for a common good
Hobbes and Locke
 Natural law has been used to justify both
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constitutionalism and absolutist
governments
These forms of government were found to be
a means to an end
How to best obtain natural laws
Hobbes – absolute monarch
Locke -Constitutionalism
Hobbes
 Argued that human beings have no capacity
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for self government
View of human nature low
State of nature – quarrelsome and turbulent
“life in the state of nature was solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish and short”
From fear of each other, and to obtain order,
people came to form a contract
 Individuals surrender their freedom of action
into the hands of a ruler
 This ruler must have unconditional and
absolute power
 This to maintain order
 No one can question the government, this
would open the door for chaos again
 Leviathan
 Absolutism would produce civil peace,
individual security, and the rule of law
 This was the only way to achieve natural law
John Locke
 Government develops because humans are
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rational
Government also based on a contract
Better view of human nature
In the state of nature, people were
reasonable and well behaved
Willing to get along with eachother
 They also had a general idea of certain rights,
life, liberty and property
 Problem in the state of nature is people
cannot protect all of their natural rights,
specifically property
 Set up government to protect this
 Contract not absolute – people must be
reasonable, and the government cannot
break the contract
 You have the right to rebel against it
Influences
 Hobbes – absolute monarchs in France
 Locke – American and French Revolution
 Slavery