Chapter 10 Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
Thomas Hobbes
 -wrote Leviathan, clamed that before society was organized, life was “solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short”; humans were guided by struggle for survival
 -to save themselves people made a social contract; people agreed to be governed by an absolute
ruler; rebellion must be suppressed
John Locke
-said people were molded by their experiences; environments can change people
 -wrote Two Treatises of Government; was against absolute rule; believed before society was
organized humans lived in a state of equality and freedom; said people had natural rights such as
life, liberty, and property; believed that people found it difficult to protect their natural rights;
believed in a contract between government and people and if monarch didn’t protect people’s
natural rights, people can form a new government;
 -He referred to people as the landholding aristocracy, not landless masses, was not an advocate of democracy
 -Locke’s ideas found in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution
Ptolemaic System
 Ptolemaic System- lived in second century A.D.; Middle Ages philosophers created a model of the
universe based on Ptolemy’s ideas; system is geocentric- places earth at the center of the universe;
said Earth is motionless and there are spheres made of crystal-like transparent substance and
Mercury, Venus and the Sun rotate around the earth; tenth sphere moved itself and was Heaven,
where God and saved souls resided; humans purpose was to achieve salvation
Copernicus
 -wrote On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543); mathematician believed that the
universe was heliocentric, or sun centered; said planets revolved around the sun; earth went
around the Sun each year
Johannes Kepler
 -used detailed astronomical data to arrive at his laws of planetary motion; confirmed that the sun
was the center of the universe; showed orbits of planets were not circular but were elliptical
Galileo Gallilei
 -taught math; used telescope to discover mountains on moon, four moons revolving around
Jupiter, and sunspots; heavenly bodies were not light, they were material substance; published The
Starry Messenger (1610) made Europeans aware of new view of universe; Catholic Church
ordered Galileo to abandon the Copernican idea, but most of the scientific community accepts this
idea by the 1630s-1640s.
Isaac Newton
 -born in 1642, became math professor at Cambridge University; wrote Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy or Principia; Newton defines three laws of motion; law of gravitation- says
planets continue in elliptical orbits around the sun; says that every object is attracted to every other
object by gravity; says universe works according to natural laws
 -said everything in the world was like a giant machine; thought that by discovering natural laws
that governed the physical world, the intellectuals of the Enlightenment thought they could
discover the natural laws that governed human society; said everyone born with a blank mind
Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey
 Vesalius believed there were two types of blood that ran through veins and arteries
 -Harvey dissected human bodies and examined organs; showed that the heart was the beginning
point for blood circulation; showed same blood runs through arteries and veins and blood makes a
complete circuit through the body
Antoine Lavosier
 -invented a system of naming chemical elements; regarded as founder or modern chemistry
Margaret Cavendish
-believed people were part of nature not masters of nature
Maria Winkelmann
-discovered a comet; wanted to work at Berlin Academy but was denied because she was a woman
Renee Descartes
 -wrote Discourse on Method (1637) emphasized the importance of his own mind and said people
should use reason; separation of mind and matter; viewed matter as dead and could be investigated
by reason; father of modern rationalism-reason is chief source of knowledge
 -scientific method; systematic procedure for collecting evidence; crucial to the evolution of
science
Francis Bacon
 -English philosopher said people should use inductive reasoning to learn about nature-said tests
would lead to correct general principles; he was concerned with practical matters; wanted science
to benefit industry, agriculture, and trade; wanted to control and dominate nature
 Also contributed to formulating the scientific method
Montesquieu
 -wrote The Spirit of the Laws (1748); he identified three kinds of government; 1)republics, suitable
for small states; 2)despotism, appropriate for large states; 3)monarchies, ideal for moderate-size
states
 -saw England’s legislative, executive, and judicial branches, believed in separation of powers and
thought that allowed the greatest freedom and security for the state; these ideas used in the U.S.
Constitution
Denis Diderot
-wrote a 28 volume collection called the Encyclopedia; attacked religious superstition and
supported religious toleration
Enlightenment Philosophers, Economists, and Musicians
Adam Smith- Economics
► -laissez-faire-means to let people do what they want; philosophy that the government should leave
the economy alone
► -Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations (1776); said government should leave business alone;
said the government has three roles: protecting society from invasion (army), defending citizens
from injustice (police), keeping up certain public works (roads
Cesare Beccaria
-wrote On Crimes and Punishments (1764); argued against brutal punishments of criminals and against
capital punishment; thought that laws, which punish murder should not commit murder themselves
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
► -wrote Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind said that people had become
enslaved to the government; In The Social Contract (1762) said society through a social contract
agrees to be governed by its general will; others will be forced to follow; the general will represent
what is best for the community; wrote Emile wrote about the education of a natural man, says
education should foster children’s natural instincts; believed in balance between emotions and
reason;
*he sent his own kids to orphanages and believed women should be educated to nurture husbands and
children
Mary Wollstonecraft
► -worked for women’s rights; wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women she had a problem with
men who said it was wrong for men to be subjects of monarchs, when women were not equal to
men; said Enlightenment thinkers say all humans have reason, so women should have equal rights
to men
John Wesley
► -Anglican minister; had experience with the gift of God’s grace; became a missionary to the
English people of “glad tidings”; preached to the masses, appealed to lower classes and tried to
lower religion to the level of the lowest people’s capacities; stresses importance of hard work, and
encouraged spiritual contentment, which took place with political equality; after Wesley’s death,
Methodism became a separate Protestant group
Johann Sebastian Bach
► -organist, composer, spent life in Germany; composed Mass in B Minor; one of the greatest
composers of all time
Handel
-German, who spent career in England; wrote religious music; Handel’s Messiah his most famous
work
Franz Joseph Haydn
-musical director for Hungarian princes; wrote for public concerts; two great works The Creation
and The Seasons
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
► -child prodigy; never had a patron to support him financially; wrote three of the world’s greatest
operas: The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni
Henry Fielding
► -Englishman who wrote novels about people without morals and survive by their wits; his best
known work was The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling which talks about the life of a young
scoundrel in the London slums and the houses of English aristocracy
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*novels become popular, especially to middle-class readers
*Now books directed at the middle class; more magazines published in England
*newspapers were cheap and free at coffee houses
*most Europeans in the eighteenth century were still Christians