CHAPTER 14
NEW DIRECTIONS IN
THOUGHT AND CULTURE
IN THE 16TH AND 17TH
CENTURIES
AP European History
Mrs. Tucker
Key Topics
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The astronomical theories of Copernicus, Brahe,
Kepler, Galileo, and Newton and the Scientific
Revolution;
Impact of the new science on philosophy
Social setting of early modern science
Women and the Scientific revolution
Approaches to science and religion
Witchcraft and witch-hunts
Scientific Revolution
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Not everything was “new” Much of this was
rethinking from the ancient and late middle ages;
The Scientific Revolution was NOT rapid;
Term Scientist did not exist until 1830s
Scientific societies and academies developed in the
latter half of the 17th century;
New knowledge emerged in Medicine, Chemistry,
and Natural history; but the most popular were the
strides made in Astronomy;
The Ptolemaic System
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Ptolemy wrote the
Almagest
Standard explanation of
mathematical astronomy
since 150 C.E.
Geocentrism
Planets moved
uniformly about an
epicycle and the center
moved uniformly about
a deferent;
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)
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Polish priest &
astronomer
On the Revolutions of
the Heavenly Spheres
(1543)
Catholic Inquisition
places Copernicus’s
On the Revolution of
the Heavenly Spheres
on Index of Prohibited
Books, 1616
Heliocentric Universe
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heliocentric versus
geocentric view of the
solar system
challenged
Ptolemaic/Aristotelian
models in use since
antiquity
Copernican system no
more accurate than
Ptolemaic—important
as a new paradigm—
slow to gain ground
Publishes on deathbed;
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
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Believed in EarthCentered System;
Suggested the moon and
sun revolved around
earth and other planets
revolved around sun;
He produced
tremendous
astronomical data for
his successors to work
with;
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
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Brahe’s assistant and
inherited his work;
Belived in Copernican
Theory but found that
the motion of planets
were elliptical not in
epicycles;
Wrote The New
Astronomy in 1609 using
Copernicus’s suncentered universe and
Brahe’s empircal data.
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)
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Italian mathematician,
Physicist, & natural
philosopher
broke ground using
telescope—found
heavens much more
complex than previously
understood
became high-profile
Copernican advocate
articulated concept of a
universe governed by
mathematical laws
Galileo Facing the Inquisition
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Representative
incident: Roman
Catholic authorities
condemn Galileo,
1633—under house
arrest for last nine
years of his life
Roman Catholic
Church formally
admits errors of
biblical interpretation
in Galileo’s case, 1992
Isaac Newton (1642–1727)
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English Mathematician
and Physicist;
discovered laws of
gravity—all physical
objects in the universe
move through mutual
attraction (gravity);
explained planetary orbits
explained gravity
mathematically
Principia Mathematica
(1687)
Isaac Newton
Francis Bacon (1521 – 1626)
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English lawyer, government
official, historian, essayist
Considered father of empiricism,
scientific experimentation
Set intellectual tone conducive to
scientific inquiry
Attacked scholastic adherence to
intellectual authorities of the past
championed innovation and
change as goals contributing to
human improvement
two books of divine revelation: the
Bible and nature
since both books share the same
author, they must be compatible
René Descartes (1596 – 1650)
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Gifted mathematician,
inventor of analytic
geometry
Most important
contribution: scientific
method relying more
on deduction
(deriving specific facts
from general
principles) than
empiricism
René Descartes
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Discourse on Method
(1637)—rejection of
scholastic philosophy and
education in favor of
mathematical models;
rejection of all intellectual
authority except his own
reason
Concluded (God-given)
human reason was
sufficient to comprehend
the world
Divided world into two
categories: mind
(thinking) & body
(extension)
Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
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Most original political
philosopher of 17th c.
Enthusiastic supporter
of New Science
for absolutist
government
Humans not basically
social, but basically
self-centered
State of nature is a state
of war; life in this state
is “solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short.”
Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan
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Turmoil of English
Civil War motivated his
Leviathan (1651)
Leviathan: rigorous
philosophical
justification
“The right of nature... is
the liberty each man
hath to use his own
power, as he will
himself, for the
preservation of his own
nature; that is to say, of
his own life.”
John Locke (1632 – 1704)
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Most influential
philosophical and political
thinker of the 17th c.
Contrast with Hobbes
First Treatise of
Government: argued
against patriarchal models
of government
Second Treatise of
Government: government
as necessarily responsible
for and responsive to the
governed
Two Treatises of Government
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Humans basically
creatures of reason and
goodwill
Letter Concerning
Toleration (1689):
argument for religious
toleration
Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690):
described human mind as
birth as a “blank slate”
with content to be
determined by sensory
experience—reformist
view, rejects Christian
concept of original sin
Women in the Scientific Revolution
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Generally excluded from
the institutions of
European intellectual life
Queen Christina of
Sweden (r. 1623–1654):
brought Descartes to
Stockholm to design
regulations for a new
science academy
Maria Winkelmann—
accomplished German
astronomer, excluded
from Berlin Academy
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)
•
•
•
•
Married William
Cavendish, Marquis of
Newcastle in 1645
Observations Upon
Experimental
Philosophy (1666)
Grounds of Natural
Philosophy (1668)
Asked to attend a
session of Royal
Society of London
which met with much
controversy
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
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French Mathematician and
Inventor;
Mathematical prodigy –
studied Geometry proving
Euclid’s 32nd proposition and
finding error in Descartes
work at 13;
opposed both dogmatism and
skepticism
erroneous belief in God is a
safer bet than erroneous
unbelief
In 1968 a computer
programming language was
named for him, (PASCAL);
Pascaline
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The Pascaline, the first
accurate calculator;
Was not a commercial
success – although it
could do the work of 6
accountants, people
feared it would cause
unemployment.
Pascal to studying
religion after rejection of
his calculator;
Believed a “leap of faith”
required in religion;
Rise of Academic Societies
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The New Science threatened vested academic
interests and was slow to gain ground in
universities
Establishment of “institutions of sharing”:
 Royal
Society of London (1660)
 Academy of Experiments (Florence, 1657)
 French Academy of Science (1666)
 Berlin Academy of Science (1700)
New Philosophy
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Scientific revolution  major
reexamination of Western
philosophy
Nature as mechanism—clock
metaphor; God as clockmaker
(Deism)
Purpose of studying nature
changes:
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search for
symbolic/sacramental
meaning  search for
usefulness/utility
path to salvation  path to
human physical improvement
New Science and Religion
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Faith in a Rational God
Three major issues:
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Certain scientific theories and
discoveries conflicted with
Scripture.
Who resolves such disputes:
religious authorities or natural
philosophers?
New science’s apparent
replacement of spiritually
significant universe with
purely material one.
Economics
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Economics:
technological and
economic innovation
seen as part of a divine
plan—man is to
understand world and
then put it into
productive rational use
Continuing Superstition
The Hammer of the Witches
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The Hammer of the
Witches, The Malleus
Maleficarum, written
by Jacob Sprenger and
Heinreich Kramer,
1486, an important
medieval treatise on
the existence of and
how to interrogate
witches;
Continuing Superstition
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belief in magic and the
occult persisted through
the end of the 17th c.
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witch-hunts: 70,000–
100,000 put to death,
1400–1700; 80% women
Cunning Folk - village
society: magic helped cope
with natural disasters and
disabilities
Christian clergy: practiced
high magic (Eucharist,
Penance, Confession,
exorcism
Review
1. Which of the following does NOT characterize the
nature of the Scientific Revolution?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
It occurred several places in Europe at the
same time.
It was not revolutionary in the normal sense
of the word.
It was a complex movement involving many
persons.
Its proponents were hostile to established
Christianity
Its proponents believed that the study of
nature would shed light on the nature of the
divine.
Review
2. Which of the following figures played a key role
in the popularization of the Copernican system?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Newton
Bacon
Locke
Kepler
Galileo
Review
3. Pascal believed that:
A. there was a danger in following traditional
religious ways.
B. misery loves company.
C. God’s mercy was for everyone.
D. it is better to believe in God than not to
believe.
E. all men and women were destined for
salvation.
Review
4. In Thomas Hobbes’s view,
A. man was a person neither good nor
evil.
B. a self-centered beast.
C. essentially God-fearing.
D. perfect at birth, but devolved over time.
E. not the creator of human society
Review
5. Most proponents of the new science sought to
A. explain the natural world through the lens
of Christian revelation.
B. mechanical metaphors.
C. metaphysical concepts.
D. religious analogies.
E. Aristotelian logic.
Review
6. Galileo believed that all aspects of nature could be
described in terms of:
A. virtues and vices.
B. divine harmonies.
C. celestial ratios.
D. logical hierarchies.
E. mathematical relationships.
Review
7.
Most English natural philosophers of the
seventeenth century believed that:
A. religion and science were incompatible.
B. all important contributions to science had been
made by Englishmen.
C. natural philosophy revealed deeper truths than
theology.
D. religion and science were mutually supportive.
E. nature revealed little about the divine.
Review
8. Tycho Brahe’s major contribution to science
was his:
A. discovery of the planet Mercury.
B. proof of the Copernican system.
C. compilation of a large amount of
astronomical data.
D. discovery of the moons of Jupiter.
E. support of Galileo.
Review
9.
Bacon, Descartes, and Newton all sought to
explain the universe in _______ terms.
A. metaphysical
B. symbolic
C. mystical
D. mono-causal
E. mechanistic
Review
10.
Descartes divided existing things into two
categories, mind and:
A. body.
B. God.
C. metaphor.
D. modality.
E. mindlessness.
Key and Notes
1-D, 2-E, 3-D, 4-B, 5-B, 6-E, 7-D, 8-C, 9-E,10-A
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