Science and the Enlightenment

I. Science and Superstition--exist together, even in the leading scientists of the Age of Enlightenment (and they still exist together in the minds of modern people people, as well)

A. Superstition--exists to explain phenomenon that cannot be readily explained



B. Scientific method--develop thesis, design experiment to test thesis, and make sure the results can be replicated.




C. Copernicus--published study that argued that the earth revolved around the sun; scientific orthodoxy at the time (1543) held just the opposite being true.

1. Heliocentric cosmology--Copernicus was the first European astronomer to argue for the sun being at the center of the universe. This previously had been argued by the Greek astronomer Heracliedes of Pontus and in the medieval period by Nicole Oresme and Nicolas Cusanus

2. Publication--Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium colestium (On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres) the year that he died at the age of 70.

3. Effect--despite the turmoil in the Roman Catholic world, Copernicus’ work was initially well-received; its calculations regarding the revolution of the earth around the sun became the basis for the gregorian calendar (still in use today).

4. Dispute--Copernicus’ calculations were questioned, even by Galileo Galilei, because the did not work for a round orbit (only for the elliptical orbit, as demonstrated by the mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler)



D. Galileo Galilei

1. Invented the telescope in 1609, which enabled him to see the craters and mountains, and led him to conclude that the material that made up the moon was much like the material that composed the earth.

2. Advanced Copernican notions about the universe, although he claimed that Copernicus’ calculations were inaccurate because he rejected Kepler’s argument about the elliptical orbit of celestial objects



3. Inquistion—one of the most prominent victims of the Inquisition, Galileo was force to recant (take back) his belief in the Copernican system, and he was held under house arrest for the rest of his life.

II. Counter-Reformation

A. Adoption of the Aristotelian model—the belief that everything and everyone had its place in the scheme of things (“God’s plan”)—a fixed hierarchy of the celestial bodies, and a fixed hierarchy for all of the people on earth.



1. Giordono Bruno—burned at the stake for arguing that there were in infinite number of worlds (solar systems)


2. Rene Descartes—the repression suffered by Galileo and especially by Bruno made Descartes suppress his findings that foreshadowed later discoveries by Newton

B. Protestants and literacy—Protestantism appealed to the growing middle class—both merchants and ambitious craftsmen—who looked to use knowledge to better their own lives, even if it was just to read the Bible.

1. Translating the Bible—on of the earliest accomplishments of the Protestant movement was to translate the Bible from Latin to a variety of vernacular languages.

a. King James Bible


2. Gutenberg—is credited with “inventing” moveable type in 1439, but evidence now indicates that this “invention” was in reality an evolutionary process.



a. Gutenberg Bible

b. Using moveable type made printing cheaper, and dropped the cost of books. This coincided with more people becoming literate, and increased the demand for books of all types

3. Protestantism could only spread by challenging the censorship practiced by the Roman Catholic Church, but when this censorship ended it permitted a plethora of voices to be heard—and even voices who questioned whether God existed at all. And if one could question the existence of God, by what right could kings claim to rule?


III. The Enlightenment—the turmoil caused by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation caused many intellectuals to feel that their societies were deficient, and should be reconstituted according to rational principles, borrowed from the scientific method.

A. Anti-clerical—most Enlightenment thinkers were anti-clerical, meaning that they saw priests and ministers as mis-leaders of the people, perpetrators of the belief in superstition.



1. Edward Gibbon—wrote The Fall of the Roman Empire, where he placed the blame for the decline of Rome on the government’s adoption of Christianity



B. Reformers, not Revolutionaries—these thinkers tended to come from the upper classes, and though of “the people” as little more than sheep to be led.



1. Voltaire—most famous as a satirist, but like most of the men (and they were almost entirely all men) of the Enlightenment he was proficient at a number of things. Perhaps the harshest critic of priests, yet



2. Denis Diderot—the main author of the Encyclopedie, an attempt to present all knowledge in a series of 14 volumes; although the work was highly influential, only 4,000 sets of the volumes was initially sold.



3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau—wrote The Social Contract, which argued that people should be governed by the general will of the populace

4. John Locke—wrote Two Treatise on Government which were important to the development of ideas about how a more representative government could be brought about (particularly influential on the Declaration of Independence)




5. Adam Smith—most famous for The Wealth of Nations, the much-cited if little read justification for the development of capitalism. Smith argued that the “Invisible hand” of the market would best guide political economy, and that it needed no interference from man; we are now living through one of the troughs that Smith did not realize was one of the costs of allowing the Invisible Hand guide the economy.

IV.     Social and Economic Life

        A.     The Bourgeoisie--This refers to class between the nobility (whether minor, or more well off) and the peasants and urban workers who made up the lower class (the proletariat--although strictly speaking, peasant would not match the Marxist conception of the proletariat).

                1.   Class structures within society--in part because of the inheritance from the feudal system, European society is stratified by social class, which in turn has some effect on how economic class plays out, as well. The gentry, for instance, does not work (Downton Abbey, Prince Harry, etc.).

                2.   Factory system increasing influence in Western European societies--the factory system was not created in England, but we do see its earliest, fullest development there. The factory system gains favor in England just as developments like enclosure take place, pushing peasant off land they had occupied for generations, and creating a new class of people not tied to the land who become the workers in these factories.

                3.  Formation of Joint-Stock companies--the Dutch East India Company (whose acronym in Dutch was VOC) was the earliest joint-stock company. A joint-stock company allows groups to pool their resources in order to capitalize companies. This allows the investors to share risks (and rewards, called dividends). The VOC was initially put together to challenge Portugal's trade with Asia. This allowed the VOC to finance the construction of numerous ships, which were able to quickly wrest control of the Asian trade from the Portuguese.

                4.  Specialized markets called stock exchanges are organized--stock markets permit the buying and selling of shares of stock, and therefore allow investors to find companies to invest in, in order to reap financial rewards.

                5.  Retired executives purchased large estates and were called “Gentry"--the most successful of these investors were able to use the money they made to buy land, live on their estates, and do no work.

   B.      Peasants and Laborers--in this changing society, some classes faired better than others, unsurprisingly.

                1.  Difficulties for those on the lower income level of society--the enclosure movement (turning farm land into pasture, to supply factories with wool and leather--and factory workers with mutton and beef) turned many former peasants into factory workers. This meant that a lot of poor people moved into cities (where the factories were located), and with that came disease and crime.

                2.  Over-use of environmental resources--all of this turmoil in European society was accompanied by a population boom, as European populations continued to recover from the bubonic plague.

               3.  Migrations into towns from rural areas.

      C.     Women and Family

                1.  Traditional roles and gender expectations

                2.  Delayed marriage due to affordability.

V.    Political Innovations

        A.   Monarchies in England and France

                1.  The English Civil War, King Charles and Cromwell--The forces unleashed by Henry VIII's decision to break with Rome led to the events of the English Civil War. When Charles I attempted to lead the Church of England back into the Church of Rome, he met fierce opposition, resulting in his beheading and the leader of the Roundheads, Oliver Cromwell, to emerge as the leader of the government.

                2.  The Glorious Revolution of 1688--with the re-establishment of the monarchy after the fall of Cromwell's Protectorate, the seeming likelihood of the accession to the throne of another Roman Catholic monarch (James II son over his Protestant daughter Mary) led to Parliament inviting Mary's husband, William of Orange, to overthrow their king.

                 3.  The Bill of Rights--Established the supremacy of Parliament over the monarch in England.

                4.  The Estates General and the building of the Palace of Versailles.

          B.      Warfare and Diplomacy

               1.  The Thirty Years War--initially spurred by the failure of the Peace of Augsburg, the war continued because princes and kings saw it as a means of furthering their holdings; it became one of the most destructive wars in history.

              2.  The British Royal Navy had surpassed all other European naval powers--the result of the alliance between the Netherlands and Great Britain against Spain was that Great Britain became the pre-eminent naval power in the world--a position the country would hold on to well into the 20th century.

              3.  The War of the Spanish Succession included British naval forces and the

                        Austrian and Prussian land forces.

         C.     Paying the Piper

              1.  Colonies bring in wealth for the mother country--part of the reason for the race for colonies European countries take part in from this time period until the 20th century was the economic benefits that derived from having access to both raw materials and a market for manufactured goods. Trade was seen not as beneficial for all who partook in it, but as a race with both winners and losers.

              2.  Inflation rises throughout Europe.