FROM SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION TO ENLIGHTENMENT
I. Principles of the New Scientific Revolution Paradigm
A. Increasing
emphasis on human rationalism
1. Newton: Laws governing nature
2. Descartes: Rationalism,
doubt, distrust of tradition & history
3. Bacon: Scientific method
a. hypothesis
b. experimentation
c. conclusion (can the
hypothesis be proven?)
4. Yet these scientists had
stayed within the social mainstream
a. Christian
b. accept the social status quo
while questioning science
c. therefore not social
revolutionaries
B. Belief in
an orderly universe – like a clock.
C. Less
interest in religion as a source of knowledge
D. Assumption
that all can be described an understood
E. Leads to
an assumption that science can change the world and a belief in progress
II. Who and What was the Enlightenment
A. Period in
European history marked by
1. Spread of literacy
2. Growing affluence
3. Spread of publishing
4. All of which allowed a
secular intelligentsia to emerge an independent force
B. Middle
classes and mostly French, at least initially
III. Philosophes begin to change the Scientific Revolution, create
the Enlightenment
A.
Philosophes change the Scientific Revolution into a social one
B.
Transmutation of scientific law to social law
1. If laws govern nature, then
laws also govern humanity
2. Society must be understood
through rationalism
C. Therefore
there are laws governing nature and society as well
D.
Philosophes wanted to change indiviudals to reflect natural laws
1. the tabula rasa and
the idea that human being are malleable
2. society can create the person
3. If we can understand humans
as we understand nature, we can control human beings
E.
Philosophes also wanted to change social institutions to reflect natural laws
1. government
2. judicial system
3. religion
4. family relations and
relations between men and women
F. Why did
philosophes believe that they could change society (from Peter Gay)?
1. "The philosophes had a positive attitude toward
innovation.... And this pervasive
attitude was a sign of a deep confidence in the possibility of scientific
knowledge
2. "In consequence, the philosophes believed--though with
notable reservations"-- in the possibility of a long-range and permanent
improvement in man's lot.
3. "As men of hope, the philosophes oriented themselves to the
future, exploiting the past as a storehouse of excellent advice and
unsurpassable art and literature, but also, and mainly, as a towering warning
of what to avoid.
4. "This commitment to the future--a mental reorientation as
subtle, but decisive, as the welcoming of innovation--did not commit them to
Utopian dreams. However later judges
might estimate their hopes, the philosophes themselves thought their only hope
lay in realism.
5. "Finally, the philosophes, to realize their aims, subjected their society, even its most sensitive areas (sexual morality, political authority, religious belief), to that most corrosive of solvents--criticism."
G. The belief that there are immutable laws of natural behavior, that we can study them and improve society is powerful
1. “We hold these truths to be self evident…”
2. But also gives us Lenin, Marx, Mao….what’s next?
H.
Philosophes could displace God with Reason
1. differ from their Scientific
Revolution forbears
2. reason needs no faith
3. there are no mysteries,
simply laws not yet discovered
4. what is the necessity of God
in this model?
IV. What will the new paradigm include?
A. Increasing
emphasis on human rationalism ("that's irrational...")
B. Desire for
constant innovation
C. Assumption
that things will get constantly better
D. Assumption
that science can explain the world
E. Assumption
that science can change the world
F. Decreasing
interest in religion as font of knowledge
G. Assumption
that society, human condition is ever-malleable
VIII. "Gifts" of the enlightenment paradigm--social
sciences, social engineering
A. Our modern
economy comes from the Enlightenment notion of applying natural laws to human
activity
B.
Background--Mercantilism
1. Assumed no new wealth to be
created (the pie stays the same)
2. "Gold theory of
wealth"
3. Government intervention to
promote trade
4. Promotes large firms,
cornering trade on the market
5. Preference given to monopoly
corporations
6. Trade was for the good of the
state, not the market in general
7. Use of colonies for the
greater glory & power of the state
C. Adam Smith
and the beginning of Political Economy
1. Wealth of Nations (1776)
2. "Labor Theory of
Wealth"
3. the market has its own
will--wealth comes when you don't step in
4. assumes "enlightened
self interest"
5. the "Invisible
Hand"
a. helping yourself helps others
b. assumes that natural law
(invisible hand) will rule
6. laissez fair economy
of today
a. dominant theory of economy
b. NAFTA: get rid of tariffs,
let the market decide
c. constant struggle between
countries that tariff/don't
7. not immediately accepted by
society or nations
D. Provides
the basis for economics
1. desire to find a theory to
explain economic actions
2. use that theory to predict
the future
3. use that theory to affect the
future
E.
Anthropology
1. study of the classification
of humanity through origin, culture
2. al humans can be grouped,
individual is less important than group
F. Sociology
1. the "systematic study of
the development, structure, interaction, and
collective behavior of organized groups of
people."
2. social groups can be
understood, can be manipulated, can change.
G. History
1. no longer antiquarians (the
love for something old for its own sake)
2. now a "social
science" hoping to find the patterns of history so to affect
them
IX. Conclusion
A. The
Scientific Revolution was to change the natural world and our relationship to
it
B. The
Enlightenment was to change the social world