Trans-hemispheric Transformations

Involved four critical dimensions

Four Dimensions 1. Alterity: sense of otherness; non-self

a. not a mere encounter! But cultural construction of others

2. Knowledge:

3. Sovereignty

4. Capital

Two Major transformations

Print revolution

Rise of the reading public

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

Sun centered system 1543: published his manuscript before the council of Trent

Aristotle: straight lines on earth; curves in heavens

Heaven and hell are not separate, and all movements curve

Great Comet 1577 (Comet in an oval path)

Tycho Brahe

Comets travel above

Earth’s atmosphere

De nova stella“On the new Star” (1573)

Celestial realm is changing

Comets were atmospheric

Laws of planetary motion Johannes Kepler: planets moved in elliptical spheres

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) improved telescope (from Holland)

1610 He pointed the telescope up to the sky

Wrote a 20 page book

Starry Messenger

Wide-ranging correspondence

Federico Cesi (1585-1630) Founder of the

Lincean Academy

Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615)

Joshua’s mobile sun asks God to stop the sun in order to lengthen the day and

allow the Israelites to win the battle.

But Galileo argues for an allegorical interpretation

God stopped sunspots rather than the sun itself

“I hold the sun to be situated motionless in the center of the revolution of the celestial orbs while the earth rotates on its axis and revolves about the sun. They know also that I support this position not only by refuting the arguments of Ptolemy and Aristotle ... especially some pertaining to physical effects whose causes perhaps cannot be determined in any other way, and other astronomical discoveries; these discoveries clearly confute the Ptolemaic system, and they agree admirably with this other position and confirm it.”

The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

1631

Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two

New Sciences 1638

Leiden

mid-16th century Protestantism

Anabaptist Holland

Literary revolution and the Protestant Reformation

Catholic authoritarianism Literary: Bible had to be understood not only literary but

also through the church

Censorship: only books sanctioned by the church permitted

Salvation and language Salvation through grace rather than church-sanctioned

rituals or pronouncement

Church authority should be replaced by individual faith and God’s grace

Vernacular language

Public Discourse Vernacular

More prosaic

Language & Urban Space Public Squares

Novelization of language

Rise of the novel:Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote 1605

François Rabelais (1494-1553) A founder of modern European literature

Gargantua and Pantagruel

Wordplay

Molière Unconventional individualism

Epistolary Novel

Blogs

Travel reports

Consumers

18th century Salon (Italian and French)

From mid-17th to mid-18th

centuries

Knowledge is

increasingly……..

Becoming commoditized

Becoming Discernable

Experimental Science

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Experimental scientific method

Becoming compartmentalized

Cabinets of curiosities:encyclopedic collections of

objects

Rise of Museums

Becoming Encyclopedic

Zoo

“Human Zoo”

Colonialism and Knowledge

And Finally

Knowledge is becoming…..

Rationalized

Immanuel Kant (1724 –1804)

French Revolution 1789:Institutionalization of a new

political discourse, new political imaginary

A new political order based on human maturity, breaking down dependencies from the monarchy

and the church

A new order of political reason

Where to find the roots of the new discourse on

political order?

Let’s go back to Florence

Perspective versus single space

Singularity of sovereignty

Politics and language Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527)

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

Politics has no relations to morals

Political space as a vanishing point

The art of politics is not just about administration and governance, but the ability to design effective representation of power

Power cannot be separated from the display of its legitimacy

Objective: (geometric and calculated) Management of appearance

Perspective

King Henry VIII

Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603

Charles I (1600 – 1649)

Louis XIV (1638 – 1715)

Humanism and politics Sovereignty in the hands of “Man”

And justice

The Education of a Christian Prince

(1518

Thomas Moor (1478-1535)

Royal and Church authorities

Unholy marriageGive me Anne Bolyen!

Kill Wolsey! Kill Thomas Cromwell!

Claim authority by the grace of God alone

All power to the states! Peace of Westphalia (1648)

European State-building

16th to the 17th centuries. 1) TAXATION: Levied on subjects and citizens: Sales tax (e.g. salt, silk…)

a) Moving away from tributary practices.

b) First instances of democratic political economy.

2) Standing military.

3) Sovereignty Protestant Reformation: Increasing independence from the Church

Intimate relationship between Protestant Reformation, State-

building and rise of rationality.

Politics and Religion FAITH not institutional Church

Kings can rule without Popes.

Example: Calvin

Church free from politics.

Papal authority renounced.

State as a community of believers

The formation of Early Modern

States led to the following

developments Dynastic states reliant on society.

Yet formation of sovereign states.

Military-civil distinction.

Competition between European states: New wave of (small-scale) wars and conflict.

Much stronger states than those of their medieval predecessors.

States 1. Absolutist states

2. welfare states

3. constitutional monarchies-republics

Absolutist Monarchies

● Divine right of kings or

“God’s lieutenants upon earth.”

● Royal centralization.

● Cardinal Richelieu

Chief minister to King Louis XIII from 1624-1642.

● Undermined the nobility and enhanced the authority of the king by building a large bureaucracy operated by commoners loyal to the king.

Louis XIV (1643-1715)

“The Sun King” “L’état, c’est moi.”

Ruled as

an absolutist king.

1670s: built Versailles.

Beginnings of the end of

Absolutist state 1789 French Revolution

2. Proto-Welfare states?

Louis XI (reigned 1461-1483)

Sales tax: salt.

Tax on Household.

With an expanded

state, new

Institutions that

provided assistant

to the poor.

3. Constitutional States3. Constitutional States.

● England and the maritime Dutch Republic.

* Governments that claimed limited powers and recognized

rights of the citizens and representative institutions, such as

a parliament or a council.

Glorious Revolution

(1688-1689)

“Bloodless” change of power when parliament deposed the Catholic King James II and replaced him with his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William the Orange.

Agreement: Mary should rule only in cooperation with parliament and the consolidation of representative government.

State competition Thirty Year Wars (1618-1648)

Conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy

Roman Empire, fragmented collection

of independent states.

Destruction,

famine, disease.

Treaty of Westphalia (1648) Holy Roman Emperor, Habsburgs,

Kingdoms of Spain, France, Sweden, Dutch

Republic.

First modern

diplomatic

Assembly.

.

● Major peace treaties between sovereign states governed by a

Sovereign.

1) Territorial boundaries.

2) Each prince would

Determine the religion of

His state.

3) Minority Christians could

Practice their religion