The Enlightenment Reading -- Part Two!!

The Middle Ages in Europe saw feudalism, ignorance, superstition, and an overly

powerful Catholic Church dominate people’s lives. Belief in witchcraft was normal, few people could read other than Catholic Priests, and ideas that were not allowed by the Church or your Monarch (king) were suppressed, often very violently.

European Middle Ages 476 A.D (Fall of Western Rome) - Around 1400 A.D

War has been apart of all of Human History -- The Medieval Ages even more so than typical! Knights, Castles, Lords, Peasants...

The Renaissance (1300 - 1600) The Renaissance, which literally means “rebirth”, was the first glimpse of coming out of

the Middle Ages. The Renaissance began in Italy! People with enough time and money in Italian cities looked back and studied ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and writers. They began to question authority like Kings and The Catholic Church. A renewed interest in Greek and Roman Art was also ‘reborn’ during this period. It is important to understand that despite this intellectual and cultural ‘rebirth’ of Ancient Greek and Roman culture in Europe, most people were still poor and powerless peasants!!!

‘Rebirth’ or Renewed Interest in Greek and Roman Thinkers!

The Scientific Revolution! 1500’s - Today!

Without The Scientific Revolution, you wouldn’t be reading this on a computer. In fact, you probably wouldn’t be reading at all. Science, math, and technology have changed human life so much so that if we imagine a world in which The Scientific Revolution never happened, the Middle Ages is probably what we’d get (Most people couldn’t read or write).

The central idea, or main point, that drove and still drives science today is that the universe we live in is understandable and predictable! When you drop a pen, it’s going to

fall down every single time. Why? Because nature is predictable and follows certain ‘natural’ or physical laws or patterns. How can we create cars that go 200 miles an hour? By scientifically investigating and understanding how engines work.

The Scientific revolution is generally thought of to have started with our boy Copernicus in 1543. Copernicus first came up with the idea that the sun was in the center of our solar system, not the earth. As we have studied, Galileo comes in later and proved Copernicus right using mathematics and a telescope!

Slowly but surely people began to realize that they could investigate nature and figure things out using the power of math, science, and human reason! Why do most of us not die before we reach the age of 5? Say it with me -- THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION! We have medications and an understanding of the way the human body works because people began applying their minds to figuring out how things work and then sharing the information with others!

Isaac Newton -- Arguably Smartest Person to Ever Live! Created the theory of gravity and developed Calculus in order to track the movement of the planets!

The Enlightenment 1600’s - Today As we’ve studied, The Enlightenment basically took the Scientific Revolution and

applied its ideas to all of human life. Early scientists like Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton didn’t try to apply science and reason to government, culture, and society.

Enlightenment thinkers in Europe started doing just that in the 1600’s. They looked at what The Scientific Revolution was able to accomplish and basically said, “why stop at physics!?”

During the Middle Ages, The Catholic Church told everyone what to think and what to believe. If you questioned the authority of the Church in public, you would be punished -- sometimes by death.

Enlightenment thinkers instead argued that individual people can use reason to figure

out what to believe. Rather than your priest telling you what is true and what to think, you can use reason to work through things yourself! French thinker Voltaire attacked the corruption and abuses of The French Catholic Church, argued for religious tolerance in France, and wrote passionately about how Slavery was wrong.

Enlightenment thinkers didn’t just question the laws and rules of individual kings, they questioned the idea of a king itself! Why should one man or woman control an entire society?

Important Enlightenment Thinkers…

Voltaire - Freedom of speech, religious tolerance, Personal Freedom Montesquieu - Separation of power in government! No one man should have too much

power!! John Locke - The government should protect our private property! “Laissez-Faire

economics = Government stays out of the economy Francis Bacon - The Scientific method is the only good way to figure things out!

What do you think human nature is like?