CHAPTER 15:
THE BAROQUE AGE II
Revolutions in Scientific and Political Thought
The relaxing of church authority also led to a scientific revolution in which Humankind was finally able to think and form rational, intelligent theories about the universe, earth, medicine, chemistry, and physics.
Of course, none of this happened overnight. It took over 150 years for a vain, superstitious Humankind to accept the fact that the solar system is heliocentric rather than geocentric.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 –1543) formulated the first modern heliocentric theory of the solar system in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543.
Mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571 –, 1630) proved Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity in 1609 in Astronomia Nova, which included his “laws of planetary Motion.”
Galileo Galilei (1564 –1642) used an improved telescope in 1610 to prove much of Kepler’s ideas, only to be silenced by the church.
Sir Isaac Newton, (1643 –1727) published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in 1687, adding theories of gravitation to the other ideas, and finally getting heliocentricity accepted.
New ideas were discovered in many fields.
William Harvey (1578 – 1657) in 1616 An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, argued that blood was circulated around the body by the heart.
Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694) proved
Although Robert Boyle (1627 –1691) was an alchemist, his 1661 book, The Sceptical Chymist, is considered to be the origin of modern chemistry.
For the first time in western Europe since the Greeks, philosophy became an accepted part of the Humanities.
Francis Bacon (1561 –1626) is best known for creating “The Scientific Method of Deduction,” which is used by all scientists today.
René Descartes (1596 –1650) wrote "Cogito ergo sum" in Discourse on Method (1637), which proved the existence of self, soul, and God, and taught deductive reasoning.
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) a mathematician who developed “Pascal’s triangle” and denied Descartes, by advancing the theory that humans can never fully understand God, the universe, or themselves
Pascal based his belief in God on a wager: if God does exist, then by believing in Him, you get to go to Heaven and get all that good stuff. If He doesn’t exist, you’re going to end up with the same nothing as everyone else, whether you believe or not. Therefore, it’s stupid not to believe in God.
The scientific revolution also produced some political philosophers, who thought about a very important question: How can we improve the world?
Hugo Grotius (1583 –1645) laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law, which presupposed that all mankind is basically good.
Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627 - 1704) Believed that government was divine and that kings received their power from God, because humankind is basically corrupt and sinful.
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) in The Leviathan (1651) wrote that civil war is man’s nature and "the war of all against all" could only be averted by strong central government.
John Locke (1632-1704), the father of modern political liberalism (as opposed to Jesus, the original liberal), believed mankind is basically good and capable of governing itself.
Locke’s 1690 Two Treatises of Government asserted that the people have the right to select their own leader, and to replace him if he should prove incompetent.
Also in 1690, Locke published An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in which he contended that all humans are born with blank minds (tabula rasa) and all learning comes from experience. (Empiricism)
It should be quite clear where so many conflicting political philosophies can lead, especially when you consider the growing middle class and the rapidly expanding aristocratic class, and consider this question: How talented are the children of great leaders?