History of Science Analysis Paper

1212 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The scientific revolution and the age of enlightenment

History of Science Analysis Paper

Europe’s Age of Enlightenment was a time of new scientific theories, discoveries, and technologies that powerfully affected, even shaped, society. As technological advances became widespread after the Industrial Revolution, this interactive relationship between science and society accelerated. Reflecting on the social and scientific changes they were witnessing, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) sought to grasp the nature and consequences of a central interest of the Enlightenment, Progress.

In his 1857 work, Progress: Its Law And Course, Spencer sought to understand Progress by cleaving it from its accomplishments and laying bare its essentials. Central to this task was dispassion as Spencer set aside consideration of the moral and ethical consequences of Progress and sought only to observe and describe its nature and effect. Such observation, he declared, showed that the nature of biological Progress had been revealed. To him biological progress was indisputably an evolution from homogeneity to heterogeneity. This “law of organic progress” he took to be the “law of all progress”.

Applying this notion to social phenomena, Spencer maintains that human history is just such a progression, an evolution from homogeneous social structures to heterogeneous ones. Accordingly, Spencer maintains that government, commerce, language, literature, arts, religion, and even the various scientific disciplines over time inevitably have grown more intricate and specialized. Writing about the distinct social classes and their structure, Spencer notes that after the Industrial Revolution, because people started to have much more specific jobs , commu...

... middle of paper ...

...Bartlett, John, comp. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed, rev and enl. By Nathan Haskell Dole.

Boston: Little, Brown, 1919; Bartleby.com, 2000 (for birth and death years)

Bowler, Peter J., and Iwan Rhys Morus. Making Modern Science: a historical survey. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005. Print.

Carlyle, Thomas. “From Signs of the Times: “The Mechanical Age”” Modern History Sourcebook. 1998. Web. 29 Sept 2010.

Spencerr, Herbert. “Progress: Its Law and Cause.” Modern History Soucebook. 1997. Web. 28 Sept 2010.

Weinstein, David, "Herbert Spencer", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), . (for birth and death years)

Show More
Related

  • Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves.”(Diamond 25) This statement is the thesis for Jared Diamond’s book Guns Germs and Steel the Fates of Human Societies.

    Read More

  • Enlightenment Dbq Essay

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unlike previous centuries, the eighteenth century was the dawn of a new age in Western Europe where intellectuals thrived, science was honored, and curiosity was encouraged; and the framework of how civil society was changed as a whole. From the dawn of the Enlightenment, Western European culture was changing due to the revolutionary new ideas that were changing. With the social change going on, political change was as evident as time went on. With these changes rooted in social change, the effects of the Enlightenment can be seen over 18th century Western Europe and beyond. Towards the late 1780s the late German Philosopher Immanuel Kant described the Enlightenment as, “Man leaving his self caused immaturity” ( Spiel Vogel 503).

    Read More

  • William Graham Sumner – Social Darwinist

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sumner was very influenced with the Spencer’s ideas. He was unclear about the Spencer’s ideas about creating a systematic science of society after his graduation. However, Spencer’s proposals aided Sumner’s ini...

    Read More

  • Evolution and The Island of Doctor Moreau

    1421 Words  | 3 Pages

    Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Revolution, pub. 1979 by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

    Read More

  • The Enlightenment Essay

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Enlightenment is a unique time in European history characterized by revolutions in science, philosophy, society, and politics. These revolutions put Europe in a transition from the medieval world-view to the modern western world. The traditional hierarchical political and social orders from the French monarchy and Catholic Church were destroyed and replaced by a political and social order from the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality(Bristow, 1). Many historians, such as Henry Steele Commager, Peter Gay, have studied the Enlightenment over the years and created their own views and opinions.

    Read More

  • Natural Selection, Scale, and Cultural Evolution

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    After a forty years absence, the cultural evolution method was revived in the mid-twentieth century. At first, many rejected the revival of this method, even though they were still using some aspects of the method, i.e. the stages of a cultures development. The twentieth century cultural evolution method differed from the earlier model in a few ways, but the main difference was in the definition of “progress.” During the nineteenth century, “progress” was broadly defined as “the betterment or similarity to modern European culture” (Dunnell, 1988; pg 176-177). During the twentieth century, however, “progress” took the definition of “ the increase in the amount of energy captured by society” (Dunnell, 1988; pg 177). This simply means that the “least developed” cultures used less energy than “more developed” cultures (Dunnell, 1988).

    Read More

  • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

    380 Words  | 1 Pages

    The late 18th century was a time of enlightenment for Europe. All categories of learning improved in this enlightenment period. The most impressive advances were in the sciences. Newton had developed his laws of physics, and scientific method had been tuned to a point. These improvements gave people a new outlook on life and the world. Mary Shelley tries to tackle the intimidating nature of the enlightenment period in the book, Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Great Awakening vs Enlightenment

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...but it also significantly altered the scientific community. People such as Francis Bacon, John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and many more, helped to spread ideals that would become a crucial turning point in the thought process of people during the seventeenth century. Without the important scientific and intellectual advances that occurred during the Enlightenment period, countless other important events and inventions that were sparked by them would also be nonexistent. There is no way of telling how history’s course would be different had the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment not occurred, but the fact is that they did. And what is known is that religion, science, government and politics, beliefs, relations between humans, society, and human perspective were all significantly altered by the wide-ranging metamorphoses inspired by these movements.

    Read More

  • Thre Views of Social Darwinism

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    The concept of Social Darwinism was a widely accepted theory in the nineteenth-century. Various intellectual, and political figures from each side of the political spectrum grasped the theory and interpreted it in various ways. In this paper, we will discuss three different nineteenth-century thinkers and their conception of Social Darwinism. The conservative, Heinrich von Treitschke, and liberal Herbert Spencer both gave arguments on the usefulness of competition between people on a global scale. The anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, refuted the belief of constant competition among members of the same species and emphasized mutual aid.

    Read More

  • Progress in America

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human civilization is constantly in a state of flux. It is always changing, evolving, and adapting to the ways that humans not only interact with one and other, but also with the earth on which we reside. We often call this evolving interaction progress. Progress can be defined as the destruction and re-building of social, political, and religious norms to promote a more prosperous and equitable society. Perhaps more than any other event in human history the European “discovery” of the New World fundamentally altered the social, political, and religious landscape the world over.

    Read More

  • Writers During The Age of Discovery and The Romantic Period

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Age of enlightenment people began to reform society using reason, challenge ideas of tyranny and of the Roman Catholic Curch. People for the first time started advancing knowledge through the use of the scientific method. Enlightenment type thinking has had a huge impact on the culture, politics, and g...

    Read More

  • The Scientific Revolution

    1262 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, radical and controversial ideas were created in what would become a time period of great advances. The Scientific Revolution began with a spark of inspiration that spread a wild fire of ideas through Europe and America. The new radical ideas affected everything that had been established and proven through religious views. "The scientific revolution was more radical and innovative than any of the political revolutions of the seventeenth century."1 All of the advances that were made during this revolutionary time can be attributed to the founders of the Scientific Revolution.

    Read More

  • The Impact of the Scientific Revolution Upon the Enlightenment

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    The age of Enlightenment was a progression of the cultural and intellectual changes in Europe that had resulted from the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scientific revolution and the discoveries made about the natural world would ultimately challenge the way people perceived the world around them. Scientist found real answers, by questioning flawed ancient beliefs that were widely held and maintained by the church. Ultimately, these discoveries and scientific advancements would evolve and effect social, cultural, and political developments in Europe over the course of time. The scientific revolution had provided certainty about the natural world that had long been questioned. With these new developments came the progression and influence of thought, rationality, and individualism. These new ideas would be the hallmark for the Enlightenment movement that would shape most of Europe in the eighteenth century.

    Read More

  • The Progressive Society

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the early twentieth century the belief in human progress and the progressive evolution of human history, which has been at the center of modern though since the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, was being seriously challenged. Identify the main established concepts and traditions that were challenged, who the most influential challengers were, and the new theories, arguments, works, etc. that they produced

    Read More

  • History Of Science And Technology

    1775 Words  | 4 Pages

    Science and Technology has been around from the beginning of time. It evolved from the everyday efforts of people trying to improve their way of life. Throughout history, humankind has developed and utilized tools, machines, and techniques without understanding how or why they worked or comprehending their physical or chemical composition. Before we go any further a definition has to be given for both Science and Technology because they are both different in their own right even though the two are almost indistinguishable. According to the Oxford Dictionary Technology can be defined as the knowledge or use of the mechanical arts and applied sciences, while Science can be defined as the branch of knowledge involving systematized observation and experiment. Science can be further divided into three separate categories; Pure, Applied and Natural Sciences. In addition technology is often defined as applied science, it is simply the application of scientific knowledge to achieve a specific human purpose, however, historical evidence suggests technology is a product of science.

    Read More

More about History of Science Analysis Paper

Open Document