The Impact of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment on the West The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment period were both a time of immense growth in scientific discovery and an increase in the secular view of the world. The Scientific Revolution would include the use of direct observation and experimentation, dependence on mathematical confirmation, and inventions to test new scientific discoveries (Kwak). The new discoveries of the Scientific Revolution led the growing number of literate middle class individuals in the Enlightenment period. This growth of enlightened individuals led to more intellectual and cultural attitudes that shaped modern history throughout the world (Fiero, 134). This paper will analyze the impact of the …show more content…
Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment on paintings, literature, and philosophy during both of these influential periods. Moreover, art began to explore more secular everyday life subjects such as, still life’s, portraits, landscapes, and variety of other things in the natural world.
The vast influence of observation was highly apparent in paintings during the Scientific Revolution particularly for artists like Jan Vermeer (Fiero, 120-121). According to, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Vermeer was intensely preoccupied with the behavior of light and other optical effects such as sudden recessions and changes of focus (Liedtke).” In Vermeer’s painting The Geographer, I think he pays attention very well to the light in this particular painting. It is obvious the source of the light is coming from the window next to the man in the painting. He captured the way light hits various objects in the room and the shadows they create in a very realistic manner. It is also, apparent Vermeer’s precise technical abilities and careful observation to everyday human activity that support in the realism of this particular painting. I like how he captures this individual briefly taking a moment away from his work to possibly double check something as someone would do to check their own accuracy. Jan Vermeer captured everyday life in his impressive realism paintings, which showed people a different world that existed around them. Similar to, the art influencing different viewpoints of the world was new literature of Enlightenment …show more content…
period. The largest collection of knowledge in the West during the 1700s was the Encyclopédie, as well as a highly impactful piece of literature to intellects. It housed a variety of facts for everyday life to gain the interest of the new found individuals who were becoming more literate. Denis Diderot edited the Encyclopédie, but was also a highly influential philosopher during the enlightenment period helping him gain a place among great thinkers. Much of Diderot’s new age thinking influenced what was put into the Encyclopédie because he wanted it to reveal truth whether or not it went against authority. It is said that Diderot was highly against slavery and in the Encyclopédie there are passages concerning Africans (Damerow). There is a passage in the Encyclopédie titled Negroes and talks of the misfortunes they endure when being captured as slaves. There is one part of this passage that states, “Experience has shown that as long as these unfortunates are still within sight of their homeland, they are overcome by sorrow and gripped by despair. The former is cause of many illnesses from which a large number perish during the crossing; the latter inclines them to suicide, which they effect either by refusing nourishment or by shutting off their breathing (Fiero, 143).” I think Diderot put excerpts like this one to change the way people think of African slaves. He wanted to show how much the mistreatment of slaves drew them to do horrible things and that it wasn’t okay to treat another individual as property. He was only telling the truth of the matter, but in a way that made people rethink what was right and wrong. I feel this probably had great impact on individuals of this period because they were more open-minded to new ideas and would help them to become more tolerant. It is noticeable from the art and literature that the impact of the enlightenment was changing people.
The impact was also profound on philosophy, especially political philosophy, which had enlightened thinkers reevaluating the government’s role and the rights of the citizens. Natural law was seen as general laws for human behavior. John Locke was highly influential with his political philosophies, which incorporated natural law into his thought process. Locke believed that people had rights, those being the right to life, liberty, and property. He felt government should only be in place to protect these rights of the people and that they should not give up freedom for protection (Tuckness). In Locke’s Of Civil Government, his chapter on tyranny states, “…so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to (Fiero, 137).” I feel that Locke’s ideals are reflective of what democracy is supposed to be. He mostly likely had influence on future governmental systems because of his writing. It is obvious why his influence of political philosophy traveled farther than that of Thomas Hobbes. I think Locke became more socially and intellectually aware of these issue because of the growth in learning during these periods. He gained more of an understanding to what government was doing and how people should actually be treated in their
life. Ultimately, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment not only changed the West, but changed modern history. It impacted the way individuals thought in everyday life and how they perceived the world around them. Art no longer sought to explain the unknown religious world, but to show everyday life from a new perspective. Literature challenged the authorities to reveal the truth of important issues. The great thinkers dared to ask questions and provide answers for hope to change the troubles that afflicted everyone during the period.
John Locke, one of the leading philosophers of the European Enlightenment was very important when it came to political thought in the United States. His ideas of the reasons, nature, and limits of the government became especially important in the development of the Constitution. In one of his most famous writings of that time, Two Treatises on Government (1689), Locke established a theory where personal liberty could coexist with political power ; meaning that the people would agree to obey the government and in return, the government would have the responsibility of respecting the people’s natural rights. In other words, he laid out a social contract theory that provided the philosophy and source of a governing author...
...wo systems that our government has today with the three different branches of government, each of which has some power over the others to create balance. John Locke influenced the American Revolution, and many other American governmental leaders who were crucial in outlining our country’s government. He gave Thomas Paine the inspiration to bring a nation to its feet, and he also influenced James Madison who drew up the principles of liberty and government (John Locke). John Locke’s Natural Rights are the basis for our Declaration’s “unalienable rights”. John Locke’s emphasis on constitutionalism and human understanding influenced our government with the ideas of limited government, balance of power, and a representative ruling body. With his written views he has shaped our country’s executive and legislative governmental power to this day (John Locke).
...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.
In conclusion, the Scientific Revolution helped influence the great thinkers of the Enlightenment and the future progress of mankind. Paine, Franklin, and Condorcet all used reason and logic when examining the former tyrannies of religion and the teachings of the middle ages. They removed the dogma and doctrine and extracted what was good and valuable for the teaching and improvement of mankind.
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...
The church’s robust grip on religious expression shattered as medieval society transitioned into a period known as the Reformation. Characterized by the rejection of common ideology, the Reformation sparked religious curiosity. Reformers such as John Calvin and Martin Luther offered interpretations of the Bible in direct opposition to the Catholic Church’s teachings, forcing Europeans to examine and formulate their own beliefs. This style of thinking was foreign to European society because up to this point in history Europeans were passive absorbers of Catholic Church ideology. Hence, it was natural that an era considered the Age of Enlightenment followed the period of rejection and questioning known as the Reformation. The Age of Enlightenment did not merely confine itself to religious expression, but spread throughout natural and social science. Thus, the Age of Enlightenment marked the beginning of academic and religious philosophy and allowed great minds to think free from restriction and condemnation of established institution. As the perception of natural
The Age of Enlightenment saw many great changes in Western Europe. It was an age of reason and philosophes. During this age, changes the likes of which had not been seen since ancient times took place. Such change affected evert pore of Western European society. Many might argue that the Enlightenment really did not bring any real change, however, there exists and overwhelming amount of facts which prove, without question, that the spirit of the Enlightenment was one of change-specifically change which went against the previous teachings of the Catholic Church. Such change is apparent in the ideas, questions, and philosophies of the time, in the study of science, and throughout the monarchial system.
Oh goodness the 18th century… There is so much to say about the 1700s such as it was a time of enlightenment! Now now do not let the word enlightenment take you for a loop and think this was a time for strictly gaining knowledge and understanding because…Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Yes, that’s right Wars! Throughout the 18th there were numerous wars such as the Seven Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession in which we will discuss farther down. This timeline will focus on mostly only WARS because like stated above the 18th century was packed with them, but will also touch on, the enlightenment of course, expansion, Slave Trade, and some lagniappe. Now let’s begin with the year 1700:
The Enlightenment began or could be said to have been propelled by the scientific revolution of the earlier centuries, particularly the Newtonian universe, as modernizing science gradually undermined the ancient Western geocentric idea of the universe as well as accompanying set of presuppositions that had been constraining and influencing philosophical inquiry (Bristow; Lewis; Mattey). This has led to the promotion of philosophy that of natural science included, emerging from the shadows of theology to become an independent, powerful force that challenged the old and the status quo. This has led to the great progress at the intellectual and scientific levels, with the society so enthusiastic about said progress amidst expectations that philosophy in general would lead to huge improvement in human conditions (Bristow). During this time, philosophers in the narrow sense of the root world considered the Church as fomenting ignorance, superstition and subservience. They also believed in the inherent equality of human beings even as they held that the best form of gov...
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and cultural movement in the 17th and 18th centuries. It concentrated on reason, logic, and freedom over blind faith. During this time more and more people reject absolute authority of the church and state. The driving force of the enlightenment across Europe and England came from a small group of thinkers and writers that are known today as “philosophes.” The English Enlightenment differed from other European countries, like France. England had many discoveries in manufacturing, literature, plays, and landscaping, but the advances in sciences were probably one of the important. This period of time was coined as the Scientific Revolution. The most
The Scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries changed the way that people views the world. Scientific philosophers such as Galileo and Descartes threw out the old teachings of the church and challenged them with new ways of thinking. These men sought to prove that rational thought could prove the existence of God. They also challenged that it was an understanding of a series of rational thoughts, not faith, would bring understanding of how the world worked. Traditional ways of thinking were ultimately challenged by logical and sensible rationale.
Revolution is a change in the already existing system. A revolution is defined more by its results and identified as a revolution after it has started. A revolution brings instant changes that could’ve taken hundreds of years, but began the change automatically. In most political revolutions, violence is usually involved. Examples of this would be the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution. Non political movements that produce revolutionary changes are also termed as revolutions because of such a change they’ve made in history. The Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution are evident towards revolution because of how big of an altar they caused the world.
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.
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.
The changes produced during the Scientific Revolution were not rapid but developed slowly and in an experimental way. Although its effects were highly influential, the forerunners Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and Rene Descartes only had a few hundred followers. Each pioneered unique ideas that challenged the current views of human beingsí relationship with nature. With the backing of empirical observation and mathematical proof, these ideas slowly gained acceptance. As a result, the operation of society, along with prior grounds for faith were reconsidered. Their ideas promoted change and reform for humansí well-being on earth.