AP Euro (McKay) Chapter 16; Toward a New Worldview

Medicine, the Body, and Chemistry

-Prior to the revolution, Galen's ancient research stating that the body contained four humors, the blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Disease was caused due to an imbalance of humors. Used for a very long time until scientists like William Harvey researched upon how the human body works. -William Harvey was first to explain that the heart worked like a pump and the function of muscles and valves. Discovered the circulation of blood through the veins and arteries, essential to medicine.

Key Idea 6: In much of Europe, absolute monarchy was established over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.

1. In the 18th century, a number of states in eastern and central Europe experimented with "enlightened absolutism." Examples include: a. Frederick II of Prussia b. Catherine the Great of Russia c. Joseph II of Austria 2. The inability of the Polish monarchy to consolidate its authority over the nobility led to Poland's partition by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its disappearance from the map of Europe.

The Social Life of the Enlightenment

How did Enlightenment thinkers address issues of racial and social difference, and how did new institutions and social practices diffuse Enlightenment thought?

The Rise and Spread of Enlightenment Thought

How did the Enlightenment emerge, and what were major currents of Enlightenment thought?

Enlightened Absolutism

What impact did new ways of thinking have on political developments and monarchical absolutism?

Important Changes in Scientific Thinking and Practice

What intellectual and social changes occurred as a result of the Scientific Revolution?

The Scientific Revolution

What revolutionary discoveries were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and why did they occur in Europe?

Late Enlightenment

-After 1770, a number of thinkers and writers began to attack the Enlightenment's faith in reason, progress, and moderation. -Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was devoted to individual freedom, but saw rationalism and civilization as enemies of the individual. -Rousseau believed in a rigid division of gender roles. -The Social Contract (1762) made an important contribution to political theory. -Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argued that serious thinkers should be granted the freedom to exercise their reason publicly in print.

The Methods of Science: Bacon and Descartes

-Bacon argued that new knowledge had to be pursued through empirical research.Developed empiricism, a theory of inductive reasoning that calls for acquiring evidence through observation and experimentation rather than deductive reason and speculation. - Descartes developed the idea that matter was made up of identical "corpuscles" that collided together in an endless series of motions. Developed Cartesian dualism, the idea that all of reality could ultimately be reduced to mind and matter. Highly influential and inspiring to many philosophers in France and the Netherlands.

Catherine the Great of Russia

-Catherine deposed her husband Peter III and became empress of Russia. -Catherine imported Western culture to Russia, supported the philosophers, and introduced limited legal and penal reforms to her adopted country. -Pugachev's rebellion put an end to Catherine's efforts to reform serfdom. -Under Catherine, Russia continued to expand.

Science and Religion

-Catholic church becomes more hostile to science, but some Protestant countries were pro-science.

The Copernican Hypothesis

-Copernicus overturned the medieval view of the universe. -He postulated that the earth revolved around the sun and that the sun was the center of the universe. -This heliocentric view was a departure from the medieval view endorsed by both Catholic and Protestant churchmen.

Women and the Enlightenment

-Despite the principles of equality espoused by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, intellectuals such as Rousseau offered new arguments for the exclusion of women from political life, which did not go unchallenged. Individuals who challenged Rousseau's position on women were Mary Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, Marquis de Condorcet -Women played a leading role in hosting salons. Salons gave educated women a voice in cultural affairs. Madame Geoffrin was the most influential of the salon hostesses. Support for superstition and witchcraft declined as educated Europeans turned to rational explanations for natural events.

Global Contacts

-Discovery of the New World and subsequent explorations in the Pacific Ocean also destabilized existing norms and values in Europe.

Enlightenment Debates About Race

-Enlightenment thinkers developed new and highly influential ideas about racial difference. -A primary catalyst for new ideas about race was the urge to classify nature. -"Race" began to be used in similar way to "species." -Thinkers such as Hume and Kant helped popularize new ideas about race. -These ideas did not go unchallenged.

Magic and Alchemy

-For the most part of history prior to the Scientific Revolution, astronomy was inspired by the belief that the movement of heavenly bodies influenced events on Earth. -Kepler explained elliptical motion. -Newton's idea of universal gravitation.

Frederick the Great of Prussia

-Frederick II built on the accomplishments of his father. -He fought successfully to defend Prussia from external threats. -Frederick allowed religious freedom and promoted education and legal reform. -He was unwilling to change Prussia's social structure and rejected calls for civil rights for Jews.

Why Europe?

-Heavy competition against neighboring countries. -Wanted to improve overseas travel.

Enlightenment Movements Across Europe

-Historians have identified distinctive Enlightenment movements in eighteenth-century Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Poland, Hungary, and Russia. -Different areas followed different strands of Enlightenment thinking. -David Hume (1711-1776) was the most important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.

Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened Absolutism

-Jewish merchants prospered in international trade with other Jewish communities. -Less Jew restrictions. -The leading European monarchs of the later eighteenth century all claimed that they were acting on the principles of the Enlightenment. -There is general agreement that such monarchs did spread the cultural values of the Enlightenment. -Absolute monarchs believed in change from above and tried to enact reforms. -Recent historians have argued that absolutists were primarily interested in strengthening the state, not in pursuing humanitarian goals for their own sake.

The Austrian Habsburgs

-Joseph II (r. 1780-1790) and Maria Theresa (1740-1780) introduced reforms in Austria. -Maria Theresa introduced measures aimed at limiting the power of the papacy in her realm, strengthening the central bureaucracy, and improving the lot of the agricultural population. -Joseph II pursued reforms aggressively when he came to the throne in 1780. -His rapid reforms sent Austria into turmoil and after Joseph's death, his brother was forced to repeal his radical edicts.

The Influence of the Philosophes

-Many writers made Enlightenment thought accessible to a wide range of people. -Fontenelle stressed the idea of progress. -Skeptics such as Bayle believed that nothing could be known beyond all doubt. -Locke stressed that all ideas are derived from experience. -The French philosophes were committed to the fundamental reform of society. -Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers was fundamental. -Voltaire challenged traditional Catholic theology.

Causes of the Scientific Revolution

-Medieval universities had provided the framework for the new view. -The Renaissance stimulated science by rediscovering ancient mathematics. -Better ways of obtaining knowledge about the world, including improved tools such as telescopes and sextants, improved the scientific method. -Bacon advocated empirical, experimental research. -Descartes emphasized deductive reasoning and was the first to graph equations.

Newton's Synthesis

-Newton synthesized the integral parts into a whole. -Newton integrated the astronomy of Copernicus and Kepler with the physics of Galileo. -He formulated a set of mathematical principles to explain motion. -At the core of Newton's theory was the universal law of gravitation.

Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo: Proving Copernicus Right

-Scholars from Brahe to Galileo refined and collected evidence in support of Copernicus's model. -Brahe built an observatory and collected data. -Galileo discovered the laws of motion using the experimental method.

Scientific Thought to 1500

-Scientific thought in the early 1500s was based on ancient and medieval ideas. -European notions about the universe were based on Aristotelian principles. -A chief feature of this view was the belief in a motionless, static earth at the center of the universe. -Ten crystal spheres moved around the earth.

Natural History and Empire

-Spanish crown sponsored many scientific expeditions to gather information and specimens. -Francisco Hernandez who discovered many different plants that were unknown in Europe.

Urban Culture and Life in the Public Sphere

-The European market for books grew dramatically in the eighteenth century. -Popular titles addressed a wide range of subjects. -The illegal book trade included titles denouncing high political figures. -The nature of reading changed. -Conversation and debate also played a critical role in the Englightenment, with Parisian salons setting the example. -Elite women exerted considerable influence on salon culture and on artistic taste in general. -The new public sphere celebrated open debate informed by critical reason.

Science and Society

-The Scientific Revolution helped create the international scientific community. -As governments intervened to support and direct research, the scientific community became closely tied to the state and its agendas. -The Scientific Revolution resulted in the development of the scientific method. -The Scientific Revolution created few new opportunities for women. -The Scientific Revolution had few economic and social consequences for the masses until the eighteenth century.

The Early Enlightenment

-The overriding idea of the Enlightenment was that natural science and reason could explain all aspects of life. -The scientific method can explain the laws of nature. -Progress is possible if the laws are understood and followed.

Key Idea 3: New public venues and print media popularized Enlightenment ideas.

1. A variety of institutions, such as salons, explored and disseminated Enlightenment culture. Other examples include: a. Coffeehouses b. Academies 2. Despite censorship, increasingly numerous and varied printed materials served a growing literate public and led to the development of "public opinion." Examples include: a. Newspapers, periodicals b. The Encyclopedia 3. Natural sciences, literature, and popular culture increasingly exposed Europeans to representations of peoples outside Europe.

Key Idea 2: Rational and empirical thought challenged traditional values and ideas.

1. Intellectual such as Voltaire and Diderot began to apply the principles of the scientific revolution to society and human institutions. Other examples include: a. Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws b. Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments 2. Locke and Rousseau developed new political models based on the concept of natural rights. 3. Despite the principles of equality espoused by the Enlightenment, intellectuals such as Rousseau offered new arguments for the exclusion of women from political life, which did not go unchallenged. Example: a. Mary Wollstonecraft

Key Idea 5: During the Enlightenment, the rational analysis of religious practices led to natural religion and the demand for religious toleration.

1. Intellectuals, including Voltaire and Diderot, developed new philosophies of deism, skepticism, and atheism. Other examples include: a. David Hume 2. Religion was increasingly viewed as a matter of private rather than public concern. 3. By 1800 most governments had extended toleration to Christian minorities and, in some states, civil equality to Jews.

Key Idea 1: New ideas in science based on observation, experimentation, and mathematics challenged classical views of the cosmos, nature, and the human body, though folk traditions of knowledge and the universe persisted.

1. New ideas and methods is astronomy led individuals such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton to question the authority of the ancients and religion and to develop a heliocentric view of the cosmos. 2. Anatomical and medical discoveries by physicians, including William Harvey, presented the body as an integrated system, challenging the traditional humoral theory of the body and of disease espoused by Galen. Other examples include: a. Vesalius 3. Francis Bacon and René Descartes defined inductive and deductive reasoning and promoted experimentation and the use of mathematics, which would ultimately shape the "scientific method." 4. Alchemy and astrology continued to appeal to elites and to some natural philosophers, in part because they shared with the new science the notion of a predictable and knowable universe. In oral culture of peasants, a belief that the cosmos was governed by divine and demonic forces persisted. Example: a. Isaac Newton

Key Idea 4: New political and economic theories challenged absolutism and mercantilism.

1. Political theories, such as John Locke's, conceived of society as composed of individuals driven by self-interest and argued that the state originated in the consent of the governed (i.e. a social contract) rather than in divine right or tradition.