Scientific Revolution & the Enlightenment

Question 1

The Commercial Revolution

Answer 1

• economic revolution
• inflation of prices
• New World (the Americas) gold and silver forced prices up
• product demand surpassed availability
• great trading companies formed to take advantage of colonial markets
• increasing commerce stimulated manufacturing
• specialized agriculture regions emerged
• new developments stimulated population and urban growth
• prosperity was shared by all classes in western Europe, but there were victims
• commercialization created a new rural and urban proletariat that suffered from increased food prices
• it also supported a more elaborate family life and the demystification of nature
• changes stimulated protests
• witchcraft hysteria reflected economic and religious uncertainties with women the common targets

Question 2

renaissance

Answer 2

• drove wedge between wealthy and poor
• social tensions shown by rebellions
• suppression of landlords and taxes

Question 3

scientific revolution

Answer 3

• sealed cultural reorientation of the west
• brought about a more decisive form of government (feudalism, monarchs more absolute in power)
• early on, it was thought we were at the center of the universe
• church supported geocentric theory of earth

Question 4

Copernicus

Answer 4

• through astronomical observation and mathematics, Copernicus discredited the belief that the Earth was the center of the universe
• sun at center, earth rotates around sun
• his discovery set in motion other scientific advances
• Galileo proved Copernicus right

Question 5

Galileo

Answer 5

• condemnation by the Catholic Church demonstrated the difficulty traditional religion had in dealing with the scientific attitude

Question 6

science: the new authority

Answer 6

• Harvey explained the circulatory system of animals
• Bacon urged the value of observation and experimental research
• Descartes established the importance of a skeptical review of all received wisdom
• the capstone of the scientific revolution was Newton’s argument for a framework of natural laws: established principles of motion, defined the forces of gravity, refined the principles of scientific methodology
• Deism argued that God did not regulate natural laws
• Locke stated that people could learn all that was necessary through their senses and reason
• science became central to Western intellectual life, a result not occurring in other civilizations

Question 7

the Enlightenment

Answer 7

• centered in France
• scientific research and methods were used to study human society
• rational laws could describe both physical and social behavior
• new schools of thought emerged in criminology and political science
• Adam Smith maintained governments should stand back and let individual effort and market forces operate for economic advance