Enlightenment thinkers, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and Nicolas de Condorcet were influenced by teachings of the Scientific Revolution. Reason and logic were used to dissect what was good and valuable apart from what was tyrannical and unable to be proven from the old teachings of philosophers and religion. It was this process of reason and logic that gave these thinkers the confidence in man’s intelligence and potential to improve that showed up in their writings. According to our course textbook, “The new critical spirit (of questioning laws and rules formerly accepted as true without proof) led the thinkers of the Enlightenment to doubt the literal truth of the Bible and to dismiss miracles as incompatible with what …show more content…
He has no evidence. Therefore he will not believe. There is no scientific method to be had or done. Influences of the Scientific Revolution can also be found in the writings of Benjamin Franklin. In my opinion, Franklin continued to hold onto Puritan-guilt, but still questioned those teachings. Influences of the Scientific Revolution can be found in his parody, “A Witch Trial at Mount Holly.” In this parody witches are put on trial and are offered to prove their innocence with scientific experimentation. They had to be weighed against the bible and tossed in the river with feet and hands bound. They agreed to the experimentation as long as some of the accusers submitted to the same tests (CP 72). The parody showed the folly of these religious accusers as they weighed more than the Bible and most of them all floated instead of drowning. This story showed the folly in this dogma and doctrine. The influence also left Franklin with a strong desire to self-improvement and the improvement of mankind. This self-improvement became like a religion for him. He took the desire for moral perfection and turned it into what can be called a scientific experiment that he strived at daily. Franklin made a list of twelve virtues and their descriptions on how to attain them. The virtues were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation,
The visionary outlined his plans for the institution in a reading titled, Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. As a means of resolving public health issues and providing care for the physically or mentally ill., Franklin constructed the idea for the first map for a public hospital in Pennsylvania. The final bit of philanthropic advice given from Franklin outlines a list of the 13 virtues necessary to live a virtuous life. Franklin mastered all of the virtues on his list and felt that others could benefit from his system “not [by] attempting the whole at once, but [by fixing] one of them at a time” (Franklin, 96). As a philanthropist, Franklin continuously sought after ways to improve his community. With the help of his Junto, Franklin succeeded in leading new undertakings of social advancement. “He expressed his hope to produce something for the common Benefit of Mankind” (Franklin, 6).
Copernicus discovery was a revelation and it undermined the system of hierarchy in the universe that gave order to the world, which was central to the Christian faith. (7) It was believed that God had created the universe for man, and that he had given the central position in his creation to man, giving people a profound sense of security however Copernicus theory took away man’s central position in the universe. (7) The new scientific discoveries were detrimental to authority as they fostered doubt uncertainty, anxiety and threated belief in the faith (*), however the full implications of these discoveries were not fully understood by people during the scientific revolution. The enlightenment further built on this decreasing belief in political and religious authority, and an increasing belief in the power through human reason (8). Critical reason was believed to be able to be used to combat both ignorance and tyranny. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) viewed the enlightenment as man emerging from a self-imposed state of immaturity. He believed that with critical reasoning man would be enlightened with the truth, further building on the discoveries of the scientific revolution, the enlightenment enabled was the start of people questioning, what they believed with critical reason. The so called age of reason’ targeted religion and the old way of Aristotelian logic.(8) The discoveries of the scientific
Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea to make his life better by trying to be perfect in every way. This can otherwise be known as trying to reach a state of moral perfection, in which one could find themselves being happy with the life they live, and also living a pure, sinless life. It has come to be questioned if attempting to achieve moral perfection is a worthwhile goal. In the end of his experiment he ended up not being able to reach or achieve his goal but learned a very crucial, very valuable lesson. He discovered throughout the recesses of his journey that achieving his goal would be found to be impossible, but in turn he learned that many of the virtues are good to try and maintain during everyday activities and through life
Without using reason in our everyday lives, society will collapse and turn into nothing but chaos. During the Enlightenment, a time when reason was beginning to be applied to the people’s thoughts, there were many great thinkers, but there were three in particular that attempted to change society’s unreasonable thinking. Voltaire, John Locke, and Mary Wollstonecraft all believed in freedom of choice; however, they believed in different branches of freedom of choice such as religion, government, and women’s education.
The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century finalized the movement toward contemporaneousness that began with the writers and philosophers of the Renaissance age. The scholars and writers, or philosophes as they were called, of the Enlightenment Age seized these teachings and ideologies and used them to criticize and attack the medieval ruling establishment and to unseat the religious ruling class from their vaulted theological perch. This criticism of the theological sect loosened religions grip on science and allowed for the expansion of reason. Science would no longer be hindered by the authority of papal influence and power, but would operate independently on its own merit and by its own designs. Anyone would then be free to think,
Science allowed alternatives to be imagined in everything from politics to religion 16. Locke offered a new set of principles for the construction of a human. The new cultural movement toward the light also changed the nature of christian belief and worship , new more cerebral and liberal nature of christian belief and worship.
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin discusses the importance of thirteen virtues that can make a man as close to perfect as possible. He explains the value of each virtue and keeps a detailed and organized chart of how he practices those virtues. Personally, I understand his methodology in his autobiography and have actually done the same when I was younger. Although I relate to the majority of his listed characteristics, I’ve found that I struggle the most with resolution.
Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Waldo Emerson propose certain principles for the conduct of life. Franklin is very clear in his proposed principles for life, as he clearly states them in his “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”. One of his main principles is the concept of hard work. Franklin believes that the best way to succeed in life is to work hard. Hard work is a key element in how to conduct one’s life. Franklin also touches on the idea that religion allows people to live in good conduct in their lives, as it gives people good values they must uphold. This also contributes to the principle that he believes in, which
The Enlightenment era was a new intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems. Even though different philosophers approached their goal differently, they achieved it none the less. They all approached their goal differently due to their different upbringings, their different backgrounds, and most importantly their different environments. A few among the many enlightened thinkers were Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron Do Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. While some of their idea’s are not used in modern society, they were all instrumental to the modern society we live in today.
In the 17th Century, there was much controversy between religion and science. The church supported a single worldview that God’s creation was the center of the universe. The kings and rulers were set in their ways to set the people’s minds to believe this and to never question it. From these ideas, the Enlightenment was bred from the Scientific Revolution.
The Enlightenment is also referred to as the Age of Reason. These names describe the period in America and Europe in the 1700s. During this period, man was emerging from the ignorance centuries into one that was characterized by respect for humanity, science, and reason. The people involved in Enlightenment had the belief that human reason was useful in discovering the universe’s natural laws, determining mankind’s natural rights, and thereby, unending knowledge progress, moral values, and technical achievement would be attained. John Locke and Isaac Newton are some of the people who played a great role during the Enlightenment period (Wuthnow 41). This paper aims at discussing the political, cultural, religious, intellectual, and economic impacts that were realized during the period.
The dawn of the Enlightenment brought forth a slew of radical notions that challenged society’s dominant sentiments at the time. With the onslaught of conversations about the nature and purpose of humanity, Enlightenment thinkers conceived novel concepts of anti-authoritarian thinking, empiricism, and the role of reason in humanity. As the Enlightenment led to an upheaval in how intellectuals took the authority of traditional learning, new conversations about the human condition were born. Namely, an emphasis on reason and logic as the primary mechanisms of humanity was developed. Prolific Scottish philosopher David Hume, best known for his radical use of skepticism to examine every possible concept in the vast index of Enlightenment values, emerged as a revolutionary departure from the traditional French and English Enlightenment thinkers. Hume was known for applying a brand of skepticism in his consideration of concepts such as reason, human sympathy, and the authority of traditional ideas. While David Hume’s extreme skepticism challenges preconceived notions of Enlightenment values, his approach is ultimately quite reflective of the core beliefs that represent the pinnacle of Enlightenment thought; thereby reinforcing such values while simultaneously casting them in an increasingly realistic light.
During the Scientific Revolution scientists such as Galileo, Copernicus, Descartes and Bacon wrestled with questions about God, human aptitude, and the possibilities of understanding the world. Eventually, the implications of the new scientific findings began to affect the way people thought and behaved throughout Europe. Society began to question the authority of traditional knowledge about the universe. This in turn, allowed them to question traditional views of the state and social order. No longer was the world constructed as the somewhat simple Ptolemaic Model suggested. The Earth for the first time became explicable and was no longer the center of the universe. Many beliefs that had been held for hundreds of years now proved to be
The Scientific Revolution was when modern science was essentially established, which came along with the major scientific discoveries took place at the time. Some major scientists that contributed to this major era include Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton. The scientific revolution took place following the Renaissance, from the mid-1500’s until about 1700. This revolution took place throughout Europe. This occurred because, following the Renaissance and the reformation, people became very curious and wanted to understand how the Earth worked. It was almost as if, being that this occurred after the reformation, that they wanted to either confirm or refute the church’s claims. The significance of the scientific revolution was one of great proportions, it changed mankind’s understanding the importance of science, and of how the Earth and solar system function.
The Scientific Revolution was an era where Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei. Nicolaus Copernicus, and Johannes Kepler challenged the status quo, and where many discoveries that would change the way people thought about everything including the universe were made. Before the Scientific Revolution happened, many Europeans only believed in what the church said, but the revolution unveil new answers based on science; totally the opposite of what the church had adopted in earlier years. This period became the foundation of thinking in a different way, and the Enlightenment relied on those new perspectives to expand other theories that would forever change life.