The Enlightenment: Scientific Revolution

Scientific Revolution was the period when man’s intellect explored the interests of science, reasoning, and truth. It was the time when man, not satisfied with the assumptions about things he was used, and theories to determine the truth about things based on scientific way of thinking. The emphasis of this intellectual change was on natural sciences of the earth such as astronomy, physics, zoology, geology, mathematics, and botany. The period of the Renaissance’s desire to produce reality from art led to mathematics and scientific interests (Sedivy, D. HRHS). This intellectual shift appealed to the middle and upper classes of society. Two of the famous contributors in the Scientific Revolution were Isaac Newton and Galileo. Isaac Newton formulated the law of gravity, while Galileo developed the first telescope. Rene Descartes was another contributor of this period of intellectual change. He that provide explanation to the existence of the universe.

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a period in which most of the ideas were inspired by the intellect and reasoning of the Scientific Revolution. If Scientific Revolution centers its subject to the development of the earth and humanity, the Enlightenment focused its attention on the potentials of reasoning of humanity in which religion is one of the foundation of thoughts. It was the time when philosophy appealed to the intellect of many such as the humanitarians, liberalists, and rationalists. Voltaire was one of the famous icons of the Enlightenment. His criticism on the the mind of its believers. Montesquie, another icon of Enlightenment, shared ideas on politics. He argued that the power of the state should be divided evenly among the executive (king), the legislature (parliament), and the judiciary (courts) (The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, AHS.cqu.edu.au).

Bibliography

Sedivy, Dave. The Enlightenment.

Highlands Ranch High School. 27 Oct 2003. http://mrsedivy.com/enlite.html

The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.

CLSCC.cc.tn.us. 27 Oct 2003. http://www.clscc.cc.tn.us/Courses/ngreenwood/scientific_revolution_and_the_en.htm

The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.

AHS.cqu.edu.au. 27 Oct 2003. http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/humanities/history/52140/PDF/topic8.pdf

The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.

WPUNJ.edu. 27 Oct 2003. http://www.wpunj.edu/~history/study/ws2/set3b.htm