Mid-term history exam - Essay Example

By nature, man is a rational being and this behavior caused him to always get the most out of the situation. Given limited resources, his needs andwants are becoming insatiable as he advanced himself in all aspects of life. He is always in search of something new because he considers change as the only permanent thing on earth. He can even make impossible steps just to bring changes around him. But still, he shows ability to adapt to these changes and survive making him a better person in the end.

The Scientific Revolution changed the way people thought about the physical world around them while using scientific method as its basis (Watkins, par.1&2). Before this age, man believed in Ptolemy’s geocentric theory, placing earth (with him) as the center of the universe and everything revolves around him. Even his idea of the earth’s shape was a flat plane and disk. But Nicolaus Copernicus challenged this belief and introduced his heliocentric theory. His theory created a model where sun and not man is the center of the universe and earth revolves around the sun.

Another scientist followed his theory. Because he wanted to prove Copernicus’ theory, Galileo Galilei observed the skies with the help of his invention, a homemade telescope. He made the first systematic studies of uniformly accelerated motion and improved astronomical observations, which helped to support Copernicanism (Newworldencyclopedia.org, par.13). From the works of Copernicus and Galileo, Isaac Newton used mathematics to explain gravity and formed the Universal Laws of Motion which had a great impact on the field of astronomy.

He combined algebra with geometry and developed coherence between the two. This brought revolution not only in the field of science but also in mathematics, physics, medicine and biology. Other significant works were made by Edmond Halley, who discovered the proper motion of stars and the periodicity of comets, Johannes Kepler with his Laws of Planetary Motion, Blaise Pascal and his Pascal’s theorem, Christiaan Huygens who worked with the nature of Saturn’s rings, discovered its moon and invention of the pendulum clock, Robert Hooke with his Law of Elasticity and the first to apply the word “cell” to describe the basic unit of life, Gottfried Leibniz developed the  infinitesimal calculus and Leibniz’ mathematical notation.

As previously held truths were questioned and the search for new answers based on experiments and reasons started, the medieval view of the world and man’s relation to it was modified and gave way to the Age of Enlightenment. Scientific revolution is focused on the issues concerning the physical world but Age of Enlightenment or sometimes called the Age of Reason advocated reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and even religion, which would allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the whole of reality (Newworldencyclopedia.org, par.2).

From being fatalist who believes that everything is predetermined and the existence of a divine standard of morality, man began to challenge religious beliefs and displaced the authority of religion. The erosion of biblical revelation as a source of authority is one of the hallmark of the Enlightenment (Chambers, Hanawalt and Rabb, p. 558). Liberal theologians had hoped to accommodate religion to a new philosophical standards and reduce its influence in the society. This was done by eliminating the superstitious imagery and deemphasizing miracles.

They started educating the people about religion. This age also made man more conscious about himself and his existence. As Kant puts it, “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage” (Chambers, Hanawalt and Rabb, p.561 ). He defined nonage as the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance . This also means that Enlightenment is about intellectual freedom. So it was at this age when man began to put the institutions in the society to test for reason, experience and utility.

And because of this freedom, man is now ultimately responsible to himself to whatever he does with his life and not his fate. This also gave way to the triumphs of the intellectuals in their works and advocacies. For example, Francois-Marie Arouet or Voltaire was a pathbreaking historian. He was famous for his advocacy for civil liberties like freedom of religion and free trade. Philosophers continued their investigations in a wide range of subjects like sociology and psychology and new disciplines including culture, social institutions and government structures.

David Hume was one of the philosophers who embued the study of social science in questions of morality and ethics by trying to define good and evil in pragmatic terms. The book “The Spirit of the Laws” a work of Baron de Montesquieu was another influential work produced during the Enlightenment as it offered a comparative study of governments and societies. The drafters of the US Constitution were even influenced by the book’s section on liberty. Scientific revolution and enlightenment has roles in shifting our medieval world view into modern world view as its effects had questioned and later on rejected the traditional ideas that man used to believe in.

It helped man to know more about his physical world through discoveries and made advances that he can use for his betterment through inventions and innovations. Ideas of Enlightenment stimulated man’s sense of individualism and equal rights as it released man from the world of dark brought by the unproven truth about him and his existence. Bibliography Chambers, Mortimer, et al. The Western Experience. New York: McGraw-Hill , 2007. Newworldencyclopedia.org. Age of Enlightenment. 25 April 2008.

14 March 2011 . Watkins, Jeffrey. Scientific Revolution. 2003. 14 March 2011 .