Ideals of Enlightenment: Isaac Newton - Essay Example

Ideals of Enlightenment (Isaac Newton) According to Immanuel Grant (philosopher), enlightenment simply refers tosomeone use of his own intelligence. The period of enlightenment is that period and era in which intellectual forces and cultural believers in Europe majorly, stressed and insisted on individualism, analysis and reasoning compared or rather than those traditional forms of ruling and governance (Pancaldi 123). It was marked by an increase use of scientific intensively, increased empiricism and a lot of questioning of ancient religious authority. It is a process or a way in which an individual is educated using his own reasoning. It was prompted and enhanced by philosophers and other local intellectuals who usually discussed it in rest places like salons, coffee houses, lodges and showrooms. They opposed or differed with different authorities that were deeply rooted in the social society for example the church. They emphasized on how the society can be changed or reformed with science, toleration and scepticism (Pancaldi 154). It’s argued that enlightenment is the mother and source of critical issues and ideas like democracy, freedom and reasonable values in the society today. Different philosophers for example Isaac Newton, Baruch Spinoza, René Descartes among others changed the society by sharing out there views through published works (Pancaldi 233). Through this various works different leaders read their intellectual work and tried to apply their recommendations for example allowing many religions (absolutism), allowing tolerance which eventually lead to scientific revolution lead by Isaac Newton. Many new ideas and beliefs moved around Europe and were enhanced by the increased number of literate individuals caused by the abandonment from only one religion belief. The ideas brought by these intellectual were evidenced as true in French revolution that started off in 1789 and the romanticisms (Pancaldi, 22). From these ideas of enlightenment we are going to focus on Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) mainly. Sir Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day referring to the Julian calendar that is 25th December, 1642 in Lincolnshire in Britain and was named after the death of his father three months before he was born. He passed on in 1927 at the age of eighty four years. He was an English mathematician and physicist who is still up to date recognised at all times for his role in scientific revolution. He is responsible for firstly publishing a book that classical mechanics have found its basis (mathematical principles of natural philosophy). He also served and worked as a British warden and a master of the great royal mint. He also made distinguishable contributions to optics and also took part in development of modern and old calculus. Through his principles he formulated the laws of motion and the universe gravity. Isaac Newton was the first person to come up with the reflecting telescope and built up the theory based on colour prism that reflects many colours which is visible on the spectrum. He came up with the law of cooling, studied and determined the speed of sound and brought about the issue of Newtonian fluid notion. Most of his work and discoveries have been used to explain the movement of object on the universe that it is earth and other celestial bodies can be explained using his discoveries. He predicted that the earth is shaped as an oblate spheroid which was later discovered by other scientists. In mathematics he largely contributed in power series, methods of root approximation, binomial theorem of non integer exponents and lastly classified cubic plane curves. Romanticism This was a literary, artistic and intellectual trend its basis being in Europe which was a reaction of industrial revolution, it focused mainly on visual arts literature and music and it had a huge effect on historiography, sciences and education as well as politics. It was marked by a lot of work involving literature, criticism, architecture, historiography, music and painting. It was also associated with radicalism and liberalism hence having an intense development of nationalism (Rosenthal 75). Some of the enforcers of romanticism were Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They emphasized on emotions hence raising terror, horror and apprehension due to authentic source of aesthetic experience. It majorly took into consideration folk art and custom to be noble statuses music. It brought again medievalism in efforts to escape population growth. Romanticism gave out a explicit value to the distinguishing achievements of leaders and individuals and artists who could be the role models in the society (Rosenthal 34). It enhanced sole individual thinking as it allowed authority to form art from the classical notion. In conclusion, view of nature should be intellectual, as viewed earlier I would recommend the idea of enlightenment since most development in the world now days are based on the past ideas for example modern mathematics purely lies on the foundation of great discoveries of Isaac Newton and other scientists (Rosenthal 287). We don’t oppose the facts outlined in romanticism but the most realistic ones majorly lie in age of enlightenment. Impressionist and post impressionist painting and sculpture Impressionist art was marked by pointillism (bush strokes), transitory light effects and sketch lines. On other hand post impressionist was les aimed on visual effects of the art of colour and it was more structured. The major distinction point between the two phases which were majorly experienced between 1800 - 1900 was that post impression targeted more emotion and expression in their sculpture and painting and to attain more structure and form in their structure , this was the conflicting point of the two sides hence prompted a shift. The post impressionist movement individuals were not also satisfied with the unimportant and useless with the main objective matter and the continuous loss of their structure in impressionists painting, this was led by Georges Seurat as he did not agree with the use of small and tiny dots of colour The major causes of shift based unique and different analysis basing on then notions of optical and colour theories. In addition, the way impressionist handled pigment and imagery was also criticised hence led to splitting. Other reasons that were outlined by post impressionist was to come up with artistic that was solid and durable for example those painting in the museum. This was emphasized by Paul Cézanne Work Cited Pancaldi, Giuliano. Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2003. Print. Rosenthal, Léon. Romanticism. New York: Parkstone Press International, 2008. Print. Read More