Scientific Revolution

Objective: I can explain how the scientific revolution impacted religious, political, and cultural institutions by challenging how people viewed the world.

Scientific Revolution The Enlightenment grew out of the scientific

revolution an intellectual movement that emphasized

studying the natural world and the heavens (space) rather than blindly accepting old ideas about these subjects.

Center of the Universe ??? Most Europeans believed the theory of the universe as

described by Ptolemy (Second Century A.D.). He stated that the earth was the center of the universe.

By the 1500s and 1600s, scientists began to question this commonly held belief.

The first, Nicolas Copernicus, who developed a theory that the sun was the center of the universe and the earth and other heavenly bodies (planets) revolved around it.

Galileo Galilei built the first telescope. Through it, he saw that the planets did indeed revolve around the sun.

Partner QuestionDescribe the difference

between the old theory on the center of the universe and the new theory on the center of the universe.

Significance The discovery contradicted the teachings

of the Roman Catholic Church, a major power in Western Europe.

Galileo

Partner Question Why might the Roman Catholic

Church be troubled by the new theory developed by Copernicus and proven by Galileo through the telescope? [Hint: Domino Effect]

Development of the Scientific Method Early 1600s Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes began to devise

new methods of explaining the natural world. The result was the development of the scientific

method—the study of the natural world by means of direct observation and experimentation.

This method enabled the English scientist Isaac Newton to develop a theory of gravity.

Significance The principles of the scientific method were soon

applied to the study of human behavior.

People began to use reason rather than faith to answer questions about human nature and society.

This way of thinking was so strong an influence on all kinds of intellectual activity in the 1700s that the period became known as the Age of Reason.

Partner Question Can you assess the value or importance of

using reason rather than faith in answering questions about human nature and society?

In other words, what is the value or importance of using reason rather than faith?

Church & State In medieval Europe, the church and the

state were closely linked. It was the duty of every political authority -- king, queen, prince or city councilman -- to support, sustain and nurture the church. With notable exceptions, the church reinforced the political authority of the states, and the states reinforced the authority of the church.

Church & State French churchman Jacques-Bénigne

Bossuet tutored Louis XIV's son in the principles of royal absolutism: "God establishes kings as his ministers, and reigns through them over the people. ... [K]ings are sacred because of their office; they are the representatives of the divine majesty.“ Divine Right

Partner QuestionExplain the concept of

divine right.

Partner QuestionExplain the concept of divine

right. Kings and queens have a God-given right to

rule and that rebellion against them is a sin. This belief was common through the seventeenth century and was urged by such kings as Louis XIV of France.