“The Scientific Revolution, The Age of Enlightenment and The Revolutionary Era”
Prior to the late seventeenth century the church had power over the university, and at the time science was accepted on faith. As was discussed in lecture the way the world and the universe, social and political beliefs were all based on God and how God wanted things to be. So moving into the late seventeenth and eighteenth century two major events took place that challenged the way things had always been and that was the scientific revolution and the age of enlightenment. The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment had a major impact in America and Europe during the revolutionary era which was a period in which a number of revolutions occurred and brought changes in government and politics and major changes to society.
The scientific revolution began in Europe in the late seventeenth century and brought the break of church and the universities. The re-emergence of reason and the elimination of faith gave way to the scientific method. Faith was no longer used as a mode in scientific discoveries. This lead to new developments in the areas of mathematics, biology, astronomy, and physics. These discoveries helped to change the views of society and nature. If science could unfold the mysteries of the universe and nature it could reveal the laws that govern people and society, as discussed in lecture which lead the movement known as The Age of Enlightenment. By the end of the eighteenth century the scientific revolution had given way to the “Age of Reason.”
The enlightenment was also known as the age of reason. It was an intellectual movement by the philosophes in the late seventeenth century and popularized in the eighteenth century. The movement was based on reason rather than tradition. Some philosophes that had a major impact on the movement were Locke, Newton, Rousseau and Adam Smith. What these philosophes did was apply the scientific method too all aspects of life. It was John Locke that believed people are a bundle of impressions, and although we may be bad we are not born that way. He believed that we are ingrained to be that way. He also rigidified the class structure. He also believed that if taught society could be self-governed. He also believed in equality at birth. Also, that in society we are all bound by the laws of nature. We are free to do what we please but we are still bound by the laws of nature and as long as we abide by them, we live.
Now the period known as the revolutionary era was also in the late seventeenth century just following the Seven Year War. This was a