The Scientific View of the World

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The Scientific View of the World
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• 17th C, a Century of Genius
• Consequences of the Scientific Revolution
• -Changed the size of populations
• -Changed the use of raw materials
• -revolutionized production, transportation,war

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Science before the 17th

• DaVinci dissected human body
• Knowledge of anatomy
• Drew designs for submarines, airplanes
• A lot of his work remained unpublished he was
  an artist

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• Europe beginning to be very thoughtful on the
  other hand a great deal of skepiticism
• Think back to Descartes and Bacon

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Scientific Revolution

• Conception of the Cosmos Ptolemy
• Universe made up of spheres crystals
• All revolved around the earth
• Nearest the earth was the sphere of the moon
• Beyond the sphere of fixed stars lay Empryean
• Home of angels and immortal spirits

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Nicolas Copernicus

• 1473-1543
• Revolution on the Heavenly Orbs
• Argues that the sun is the center of the Universe
• All could be solved through mathematics

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• Johannes Kepler
• Carried the Copernican theory one step farther
• He discovered the orbit of the planets
• Elliptical

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Galileo

• 1564-1642
• 1609 he built a telescope
• Observed the moon and argued it was not an orb
• Looked to have a mountainous surface

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• He also argued that the moon reflected the sun,
  different phases of reflection
• Not itself a luminous object
• Made up of earth like substance and maybe all
  of the planets
• Gravity test 10 lbs ball and 1 lbs ball from
  leaning tower of Pisa

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Achievements of Newton

• Universal Gravitation
• -tides could be understood and predicted
• Naval and merchant ships could operate with more
  assurance
• 1st time, accurate idea of shape and size of all
  the continents

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• Developed ideas and calculus
• -curves and trajectories
• Lead to efficiency in artillery
• Consequence- made military budgets increase
• Lead to increased taxes
• Increased firearms led to increased efficiency in
  insurrections
• Led to increased strength of state

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• This gave Europe an advantage over other nations
• Development of Steam Engines
• Led to increased industrial and agricultural
  production

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• Another consequence Everything seemed possible
  to humans
• -they all continued to believe in the existence
  of God but dependency on Divine Powers began to
  disappear
• Greatly secularized European Society
• New School of Political Thought develop School
  of Natural thought and the Enlightenment

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Political Theory

• Cannot be treated as science
• Science deals with what does exist, political
  theory deals with what OUGHT to exist
• We always deal with what ought to happen

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Machiavelli

• Original thinker to propose what ought to exist
• He separated himself from the moral and
  theological philosophy, and dealt with politics
• He described how rulers and governments ought to
  actually behave
• We saw this wearing masks

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• He separated himself from moral philosophy, and
  took a scientific approach to politics

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Natural Right and Natural Law

• Focused on the question of what is right?
• Natural law in the structure of the world,
  there is a law that distinguishes right from
  wrong.
• Right is natural, not a human invention
• This right is not determined , for any country,
  by its heritage, traditions, or customs
• Not determined either by actual laws (positive
  laws)

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• Positive laws can potentially be unfair or unjust
• We compare positive laws with what we know about
  natural laws
• Ie, we know cannibalism is bad, and forcing
  orphaned children to work in mines is unjust

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• Natural law is not determined by one person, a
  king cannot determine what is right or wrong
• They are universal, the same for all

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How do we discover natural law?

• We discover it by reason
• People argue that all people are rational
• Idea of natural law and faith in human reason go
  hand in hand
• Good example of this is international law, which
  argues that all countries should work together
  for a common good

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Hobbes and Locke

• Natural law has been used to justify both
  constitutionalism and absolutist governments
• These forms of government were found to be a
  means to an end
• How to best obtain natural laws
• Hobbes absolute monarch
• Locke -Constitutionalism

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Hobbes

• Argued that human beings have no capacity for
  self government
• View of human nature low
• State of nature quarrelsome and turbulent
• life in the state of nature was solitary, poor,
  nasty, brutish and short
• From fear of each other, and to obtain order,
  people came to form a contract

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• Individuals surrender their freedom of action
  into the hands of a ruler
• This ruler must have unconditional and absolute
  power
• This to maintain order

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• No one can question the government, this would
  open the door for chaos again
• Leviathan
• Absolutism would produce civil peace, individual
  security, and the rule of law
• This was the only way to achieve natural law

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John Locke

• Government develops because humans are rational
• Government also based on a contract
• Better view of human nature
• In the state of nature, people were reasonable
  and well behaved
• Willing to get along with eachother

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• They also had a general idea of certain rights,
  life, liberty and property
• Problem in the state of nature is people cannot
  protect all of their natural rights, specifically
  property
• Set up government to protect this

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• Contract not absolute people must be
  reasonable, and the government cannot break the
  contract
• You have the right to rebel against it

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Influences

• Hobbes absolute monarchs in France
• Locke American and French Revolution
• Slavery