UGC 112 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Enlightened Despotism, Despotism, Denis Diderot
3 Dec 2017
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Section 10: kittis in northern finland -> pierre louis moreau de maupertuis, traditional western scientists -> assumed that earth was perfectly spherical. 17th century theorists -> earth distended at equator & flattened at the poles. French mapmakers working for king louis xiv -> world was football-shaped: french royal academy of sciences. Sent expeditions -> measure length of one degree along the surface of the circumference of earth: maupertuis -> eventually became disillusioned by science but inspired by nature. Believed that every truth was quantifiable & that every fact could be sensed. Letters on the progress of the sciences. Dreams & effects of hallucinatory drugs -> only way to learn what lay beyond the universe: mental pilgrimage between certainty & doubt, science & speculation, and rationalism. & religious revelation: great surge of optimism. Sufficiency of science: flickered -> 2nd half of 18th century. Power of feelings over reason & sensation over thoughts: embers remained.
