HIST 1003 Chapter : The Enlightenment
Document Summary
Intro: fontenelle"s best seller left alone, and sit at a bench when it"s dark. Bernard fontenelle: frenchman who wrote a story of an aristocratic couple walking and talking in a garden; the garden begins to empty at dusk, they are start talking about astronomy (newtonian) In newtonian science, there was certainty: in this, we capture the enlightenment. Questions of religious truth: by the end of the century of crisis, a revulsion for fighting for religious truth comes about, relativism and skepticism, both unsettling. Impact of overseas explorations: confronted europeans with new cultures, confronted with relativism, sense of uneasiness and uncertainty. Destruction of the aristotelian (or ptolemaic) universe. Scientific model of the universe held their attention. Europeans turned to relief of this world. The triumph of newtonian revolution in the 17th century brought certainty to the 18th century. Confined to elite minority: was expanding rapidly and would have a revolutionary impact.
