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| | | | | Humanities in the Western Tradition , First Edition
Marvin Perry, Baruch College, City University of New York, Emeritus
J. Wayne Baker, University of Akron
Pamela Pfeiffer Hollinger, The University of Akron
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| | Review Questions
Chapter 17: The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment: Intellectual Transformations
- What medieval view of the universe was challenged by the thinkers of
the Scientific Revolution?
- How did the Renaissance prepare the way for the Scientific Revolution?
- What model of the universe did Copernicus introduce? In what ways did
it represent a Platonic alternative to the medieval model?
- What are Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and on what earlier ideas
are they based? How do they represent the effort to conceive of the universe
in terms of Pythagorean harmony? What were his laws unable to explain?
- What are Newton's laws of motion, and how do they fully realize the Pythagorean
and Platonic principles of the Scientific Revolution? What further contributions
to science did Newton make? What role does God play in Newton's universe?
- What did Bacon and Descartes contribute to scientific method? How do
their approaches to rational inquiry complement each other?
- What implications did the Scientific Revolution have for the Christian
understanding of existence, and how did Pascal articulate these implications?
What effect did the Scientific Revolution have on European intellectual culture?
- How did the Enlightenment philosophes try to apply the principles and
methods of the Scientific Revolution to human society? What did they hope
to accomplish in doing so?
- What did Hobbes and Locke contribute to political theory and epistemology?
How did their ideas influence those of the philosophes?
- What was the philosophes’ view of traditional Christianity, and what
did they propose to take its place? How did deism try to reestablish Christianity
on rational scientific principles? What role did Voltaire, Diderot, and Paine
play in the philosophe attack on Christianity, and how did they seek to advance
freedom of conscience and thought?
- Who were the leading political theorists among the French philosophes?
What ideas did they advance concerning human nature and the best form of government?
- What contributions did the Enlightenment thinkers make to economics,
psychology, education, and social reform?
- What was the Enlightenment view of progress, and on what principles
was it based? Who most notably articulated that view and in what terms?
- What are the core principles of the modern outlook as the philosophes
articulated them?
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