Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment: intellectual developments and influence

Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment

Scientific Revolution is considered as the process by which "new ideas and methods of science challenged modes of thought associated with medieval times and Scholasticism" (Kagan, 1995:514). This social change brought within new ideologies such as the application of rational and scientific thought in the pursuit for intellectual development.

The social change that is the Scientific Revolution differed from 16th century notions of science and intellectual development. Prior to this social and intellectual movement, there is a general agreement that the Earth was the center of the universe, which was derived from Ptolemy's work on the solar system (also called the Ptolemaic system). The Ptolemaic system's earth-centric view of the universe is parallel with the Christian belief that the earth is the center of the universe that God created.

However, in the middle of 16th century, new scientific thought had pervaded Western society, and through Nicolaus Copernicus, humankind became informed of the fact that contrary to Ptolemy and Christianity's claims of an earth-centric universe, he (Copernicus) declared that the sun was actually the center of the universe, with the earth as one of the planets revolving around it. Although he lived a life of condemnation for opposing the Church, Copernicus opened the doors for new scientific discoveries and thought to prevail during the Scientific Revolution. Another important individual who had made significant contributions to the Scientific Revolution is Isaac Newton, whose subsistence to empiricism allowed him to establish the laws governing the force of gravity, another discovery that illustrates how empirical thinking leads to the acquisition of new knowledge and intellectual development.

The Enlightenment period, which flourished during the 17th century, is defined as the gradual shift of societies from traditional-agricultural to modern-industrial, as well as the rise of natural and social sciences as the domains in which truth and knowledge can be discovered and obtained, respectively (Preston, 1997:31).

Two of the most important proponents were the French philosophes, Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose great contributions to the Enlightenment lead to the development of liberal democracy characterized among modern societies at present.

Montesquieu's discourse, entitled, "The Spirit of the Laws," provided objective and insightful propositions for reforms as societies change from being traditional to modern. According to him, the process towards social progress should be accompanied with material progress, which can only become possible if societies conduct a careful analysis of the factors for economic and political success (such as socio-demographic variables and economic and political structures of the society). These factors should be studied at the context of the extant structures of the society; the parallelism between the factors and structures shall lead to material, and eventually, social progress.