Unit Three: the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightement

Unit Three: the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightement

Unit Three: The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

World History 10 - Mr. Hadbavny

Essential questions

How did the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment change the European worldview?

What are the strengths and shortcomings of the worldview that emerged from the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment?

Readings

Mini Unit 2: The Enlightenment

Day 1: A World Bright under the Lamp of Reason - Emergence and Spread

Due: McKay 538-541; Questions: What is the Enlightenment? In what three ways did the Scientific Revolution contribute to the development of Enlightenment ideas? What does Bernard de Fontenelle’s book Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds suggest about the people and values of the Enlightenment? What three factors contributed to a growing dissatisfaction with the idea of the absolute certainty of knowledge? How what role did John Locke play in this? Who were the philosophes? What did they believe was their role in society? How have their efforts been viewed by modern scholars? What contribution did the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Madame du Châelet make to society during the Enlightenment? How did Voltaire’s view of humanity differ from that of Montesquieu? How did the philosophe’s Encyclopedia represent the culmination of their efforts?

Day 2: Cracks in Reason’s Lamp – The Later Enlightenment and Urban Culture

Due: McKay,542-545; Questions: How did Paul d’Holbach and David Hume contribute to the breakdown of the Enlightenment project? How did Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideas begin to react against the Enlightenment? What was the impact of the Enlightenment on the culture of print? What were salons and what role did women play in the dissemination of Enlightenment ideas?

Day 3:Enlightened Despots? The Enlightenment and Absolutism

Due: McKay, 546- 552 (skip section on Austrian Habsburgs); Questions: What were the views of Enlightenment thinkers on government? How did they react to the reality of Absolutism in Europe? How did Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great attempt to incorporate Enlightenment ideas into their government? How did Louis XV and Louis XVI react to the Enlightenment? How has modern scholarship interpreted the efforts of enlightened despots?

Day 4: Immanuel Kant – What is Enlightenment?

Due: Handout – Kant, What is Enlightenment

Day 5: Political Thought in the Enlightenment 1 – Montesquieu

Due: Handout – Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

Day 6: Political Thought in the Enlightenment 2 –Voltaire

Due: Handout – Voltaire, Political Essays

Day 7: Enlightened Despotism – Frederick the Great

Due: Article on Frederick the Great

Day 8: Education in the Enlightenment – Rousseau

Due: Handout – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile

Day 9: Salon (c. 1st week in December)

Day 10: Quiz