| Assess the validity of the following statement: The philosophes of the Enlightenment stood on the shoulders of the men of the Scientific Revolution. |
| In place of
the multitude of precepts of which logic is composed, I believed I should find the four
following rules quite sufficient, provided I should firmly and steadfastly resolve not to
fail of observing then in a single instance. . . The first rule was to never receive anything as a truth which I did not clearly know to be such. . . the second rule was to divide every difficulty which I should examine into as many parts as possible. . .The third rule was to conduct my thoughts in an orderly manner, beginning with objects the most simple and the easiest to understand, in order to ascend as it were by steps to the knowledge of the most composite . . . The last rule was to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so comprehensive, that I should be certain of omitting nothing. The Discourse on Method |
| Rule I: We
are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to
explain their appearances. To this purpose the philosophers say that Nature does nothing in vain, and more is in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity, and affects not the pomp or superfluous causes. Principia Mathematica |
| . . .But
Nature, on the other hand, is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws
imposed upon her, or cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operations
are understandable to men. For that reason it appears that nothing physical which
sense-experience set before our eyes, or which necessary demonstrations prove to us, ought
to be called in question upon the testimony of biblical passages which may have different
meaning beneath their words. For the Bible is not chained in every expression to
conditions as strict as those which govern all physical effects; nor is God any less
excellently revealed in Nature's actions than in sacred statements of the Bible. . . Discoveries and
Opinions of Galileo |
| Let man
then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and exhausted majesty. . . Returning to
himself, let man consider what he is compared with all existence; let him think of himself
as lost in his remote corner of nature; and from this little dungeon in which he find
himself lodged-I mean the Universe. . .What is a man in the infinite?. . . For, after all, what is a man in nature? A nothing in comparison with the infinite, an absolute in comparison with nothing, a central point between nothing and all. . . . All things emerge from nothing and are borne onward to infinity. Who can follow this marvelous process? The Author of these wonders understands them. None but He can. Pensees |
| The
enlightened man, is his maturity, in his perfection; who is capable of pursuing his own
happiness; because he has learned to examine, to think for himself, and not to take that
for truth upon the authority of others. . .It necessarily results, that man in his
researches ought always to fall back on experience, and natural philosophy: These are what
he should consult is his religion--in his morals--in his legislation--in his political
government-in the arts-in the sciences-in his pleasures-in his misfortunes. Experience
teaches that Nature acts by simple, uniform, and invariable laws. It is by his senses man
is bound to this universe by Nature. . . The System of Nature |
| . . .Reason
is in the estimation of the philosopher what grace is to the Christian. Grace determines
the Christian's action; reason the philosopher's. . . . The philosopher forms his principles upon an infinity of individual observations. The people adopt the principle without a thought of the observations which have produced it, believing that the maxim exists, so to speak, of itself; but the philosopher takes the maxim to the source, he examines its origin, he knows its real value, and only makes use of it, if it seems to him satisfactory. . . . The philosopher is then an honest man, actuated in everything by reason, one who joins to the spirit of reflection and of accuracy the manners and qualities of society. The Philosophe |
| . . .
Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up
into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set
over itself, with this express or tacit trust, that it shall be employed for their good
and preservation of their property… . . . So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man's hands in the state of nature . . . it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the member of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes… Second Treatise on Government |
| . . . The
clauses of this contract are so determined by the nature of the act that the slightest
modification would make them vain and ineffective. . . until on the violation of the
social compact, each regains his original rights and resumes his natural liberty, while
losing the conventional liberty in favour of which he renounced it. . . . What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and proprietorship of all he possesses. The Social Contract |