My Essay

        "The philosophes of the Enlightenment stood on the shoulders of the men of the Scientific Revolution." The scientists of this period rejected the old world view of Aristotle and Ptolemy. They discovered that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe. Skepticism became a popular thought, and truth was sought through the laws of nature.

        Isaac Newton's discoveries established the principles of the Enlightenment. Through his experiments, he determined that there were natural, unchangeable laws governed the universe. These laws were not only unchangeable, but also predictable. Rene Descartes in his Discourse on Method, stated that the first rule in deductive reasoning was "to never receive anything as a truth which I did not clearly know to be such." (1) Everything observed was not valid as a truth. Descartes also said "cogito ergo sum" ("I think therefore I am"), which defined his existence in life. Blaise Pascal in his book Pensees, compares man with nature. He discovered that in comparison to nature, man was nothing. Only God, the "Author" truly understood nature and the laws of the universe.

        Now that man was not considered the center of the universe according to the heliocentric theory by Copernicus, new theories regarding the laws of the universe developed. Keplar discovered that planets moved in elliptical orbits around the sun. Galileo proved the heliocentric theory to be true through his telescopic observations. Deism was an outgrowth of Newton's natural laws. God was a clockmaker who created the perfect universe, which he does not interfere with. The Scientific Revolution led people to believe that through their own reasoning, they could discover any truth in the universe without the teachings of the church.

        The Enlightenment was an outgrowth of Isaac Newton's natural laws. If natural laws did exist, and humans could discover these laws, then they could design the ideal society to live in. Rationalism was an important force of Enlightenment thought. In The System of Nature, Baron d'Holbach described the ideal Enlightened man and that nature does act by uniform and invariable laws. (5) John Locke described these natural laws as the rights to life, liberty, and possessions, and the government could not take these rights away. The Enlightenment has also been called the "Age of Reason." Voltaire also played a dominant role during this time period. He completely rejected the Christian faith, which could not accurately explain the laws of nature. Diderot stated that reason is what determines the actions of the philosopher, not grace. He did not accept everything presented as a truth, but examined the source, and then adopted it as a truth when it seemed satisfactory. Since many of the philosophes lived in France, and French was the dominant culture of the eighteenth century, their ideas spread throughout Europe.

        However, the philosophes were more focused on social issues. Rousseau wanted to make social reforms. The Social Contract was written in order to establish a fair and just relationship between the ruling power and the governed. He believed that until the contract between the government and the people had been broken, each person still had his original rights. But, when man established the contract in the beginning, he lost natural liberty, but he gained a civil liberty. The ideas of Rousseau contained in his book were used to justify the French Revolution.

        The rationalism of the Scientific Revolution progressed into the "Age of Reason." Humans viewed themselves differently, since they were no longer the center of the universe. New truths regarding nature and the physical sciences led to new developments in the political sciences, such as politics and economics. Natural laws discovered by Newton influenced John Locke and the other major philosophes, and these ideas later justified the French Revolution.

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