Click for a "pdf" print-friendly version of this file HUM 3306 (online): History of Ideas--The Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Anxiety Summer A 2007/ Profs. Harvey & Fantina THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION & THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION THAT PRECEDES THE ENLIGHTENMENT First, let’s get a sense of the vast sweep of history: Historical Era Labels (dates are rough) Medieval (900-1300)…Renaissance (1300-1650)…Enlightenment (1680-1780)…Romantic (1780-1830)...Victorian (1830-1900)…Modern Buildings & Work castles............................................................factories........................................................................malls feudal relations……..............................................................wage slavery/industrial capitalism.................consumerism Human Waste/Sanitation into the moat or woods.............................gutters...........sewers........................................flush toilets.................. Tools of War swords…………………………………guns/cannon…………………………...................….......gatling gun……......………………..............rockets Coffee ……………… why the Renaissance was so creative…….urban coffee/newspaper culture ……….....….....……............……Beat Generation Famous, Representative Artists/Thinkers Chaucer………………….Shakespeare………………………….Ben Franklin…………John Keats…….......……..Dickens....................Andy Warhol Some of my items above are intended to be whimsical, but that said: you'd know a lot about cultural history if you really understood the castle/factory/mall sequence! Now, ponder the Medieval to Renaissance theological worldview that preceded the scientific worldview, which the Enlightenment era introduced.  The main component of the former worldview is known as the Great Chain of Being, which organized all of nature/the cosmos by hierarchy rather than scientific objectivity: E-text: Great Chain of Being "Wiki" article & illustration   ● The hierarchy covers the entirety of creation and being(s), from rocks and turnips (yes, that's right; even vegetables are ranked!) to angels.  It is divinely determined, which means power relations and positions within the hierarchy cannot be questioned. ● Supernatural God, although “above” fallen nature, nonetheless intervenes or extends Godhood everywhere.  The vast spread of creation that falls below the total perfection of God becomes by degrees less perfect and comparatively inferior—man has a weakened degree of God’s reason; animals lack reason (and women, being daughters of Eve, have less reason than men!).  Some minerals—diamonds—have more "virtue" (a Renaissance term that combines our sense of "power" and "excellence" and "status") than others; trees are better than shrubs; horses are better than swine, etc.  Satan is defined as “evil” but also as the final nadir, the complete antithesis of God’s plentitude. ● The self is viewed in terms of caste-like, status-quo hierarchies (king... knight...peasant); not capitalistic possessive selfhood—in which one, as a free entrepreneur, acquires property/wealth and is a free-agent in one's destiny.    Let's now more methodically distinguish what the three cultural period labels--the Scientific Revolution, the Protestant Reformation, and the Enlightenment--mean.  Read the brief Encarta articles below, which provide important background to understanding the Enlightenment era.  The links take you to printable texts; click on the icons at the top right corner of these pages to view multi-media versions of the essays: E-text--Encarta: Scientific Revolution E-text--Encarta: Reformation E-text--Encarta: Enlightenment