Comparing Galileo's Letter To Benedetto Castelli And John Locke

Traditional European social order held a much different thought process from the ideas shared in Galileo’s letter to Benedetto Castelli and john Locke in chapter IX from second treatise. Castelli and Locke were both ahead of their times with the ideas they shared. They both were front runners in the period of growth referred to as enlightenment or scientific revolution. Both men presenting ways of life beyond the normal flow and asking questions. Questions lead to answers which leads to progress. This kick started a series events that lead to modern day society but beforehand the traditional social order was the way of life. In this paper I will discuss how the society discussed in development 1.1 differs from Galileo’s letter to Benedetto

Old-fashioned society was traditionally divided into three estates or social classes. . The First Estate was the Church or clergy and they held a special status. They were usually favored by the government officials so luxuries were afforded. The second estate were the nobility. You could be born into nobility, or buy your way in but it was still reserved for the extremely fortunate. To gain more power some aristocrats or nobles would join the church to switch social classes. The last estate of course is the commoners; those who manufactured the food which supported the nobles and the clergy. They pretty much take on the grunt work of the kingdom while receiving very few reparations for said work.

Furthermore, Christendom was a time when people began to notice the large scale of corruptness that was enacted by those in power-the leaders of religion. The leaders of France formed a church that held political agendas and wealth over religion. The papacy of popes became less and less about God and more about gaining power and making sure the correct people pledged their allegiance. This inspired the division of Catholics and multi-grouped Protestants. Beforehand, early Christendom was pure and straight from the apostles as they set out on their mission to spread

He believes that the scriptures contain the word of god himself or his existence but that one must interpret the text correctly. He explains that nature and the bible both come from god but that it is important to know the differences. He says that the bible is written in common language and that its aim is salvation, however nature is written in mathematical language and its aim is knowledge. He says that they cannot contradict because they both derive from god. At the end he presents the heliocentric theory using the bible to prove the validity of his response. In traditional social order the clergy are the ones who interpret the text for the people so these teachings go completely against the normal order of things. He is giving power to the commoners because people who can interpret god’s word for themselves tend to pull more from it. The corruption of the clergy would start to dissolve as well once people began searching for religion without them.

Locke begins this chapter by asking, rhetorically, why any man would purposefully give up his liberties, such as being completely free and equal? He says that the answer is simple as it is to be safe living within the confines of a government. To get to this conclusion he explains how living in this state that we live in is very unsafe and unsecure. As any man is a king as much as the next. By being governed