Science and Enlightenment
"Mankind's final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error." Immanuel Kant (1784)
The Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution
During the period of renaissance it was strict to follow according to the biblical views if there was anyone going against it would be punished severely no matter how famous the person would be as religion was given more importance. Two most famous person who were under the trouble for their theoretical and scientific findings were Copernicus and Galileo (house arrested for his work). No one could refute back towards the biblical views. These restrictions and rigidity continued till enlightenment.
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But according historians this began in the 17th c with great minds like Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, and Galileo by their contributions about scientific thinking. As per this article the age of enlightenment begins with the Newton publication of principia (1687), and came to an end during French revolution and industrial revolution in England. Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727), came up with a physical model of universe that replaced the ancient Greek model through systems of gravity, mechanics and human thought …show more content…
Trade and commerce replaced agriculture, which largely became outsourced to the colonies and the New World. Europe, after the earlier deprivations of plague, famine and war, transformed into rich and abundant societies, with more time devoted to the pleasures of life. As was the case with the Greeks and Islamic scholars, this allowed resources to be channeled into academia and research. The Age of Enlightenment was characterized by optimism, a feeling that humanity could change the world and rectify any mistakes of the past. Rather than Aristotelian metaphysics and abstract musings about the philosophical framework of the universe, philosophers began to look at the nature of knowledge itself, throwing out theology and understanding that humanity could influence nature rather than be subject to the whims of fickle Gods. Knowledge served humanity, not religion, and the ideas of original sin and asceticism declined. According to the Enlightenment philosophers, man was governed by Natural Law, not archaic commandments written in a pre-historic book, and science expanded, away from the strongholds of physics, astronomy, natural science and alchemy/chemistry into economics, social science and political science. This trend was an offshoot of