Scientific Revolution Dbq Essay

Natalie DiMichele
In our society today, individual thought is highly valued and essential for progress in the world. However, there was a time when thinking outside of the box could’ve led to eternal damnation. During the Middle Ages, everyone’s understanding of the world and our place in it was taught to them by the Catholic Church. Very few people challenged the Catholic Church’s beliefs due to a lack of education and fear of the Church’s harsh punishments. After the emergence of the Renaissance, the cultural rebirth of society, there was a revival of knowledge and a change in thought. The Scientific Revolution also began during this period and was a huge change in thought that started in 1543. The Revolution highlighted the importance of

They started to suspect that absolute monarchs did not have a divine right to be in their positions and thought about another way of distributing power. Nicolai Copernicus was one of the first people to use logic and reasoning to challenge the old way of thinking. Document one is a model by Nicolai Copernicus released in 1543. The model depicts a heliocentric or sun-centered solar system. The sun is in the middle and the planets orbit in a circle around it. The Copernican theory directly challenged the idea that was widely accepted by the Church. That idea was an Earth-centered universe that Aristotle and Ptolemy had created nearly 2,000 years before. The heliocentric theory took nearly a century to be accepted by everyone as the Catholic Church heavily disagreed with it. In regards to forming a new government, enlightenment thinkers criticized the government rather than saying that it was wrong. Document six is a contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau that states: “The individual member alienates himself totally to the whole community together with all his rights.” Rousseau’s main idea is that everyone should feel safe, happy, and equal even if it means sacrificing personal joy for the good of society. If these things are not present then the community does not work. The contract

This is called the scientific method and has been used not only in fields of science but also in politics and government. Document three is a model of the scientific method from 1999. The model consists of the 7 steps of this process. One: state the problem, two: collect information, three: form a hypothesis, four: experiment, five: record and analyze data, six: state a conclusion, seven: repeat the steps. The method was built using logic and reason to get from one step to the next. The seven steps ensure that the experiment has accurate results and is a guide that all scientists use to test theories. This was essential to further think about why things happen rather than using God to explain them. Enlightenment thinkers used a similar method to solve the problem of absolute monarchs. Most believed that power shouldn't be in the hands of one but should belong to the people. Document seven is a book by Montesquieu. It states, "the political liberty of the subject is a tranquility of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite for the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another." Montesquieu believed that power should be divided into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The government as it was had one monarch in charge of all three branches. For life liberty