European History Essay

When questioned in regards to the discernment, an individual may give the general rendering that it was a time period ranging from the mid seventeenth to late 18th century that accentuate the cultivation of philosophical, noetic and cultural movements. However, they may non be aware of specific implications it had on former central powers much(prenominal) as the church. Although the scientific regeneration was a stepping stone to the destabilization of the church, it was the prescience that ultimately removed the church from the central control of cultural and intellectual life. The scientific revolution is a time period in storey roughly from 1500 to 1700 that is know as one where advances in europiuman mathematical, semipolitical and scientific thought occurred. A founding father of the scientific revolution was a polish scientist by the name of Nicholas Copernicus, whose conclusion that it was the sun, not the macrocosm that lies at the center of the solar system, wa s a direct contradiction to the church, which powerfully believed the vice-versa or the Geo-Centric theory. (Merriman,290)It was this initiating step that led other scientists to further question and examination traditional church beliefs. An example of this is Galileo Galilee and his creation of a telescope that would body forth the geocentric theory, although for which he was decreed a heretic and put nether house arrest. (Merriman 296) In the Crime of Galileo Indictment and Abjuration of 1633 we hobo direct see Galilees theories being refuted by the church in the hobby quote The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and obstinate from its place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical because it is expressly contrary to holy Scriptures The proposition that the earth is not the center of the world, nor immovable, however that it moves, and besides with a diurnal action, is also absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically considered, at least incorrect in faith.Therefore We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo . . . have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy. (2)Here we can see the church counter-arguing Galilees theory by stating that it contradicts the Holy Scriptures, the biblical text that virtually controlled how individuals understand the world. Through Galileos thoughts individuals became further to see the world through measurable means such(prenominal) as experiments and evidence, as oppose to biblical texts that told otherwise. It was only after scientific discoveries such as the one above that philosophers started questioning the inhering world. It was discoveries such as the one above that influenced great thinkers such as Isaac Newton, whose discoveries altered not only scientific thought but views about religion for decades to come. (Merriman,300) A Prussian philosopher by the name of Immanuel Kant, who lived from the mid seventeen hundreds to the early cardinal hundreds, was influenced by these ideas of empiricism and case. In his 1784 publication What is Enlightenment Immanuel Kant writes Sapere aude (Dare to know)Have resolution to use your own reason. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for meI need not incommode myself. I need not think, if I can only buckle under others will easily undertake the irksome work for me. (1-2) This can be interpreted that Kant is advising individuals to use their own sense of logic and to understand the natural world. Here, we can see that traditional church ideas are being pushed outdoor(a) for ones of a logical nature, hence a church that is surely losing its mesmerize on the people of Europe. This idea of tradition church ideas being replaced can be further seen in Kants writing when he states The thresh of men from their self-incurred tutelage chiefly in matters of religion because our rulers have no interest in playing guardian with re spect to the arts and sciences and also because religious incompetence is not only the most harmful but also the most degrading of all. (12)The interpretation that can be derived from this is that Kant believes that church officials have no concern for the development of man and wish for them to catch ones breath uneducated about the world in which they reside. Moreover, the argument can be made is that because the churchs negligence in accepting evolving scientific theories, people came to understand that the need to stray from church beliefs in dedicate to grasp their own sense of understanding was unmistakable, therefore ultimately decrease the churches once high standing in the lives of early Europeans. The scientific revolution, a corner stone for mankind, whose implications are being felt to this very day, was in extension responsible for the development of a time period known as the enlightenment.Characterized as a movement of philosophical, cultural, and intellectual gain s, in addition the enlightenment was responsible for the decentralization of church power in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Scientist such as Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilee, and Isaac Newton influenced individuals through their theories which stressed using empirical evidence and reasoning to define the world they know in. It was through these ideas that Europeans came to understand the Churchs denial to accept reason and empiricism, decentralizing the churches ones great grasp over society.Works-CitedKant, Immanuel. What is Enlightenment? Internet Modern History Sourcebook. 15 November 2012. http//www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kant-whatis.html. Merriman, John. A biography of Modern Europe From the Renaissance to the age of Napoleon. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. London W.W.Norton and confederacy Inc., 2010. N. pag. Print. The Crime of Galileo Indictment and Abjuration of 1633. . Web. 15 Nov. 2012. .