Lesson 2: Science and the Enlightenment

In the eighteenth century, in both Europe and America, science came to have a much more important status than it had in earlier periods.  The pace of scientific advancement was more rapid than in earlier periods; more people were interested in science than before; and science was connected to progress, both technological and social, in a way that it had never been before.  The new status of science was part of abroad intellectual, political, social and cultural movement known as the Enlightenment.  The first reading for this lesson is an essay on the Enlightenment from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  It gives a broad overview of the Enlightenment.  You are only required to read the introduction and the first section of the essay on science in the Enlightenment.  Although I think this essay is a nice introduction to the Enlightenment, it is in many ways very traditional.  The Enlightenment you will encounter in this essay is exclusively male and exclusively European.  While the author (William Bristow) notes that the topic of "human nature" was hotly debated in the eighteenth century, he makes no mention of debates about gender and race.  And yet, if the mind and the body are totally separate, as Descartes would have us believe, was their any reason to believe that the mind of a woman was inferior to that of a man, or that the mind of an African was inferior to that of a European?  In the next lesson we will take up the topics of gender and race in the Enlightenment, but I wanted to get you started thinking about these topics ahead of time.

In addition, you have two readings (by Susan Price and Paula Findlen) on women's contributions to Enlightenment science and philosophy, and a short piece by me on "Popular Science in the Enlightenment" that also takes up the topic of female participation in science in the 18th century.

Finally, you have an essay by Martin Rudwick on "natural history" in the Enlightenment. While the other readings primarily concentrate on the mathematical sciences in the 18th century, Rudwick describes the study of the organic world. "Natural history" as a practice has clear affinities with the modern study of "biology" but it isn't exactly the same thing. Pay attention to the similarities and differences.

Readings:

1) William Bristow, "Enlightenment" (introduction and first section ONLY)

2) Susan Price, "Reviving the Female Canon"

3) Paula Findlen, "Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy"

4) Martin Rudwick, "Picturing Nature in the Age of Enlightenment"

5) Kathleen Crowther, "Popular Science in the Enlightenment"

Learning Activities:

1) Examine the frontispiece of the Encyclopédie.  You can access a high quality digital version through the ARTFL Encyclopédie Project.  Be sure you can identify each of the figures in the image.

Assignments:

1) Quiz

2) Small group discussion: Analyzing the frontispiece of the Encyclopedia

3) Class forum: Practicing science in the Enlightenment