Kathleen Crowther, Popular Science in the Enlightenment

The expression "Scientific Revolution" was actually coined by eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophers. But they used the term rather differently than I did in the last module (or than historians today generally use the term). Enlightenment thinkers believed that the Scientific Revolution began in the seventeenth century and that it was up to them to bring this Revolution to completion. Further, they believed that the Scientific Revolution had far reaching implications for all aspects of society and culture. They viewed the Scientific Revolution as the triumph of human reason over tradition, faith, and established authority. Thus the philosophers of the eighteenth century believed that the Scientific Revolution was changing all of human activity – not just the natural sciences. They believed that scientific advances could lead to improvement in politics and morals. Because science was strongly associated with progressive views, forward thinking, modernity, and the improvement of society, it attracted a much wider audience than it had in the past. Science became fashionable in a way that it was not in earlier centuries. Scientific literacy was a marker of membership in a cultural elite.

Science and scientific advancements were discussed and debated in “salons.” Salons were regular meetings at homes of wealthy hostesses where the latest developments in science (and literature and philosophy) were discussed. People would be invited to these salons based on their intellectual achievements rather than their social class. The women who hosted salons (“salonnieres”) prized intelligence and wit over status, and this allowed for an unprecedented mixing of social classes. In the eighteenth century, these scientific salons were the height of fashion, and invitations to them were highly sought after. By calling these salons “fashionable,” I do not mean to trivialize what went on there. The women who ran these salons were brilliant and highly educated. One of the most famous salonnieres was Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin, Baroness of Saint-Martin-de-Ré (1682 – 1749), a distinguished novelist and the mother of Jean d'Alembert, philosopher and contributor to the Encyclopédie. Women who ran salons in the eighteenth century functioned in much the same way directors of laboratories or research institutes do today. They decided who was admitted to the salon and who was not, they decided who was worthy of financial support and who was not, and they decided what philosophical, literary or scientific questions would be debated. (And they wore much nicer clothes than today’s research directors!) There was at this time no distinction between a “professional” and an “amateur” scientist (that distiction develops in the nineteenth century). Many salonierres, like Madame de Tencin (pictured below), were writers and intellectuals in their own right.

Another important indication of the widespread popularity of science was the translation of scientific works, especially Newton's physics, from Latin into various vernaculars.  One of the most important translations of Newton’s Principia was the French translation made Émilie du Châtelet (her full name was Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet) (1706 –1749) (pictured below). Her translation was published posthumously in 1759. Du Châtelet was in the vanguard of French mathematicians and physicists who accepted Newton’s work. French scientists, for overtly nationalistic reasons, were reluctant to abandon the Cartesian physics of their countryman Rene Descartes for the Englishman Isaac Newton’s physics. Du Châtelet’s translation, and her physical researches, were instrumental in converting the French to Newtonianism. For more on this important early Newtonian physicist, click here to read about the Feminist Newtonian Links to an external site..

While people like Émilie du Châtelet translate important scientific works into more accessible languages than Latin, others adapted scientific works for less mathematically sophisticated audiences. Two wonderful examples of the popularization of science in the eighteenth century are books on Newtonian physics for children and for “ladies.” The first of these is Tom Telescope, The Newtonian System of Philosophy Adapted to the Capacities of young Gentlemen and Ladies, and familiarized and made entertaining by Objects with which they are intimately acquainted (London: 1761). (If you are interested, you can read the complete text of Tom Telescope on the Newton Project Links to an external site. website. This is optional!) The second is Francesco Algarotti (1712-64), Il newtonianismo per le dame ovvero dialoghi sopra la luce e i colori (Naples, 1737), or (in English) “Newtonianism for ladies.” This book, originally written in Italian, was translated into English as Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy Explained for the use of Ladies, in six dialogues on Light and Colours (London, 1739). (If you are interested, and read Italian, a complete digital version of the original is available through the University of Bologna, International Centre for the History of Universities and Science Links to an external site.. A complete version of the English translation is available on Google Books Links to an external site.. Again, this is optional!)

In the eighteenth century public lectures on scientific topics became a popular form of entertainment (or maybe “edutainment” would be a better descriptor). Many of these lectures included spectacular demonstrations of physical phenomena. For example, the English scientist Stephen Gray (1666–1736) conducted a series of experiments on electricity, and also gave wildly popular and much imitated public lectures in which he displayed electrical phenomena. The highlight of his lecture/show was the “electrified boy.” Gray suspended a small boy from ceiling and electrified his body by conduction. Amazed audiences watched as the child attracted objects as if by magic with all parts of his body. (For images of this demonstration, see the Science as Spectacle Links to an external site. page of MIT Special Collections.)  Electricity was a lively area of research in eighteenth-century physics, as well as a popular spectacle. Although electrical phenomena like lightening had long been observed, it was not until the 1730s that experimenters demonstrated that ALL substances (including the human body as in Gray’s electrified boy experiment) could be electrified. This made electricity central to physics because it was recognized as a property of all matter. In 1743, the American statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin saw Gray’s electrified boy demonstration at a lecture in Boston and was inspired to begin studying electricity and making his own experiments.