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Lecture Review Notes 3: 
The Enlightenment
1642  -  1789
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 The Pre-Enlightenment Era   
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     The Tenets of the Enlightenment   
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     The Effects of the Enlightenment   
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     Criticisms of the Enightenment   
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      The French Revolution            1789-1799   
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 Social Laws   
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 The Scientific Method   
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     The Qualities of the Scientific Method   
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     The History of the Development of the Scientific Method   
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 Montesquieu on the Scientific Method   

 
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Outline on the Pre-Ennlightenment Era circa 1300 - 1700
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   The Pre-Enlightenment Era  ( 1300 - 1700 ) was dominated by a theological ideology & by a feudalistic political -economic system  
  Social forces of religion, esp Protestantism, science & capitalism shattered Western Christian unity  
  Medieval science was teleological in that its purpose was to attain knowledge for the sake of God, to discover god's intentions  
  The weaknesses of mideval science & its bias is seen in the fact that Galileo was excommunicated & Marco Polo died poor and ignored in Italy  
  Perhaps we can never truly understand how medieval mind was dominated by the sacred, religion, the king & God & impact on other spheres of life, feudalism, wars, etc.  
  Before the Enlightenment, for the common person, life had barely changed since pre-historical times  
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 The English Revolution in 1642 was the 1st "democratic" revolution  
  The English Revolution was bloody, ruthless, encompassed extremely complicated political alliances, & lasted for a generation  
  The Enlightenment Era runs for approximately 100 yrs. from the English Revolution to the French Revolution, ( 1789 ) the aka Age of Reason; the Age of Rationalization  
  The Enlightenment was a time of the radicalism of religious skeptics, political reformers, cultural critics, historians, social theorists, et al  
  During this era, there was the emergence of the modern social institutions:  democracy; industrial revolution; urbanization; science  
  During the Enlightenment Era, a new philosophy called  material pragmatism, explored how to make life better through freedom, justice, equality, merit, etc.  
  During the Enlightenment people no longer asked questions about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or whether god could make a rock so big even he could not lift it as they did during the pre-Enlightenment Era  
  In the transition from the pre-Enlightenment to the Enlightenment Era, the Idealistic Phil of Rene Descartes, who is famous for his "I think, therefore I am" quote, et al, shifted to a more materialist, scientific method dominated paradigm  
  The French based their enlightened philosophy on the natural & physical sciences of their time as seen in Newton whose ideas were based on the assumption of universal order & law in the material world  
   The Enlightenment Era ushered in Modernity after the 'Dark Ages' w/ the forward looking view, emphasizing:
  - reason
  - scientific rationality
  - creativity
  - novelty
  - progress		  
  After the ‘Dark Ages,’ the European Renaissance began along w/ the emergence of pure capitalism  
  The Enlightenment was centered in France & England & was encouraged by the European explorations  
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  The Enlightenment influenced Rousseau et al .... & today its ideals are still counter posed to traditional religious orthodoxy  

 
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English Revolution: 

1642 Civil War between King Charles and Cromwell
Charles beheaded in 1649
Parliament rules
1653 Charles takes over until his death in 1658
Richard Cromwell takes over
   -- revolutions restored Catholicism


 
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Influence of the Age of Reason 

Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire: influenced  leaders of the French Revolution
Locke influenced American revolution
They all accepted the idea of Francis Bacon, that Knowledge is Power. 
Most famous reference work was the French Encyclopedie, edited by Diderot, completed between 1751 & 1780


 
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Outline on the  Enlightenment & Modernity:
The Tenets of the Enlightenment
circa 1642 - 1789
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  -  Project:  The Enlightenment 
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  -  Project:  Which Aspects of the Enlightenment are Still Relevant Today? 
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  -  Video:  The French Revolution 
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  -  Project:  The French Revolution
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   There are TWELVE  tenets of the Enlightenment 
 
1.  "Worship" of Reason   7.  Scientific Method
2.  Religion Oppresses   8.  Rationality Overcomes Emotions
3.  Reason is Powerful   9.  Universal Rights
4.  Nature is Orderly 10.  Progress
5.  Universal Laws 11.  Social Sciences Shepherd Progress
6  Deism 12.  Individualism
 
  In the pre enlightenment period religion & nobility ruled the direction of govt, scholarship, & overall treatment of people.  This was to change.  Great thinkers like Galileo & Newton proposed new ideas that could be seen, measured, & proven w/ evidence.  The churches heliocentric view of the universe was challenged.  John Locke also championed new ideals of viewing humanity at the individual level.  No longer were people to be believed to be born as a finished product, but rather a product of their experiences & influenced by the world in which they grew & developed in (Goodwin, 2008, p. 64).   
  Four areas where significant change occurred were:  1. Religious:  a. Questioning of Catholic beliefs and Protestantism led to tolerance for new ideas. 2. Intellectual: a. Free intellectual inquiry resulted from widespread opposition to religious intolerance.  b. The French revolution led to 'age of reason'.  c.  Educational institutions free of religious allegiance also spread.  3. Economic:  a. Industrial revolution, move away from agrarian fiefdoms led to an increasingly wealthy, independent and educated middle class.  4. Political:  a. Nation states emerged, ruled by kings and parliaments that only paid lip service to religious rule.  b. Parties and factions which have legitimate differences of opinion (Goodwin, 2008, p. 64).   
  1.  WESTERN SOCIETY "WORSHIPS" REASON:  SCIENCE ALLOWS US TO EXAMINE EVERYTHING 
 
 
 Western Society elevated reason / science so that it was the organizing principle for life
 
 
 For some reason displaces religious worship, but for most, it supplements religious worship
 
  The Enlightenment philosophers believed that given the advancement of knowledge, it's only a matter of time until people learned to let reason, not ignorance, emotion, or superstition, guide them and then people/society can would find happiness/harmony   
  We can know things beyond what holy men tell us  
  The Enlightenment's embrace of reason & science heralds a new theory of knowledge or epistemology   
  2.  RELIGION CAN OPPRESS 
 
  Some could dare say in public:  "God is Dead"  but most people are still very religious  
  Religious leaders were accused of keeping people in ignorance in order to maintain their own personal power  
  The Enlightenment blamed people in authority, esp. the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, for keeping people in ignorance in order to maintain their own personal power  
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 3.  REASON / SCIENCE IS EXTREMELY POWERFUL 
 
  Enlightenment thinkers were influenced by discoveries in the physical sciences by such people as Galileo & Newton  
  For the Enlightenment philosophers, math yielded absolute truth since it was based on simple axioms (self evident truths), and then moved from one self evident step to another  
  For the Enlightenment philosophers, the mathematical / logical model was the model all the sciences should use  
  Reason is the power that allows one to “see” mathematical truths just as clearly as one's hand before one's eyes; the senses, however, yield only particular/contingent truths  
  4.  NATURE IS ORDERLY & KNOWABLE 
 
  See Also:  Montesquieu  
  Montesquieu was an important contributor to idea of Orderliness of Nature  
  For the Enlightenment philosophers, the nature is vast and complex, but well ordered  
  The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) described nature as “a mighty maze, but not without plan.”  
  The Enlightenment philosophers & Montesquieu believed all things could be explained according to few simple laws, e.g. gravitation  
  Montesquieu's  Spirit of the Laws (1748) is an example of of the simplicity, orderliness & knowableness of nature: “The material world has its laws, the intelligences superior to man have their laws, the beasts their laws, and man his laws.”  
  According to post modernists, the conception of the orderliness & knowableness of nature is incorrect  
  For the post modernists, the process of classification presupposes orderliness, so by the very act of classifying a scientist is proposing a solution which makes the science of the Enlightenment circular  
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 5.  THERE ARE UNIVERSAL LAWS 
 
  For the Enlightenment philosophers, there are laws for physical & social sciences & even for the divine  
  For the Enlightenment philosophers, the universal laws of the physical sciences applied even to god  
  Even god does not violate physical & social laws
Examples
- gravity
- conservation of matter & energy		  
 
 Everything in the world could be explained by a few simple laws
 
 
 See Also:  Social laws  
 
 6.  DEISM IS THE IDEA THAT GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE 
& THEN LEFT IT ALONE, RULING OUT THE POSSIBILITIES OF MIRACLES
 
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 See Also:  Science & religion
 
  For the Enlightenment philosophers, truth is good  
  During the age of the Enlightenment, people believed that the universe could be understood by the human mind  
  During the age of the Enlightenment, people believed that god could create a universe too complex to understand, but he did not  
  God designed the world, the Laws, so that they are knowable  
  Thus during the Enlightenment era, for the first time people began to believe that future events are predictable  
  The universe was a big clock that kept perfect time  
 
 7.  THE SCIENTIFIC METHODS EMERGES AS A POWERFUL CENTERPIECE OF SCIENCE   
  The scientific method could be applied to study of human nature  
  Philosophers organized knowledge in encyclopedias & founded scientific institutions  
  Many scientific institutes were formed, including the now famous Royal Society in England  
  With the development of science, came the development of the methods of induction & deduction  
 
 8.  RATIONALITY MUST OVERCOME EMOTIONS 
 
  People who act on impulse are doing so out of ignorance or lack of ed & refinement  
  Descartes thought that to become rational, a person need only acquire an ed that teaches a good method of reasoning  
  For Descartes, & other Enlightenment philosophers, people have rational will & the ability to wait  
  For Descartes, & other Enlightenment philosophers, animals are ruled by their emotions  
  For Descartes, & other Enlightenment philosophers, our big advantage over other animals is that we reason  
  9.  PEOPLE HAVE UNIVERSAL RIGHTS 
 
  The French Philosophers criticized church & state, pushing for the “rights of man”  
  The concept of inalienable rights in the US Constitution has roots in the Enlightenment:  ‘All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights: Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness’  
  For the French, during the Enlightenment, universal rights included freedom from arbitrary power, the freedom of speech, freedom of trade, & the freedom to realize ones talents  
  10.  THERE IS PROGRESS 
 
  Optimism!  
  At the time of the Enlightenment, life for the common people had barely changed from the hunter gatherer era, through pre ancient society, through Ancient Empires, through the early middle ages  
  Then w/ the Enlightenment, political & religious freedom inventions, & quality of life improved  
  W/ the positive changes of the Enlightenment, common people saw real progress for the first time in history  
  The positive changes that began w/ the Enlightenment have continued for approximately 300 yrs. now  
  11.  THE SOCIAL SCIENCES SHEPHERD PROGRESS 
 
  See Also: Saint Simon   1760 - 1825  
  Saint Simon held that the social sciences should become "the new religion" to unite all & establish modern society  
  The Chicago school (mid - late 1800s) establish the ideas that the social sciences could shepherd progress  
  The idea of the social science shepherding progress became fanatical for St. Simon & "a cause" for the Chicago School  
  The idea that the social sciences could shepherd progress has never been accepted by the public, but has occasionally been accepted by leaders  
  12.  INDIVIDUALISM IS A VALID PHILOSOPHY, A SUPERIOR PHILOSOPHY 
 
  The Enlightenment thinkers & the individualist philosophy as developed in this era connotes a different conception of individualism than we might address today in that they were contrasting individualism w/ the conception of the person that existed in traditional society where there was very little credence given to the importance of the common person to act or think on their own  

 
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3. Reason / science is powerful:
Galileo:  law of acceleration
Newton:  gravity:  attraction is proportional to mass 

A hand usually has five fingers, but  may not always. 
Five plus five is always ten


 
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5. Universal laws for physical & social sciences;     even the divine

Even god does not violate physical & social laws
Examples
- gravity
- conservation of matter & energy

There are no real social laws


 
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Science & Religion
Reason combined w/ observation is how we acquire truth
Truth is good; the good is god/grace
Sustained effort to bring together combination of rational philosophy & empirical philosophy
Bishop Berkeley & David Hume:  but senses cannot be trusted, therefore science cannot be trusted:  faith in god must be retained
Condillac:  combine reasoning & senses, & people are no longer passive, go created active people:  discovery is good/holy
Fr came to believe that there was an external order

 
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Outline on the  Effects of the Enlightenment & Modernity circa 1642 - 1789
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  The tenets of the Enlightenment are still influential & controversial today   
  Through days of Edison & the US rising to power in 1800s, scientists believed everything would be figured out in just a few more years   
  The British Royal Academy had the hubris to state at the end of the 1800s, that soon all the major scientific questions would be answered   
  Then, Darwin & evolution, Einstein, relativity & other questions emerged which have threatened to undo modernity & the Enlightenment   
  There are SIX major effects of Enlightenment lasted from 1600s to WW2 for common people including: 
1.  optimism 
2.  worship of progress 
3.  modernized landscapes 		 4.  the end of  want 
5.  industrialization 
6.  the birth of the media 
 
  1.  One of the effects of the Enlightenment is that the optimism of the West, as seen in the pre WW1 World's Fairs, dominated common & high culture   
  2.  One of the effects of the Enlightenment is that there was widespread intellectual movement that "worshipped" progress, & many common people agreed   
  3.  One of the effects of the Enlightenment is that the modern landscapes of Toronto, Chicago, NY, Paris superseded pre modern landscapes (feudal) London, Paris, Moscow   
  4.  One of the effects of the Enlightenment is that the compared to today, there was extreme optimism that science would solve all our problems & create the end of want:   pill food, atomic cars, robot workers, etc.   
  5.  One of the effects of the Enlightenment is that the industrialization transformed a large part of the world   
 
 6.  One of the effects of the Enlightenment is that the media was born 
 
 
 The Goal of the Enlightenment & Modernity is the maximization of rationality 
 
  The Enlightenment began the era of "Modernity"   
  The central issue in the modern world continues, as in Weber's time, to be rationality   
 
 Modernity:  the ideology/ school of thought: that through rationality, as embodied in the social sciences, that we can find a way to live together 
 
 
 For Habermas, we need the completion of modernity   
  Utopian goal of mod is still the maximization of rationality in both the "system" & the "life world" which are Jurgen Habermas' terms for work, ed, the 'fast world,' etc. & one's personal life   

 
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Outline on the  Criticisms of the Enlightenment circa 1642 - 1789
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  The NINE criticisms of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that: 
1.  the tenets of the Enlightenment are tautological
2.  the Enlightenment, according to Marx, supports capitalism & the capitalist ideology
3.  reasoning, according to Hobbes, is weak & cannot overcome emotion 
4.  rationality, according to sociology & psychology, is weak
5.  rationality, according to Freud, is at best, a compromise w/ the instincts
6.  modern society, according to Durkheim, is in conflict w/ ancient society
7.  non rationality, according to the Romantic Movement, creates "knowing" too
8.  rationality, according to Weber, does rule, but will dominate society
9.  we are in the post-modern era which offers a general critique of the Enlightenment & science in general
 
  1.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that the tenets of the Enlightenment are tautological
 
  Today many social scientists believe that most truths are tautologies, i.e. a statement that repeats an idea in different words w/o giving new information, such as all dogs are canines  
  A criticism of the Age of Reason is that much of the work of the Enlightenment was simple classification  
  Does classification have value?   
  Today, most academics do not believe in any absolute scientific truths  
  2.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that the Enlightenment, according to Marx, supports capitalism & the capitalist ideology
 
  Marx criticized the philosophers of the Age of Reason  
  One example of Marx's criticism of the Enlightenment was his belief that the preservation of property which liberal capitalism held as a fundamental human right, merely reflected the interests of  the rich & the capitalists  
  Marx noted that most laborers had nothing to sell or own but their labor & yet they still support the institution of private property  
  3.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that reasoning, according to Hobbes, is weak & cannot overcome emotion
 
  For Hobbes, an early writer in the Age of Reason, reason is “nothing but reckoning:  the adding and subtracting of the consequences of general names"  
  Hobbes wrote in the Leviathan, that our animal nature has ruled & will always rule, except under the force of an absolute govt  
  4.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that rationality, according to sociology & psychology, is weak
 
  Both sociology and psychology have challenged the Age of Reason's optimist belief in a rational human will  
  The question of the rat human will still rages in the mod soc sci's  
  5.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that rationality, according to Freud, is at best, a compromise w/ the instincts  
  Freud postulated the existence of fundamental instincts & the idea of rational part of the consciousness  
  For Freud, sound reasons for our actions are only excuses & that our true motivation is instinctual  
  For Freud, we act because of instincts (the Id) & then attribute socially acceptable motives to ourselves to please another part of our subconscious, the superego  
  Our ego thus has the illusion of rat  
  Freud, himself, debated power of Id & never resolved it  
  6.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that modern society, according to Durkheim, is in conflict w/ ancient society
 
  For Durkheim, the conflict btwn mod & ancient soc represents a criticism of the Enlightenment that rationality will overcome irrationality, traditionalism, & other pre Enlightenment social forces  
  We act the way we do because of general social forces, that may trend toward solidarity & growth, through the social force of organic solidarity, or toward alienation  
  7.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that non rationality, according to the Romantic Movement, creates "knowing" too
 
  Age of Reason ended at the close of the 1700s at which time the Romantic Movement grew  
  For the Romantic Mvmt, rationality is not the only, or even the primary, form of knowledge  
  The Romantic mvmt holds that we need to value feeling rather than reason; passion, individuality, & spontaneity rather than disciple, order, & control  
  8.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that rationality, according to Weber, does rule, but will dominate society  
  For Weber, rationality is not necessary "good" for society, in fact it is probably "bad"  
  Weber believed that rat & esp bur would come to dominate both soc institution & all of soc life & this would destroy a vital part of society  
  9.  A criticism of the Age of Reason (aka the Enlightenment) includes the belief that we are in the post-modern era which offers a general critique of the Enlightenment & science in general
 
  Post Modernity is a paradigm that questions power/ validity & in many ways is a comprehensive critique of the Enlightenment Era  
 
 Post Modernity, parallel w/ its critique of the Enlightenment, develops a critique of science in general
 

 
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 Outline on the  French Revolution
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 -  Video:  The French Rev 
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  -  Video Project:  The French Rev 
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  -  Project:  Comparing Revolutions 
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  PRE REVOLUTION CONDITIONS   
  The French Revolution (FR) lasted from 1789 to 1799, & had far reaching effects on the rest of Europe   
  The FR brought about great changes in the society & govt of France   
  The FR introduced democratic ideals to France but did not make the nation a democracy   
  However, the FR did end supreme rule by French kings & strengthened the middle class   
  After the revolution began, no European kings, nobles, or other privileged groups could ever again take their powers for granted or ignore the ideals of liberty & equality   
 
 The 100 yrs. of the Fr transition to democracy was extremely violent & it was not until the late 1800s that stability returned Napoleon III was defeated by Prussia in 1870 
 
  Various social, political, & economic conditions led to the FR   
  The conditions which led to the FR included dissatisfaction among the lower & middle classes, interest in new ideas about govt, & financial problems caused by the costs of wars   
  During the time of the FR, legal divisions among social groups that had existed for hundreds of years created much discontent   
  THE THREE ESTATES OR CLASSES  
  According to law, French society consisted of three groups called estates  
  Members of the clergy made up the first estate, nobles the second, & the rest of the people the third  
  The peasants formed the largest group in the third estate  
  Many of the peasants in France in the 1700s earned so little that they could barely feed their families  
  The third estate also included the working people of the cities & a large & prosperous middle class made up chiefly of merchants, lawyers, & govt officials  
  The third estate resented certain advantages of the first two estates
 
 
 The clergy & nobles did not have to pay most taxes
 
 
 The third estate, especially the peasants, had to provide almost all the country's tax revenue
 
 
 At the time of the Fr Rev, many members of the middle class were also troubled by their social status because while they were among the most important people in French society, they were not recognized as such because they belonged to the third estate
 
 
 The new ideas about govt challenged France's absolute monarchy
 
 
 At the time of the Fr Rev, under the Fr monarchical system, the king had almost unlimited authority
 
 
 The Fr King governed by divine right, that is, the monarch's right to rule was thought to come from god
 
 
 There were checks on the king, but these came mainly from a few groups of aristocrats in the parliaments (high courts)
 
 
 During the 1700's, French writers called philosophes & philosophers from other countries raised new ideas about freedom  
  Some of these thinkers, including Jean Jacques Rousseau, suggested that the right to govern came from the people
 
 
 CRISIS
 
  The Fr Rev began w/ a govt financial crisis but quickly became a movement of reform & violent change
 
 
 The financial crisis developed because the nation had gone deeply into debt to finance fighting in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) & the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783)
 
  By 1788, the govt was almost bankrupt, but the Parliament of Paris insisted that King Louis XVI could borrow more money or raise taxes only by calling a meeting of the Estates General  
  The Estates General was made up of representatives of the three estates, & had last met in 1614 & the king unwillingly called the meeting  
  The third estate, the peasants, insisted that all the estates be merged into one national assembly & that each representative have one vote & it also wanted the Estates General to write a constitution  
  The king & the first two estates, the clergy & the nobles, refused the demands of the third estate, the peasants  
  THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE  
  In June 1789, the representatives of the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly of France & gathered at a tennis court & pledged not to disband until they had written a constitution  
  The vow of the third estate to form a constitution became known as the Oath of the Tennis Court  
  Louis XVI then allowed the three estates to join together as the National Assembly, but at the same time began to gather troops to break up the Assembly  
  While the National Assembly negotiated a constitution & while King Louis secretly gathered troops the masses of France also took action by gathering at the Bastille  
  STORMING THE BASTILLE & PEASANT UPRISINGS  
 
 In July, 1789, a huge crowd of Parisians rushed to the Bastille, a royal fortress & hated symbol of oppression
 
  The masses believed they would find arms & ammunition there for use in defending themselves against the king's army  
  The people captured the Bastille & began to tear it down & at the same time, leaders in Paris formed a revolutionary city govt  
  Massive peasant uprisings against nobles also broke out in the countryside  
  A few nobles, who were called émigrés because they emigrated, decided to flee France & many more followed in the next five yrs  
  The uprisings in town & countryside saved the National Assembly from being disbanded by the king  
 
 During the rev, Fr armies suffered military defeats & Parisians feared that the invading armies would soon invade the city
 
 
 Parisians also feared an uprising by the large number of people in the city's prisons
 
  In August 1789, the Assembly adopted the Decrees of August 4 & the Declaration of the Rights of Man & of the Citizen which abolished some feudal dues that the peasants owed their landlords, the tax advantages of the clergy & nobles, & regional privileges  
  The declaration guaranteed the same basic rights to all citizens, including "liberty, property, security, & resistance to oppression" as well as representative govt  
  The Assembly later drafted a constitution that made Fr a limited monarchy w/ a one house legislature  
  THE REIGN OF TERROR  
 
 In the first week of September, small numbers of Parisians took the law into their own hands & executed more than 1,000 prisoners
 
 
 In 1789, the "September Massacres" occurred when ordinary citizens in France executed over 1,000 prisoners who were mostly clergy & nobles
 
 
 The September Massacres turned many people in France & Europe against the revolution 
 
 
 After the September Massacres, a series of elected legislatures then took control of the govt 
 
 
 King Louis XVI & his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed 
 
 
 Thousands of others met their death in a period called the Reign of Terror 
 
  The new invention of the guillotine sped up the mass execution process & the streets flowed w/ blood   
  The term "terrorism" originated from the Reign of Terror that characterized the Fr Rev   
  While the modern form of terrorism has been around for millennium, it is during this period of violence in the Fr Rev that the term terrorism came into usage   
  The Assembly seized the property of the Roman Catholic Church   
  THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY   
  By September 1791, the National Assembly believed that the rev was over & it disbanded at the end of the month to make way for the newly elected Legislative Assembly   
  The new Assembly, made up mainly of representatives of the middle class, opened in Oct. of 1791   
  The New Assembly faced the challenges of creating internal stability as well as facing a foreign threat   
  Stability during the FR depended on the cooperation btwn the King & the Assembly but Louis remained opposed & so he asked other rulers for help in stopping it, & plotted w/ aristocrats & émigrés to overthrow the new govt   
  Public opinion became bitterly divided:  the revolution's religious policy angered many Catholics while other people demanded stronger measures against opponents of the revolution.   
  In April 1792, the new govt went to war against Austria & Prussia & these nations wished to restore the king & émigrés to their positions   
  While Louis XVI & his supporters clearly hoped for the victory of the invaders, the foreign armies defeated Fr forces in the early fighting & invaded Fr  
  As a result of the defeat of the French armies, angry revolutionaries in Paris & other areas demanded that the king be dethroned & in August 1792, the people of Paris took custody of Louis XVI & his family & imprisoned them  
  Louis's removal ended the constitutional monarchy & the Assembly then called for a National Convention to be chosen in an election open to nearly all French males age 21 or older, & for a new constitution  
  In Sept 1792, Fr forces defeated a Prussian army in the Battle of Valmy, which prevented the Prussians from advancing on Paris, helped end the crisis  
  In time, the radicals began to struggle for power among themselves  
  Most of the democratic reforms of the past two years were abolished in what became known as the Thermidorian Reaction  
  The Convention replaced the democratic constitution it had adopted in 1793 w/ a new one in 1795   
  W/ the 1795 Constitution, France was still a republic, but once again only citizens who paid a certain amount of taxes could vote  
 
 The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general, took over the govt in Nov of 1799
 
  The Fr Rev brought France into opposition w/ much of Europe because the monarchs who ruled the other nations feared the spread of democratic ideals  
  The revolution left the Fr people in extreme disagreement about the best form of govt for their country but the revolution created the long lasting foundations for a unified state, a strong central govt, & a free society dominated by the middle class & the landowners  
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE FRENCH REV
 
 
 LeBon studied the collective behavior of the people & offered theories to explain the crowd behavior & violence in his study, The Crowd:  A Study of the Popular Mind, 1895  
 
 LeBon noted that in the French Revolts, people engaged in criminal acts were cheered & they later demanded medals for their patriotism, & he thought this was irrational behavior  
 
 "May you be cursed to live in interesting times"  
 
 France had irreversibly changed in almost every way during the period from the Fr Rev of 1789 & LeBon thought much of this was due to social contagion
 
  The Fr Rev is seen as historically important because, as Tocqueville noted, the freedoms, etc. which the rev embraced were a historically new model for society  
  The Fr Rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that:  
  -  the peasants, the third estate, was dissatisfied because of high taxes, poverty, oppression of the populace by the military, etc.  
  -  while communications were difficult in the late 1700s, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc. & since much of the rev occurred in the cities, the people were close to each other  
  -  the people & leaders had survived several attempts at repression by the French monarchy  
  -  while the people feared the French Monarchy because it was so powerful, they had their beliefs in justice & equality to inspire them  
  -  the French peasants had barely adequate resources, but were bolstered by the support of the bourgeoisie class  
  The FR validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that  
  -  the French peasants experienced the contradiction of monarchical feudalism & democratic capitalism  
  -  the French peasants had class consciousness in that they understood the contradiction because the French Enlightenment had spread ideals of individualism, freedom, etc. to the general populace  
  -  the historical circumstances of the weakness of the French Monarchy, the rise of the bourgeoisie class, & the loss of wars by the French all contributed to the success of the French Rev  
  -  the French peasants had a strong political org in the form of the Parisian govts  
  -  there was a high level of class conflict btwn the clergy, the monarchy, the peasants, & the bourgeoisie & the clergy & the monarchy banded together while the peasants, & the bourgeoisie banded together  
  The Fr Rev validates Johnson's theory in that 18th century France was in disequilibrium because of the contradiction btwn democratic & free mkt values, & the econ system, btwn monarchical values & econ system, & democratic values & econ system  
  Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, & in the case of the French Rev, they had 
-  lost the Seven Years War
-  lost the French & Indian War
-  gone into debt funding the Am Rev War
-  won some & lost some battles during the actual FR from 1789 to 1799		  

 
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 Outline on  Social Laws
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  THERE IS A HIERARCHY OF THE VALIDITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE FINDINGS   
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 There is somewhat of an agreed upon hierarchy in methods indicating the authority & acceptability of ideas / knowledge including the range of: 
- social laws
- paradigms
- theories
- concepts
- hypothesis
 
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 Social laws are the most widely accepted knowledge 
 
  Social laws are felt to be absolute & irreversible   
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 Today, there are no social "laws"
 
  But for each of us, behavior, beliefs, & ideology becomes so fixed, that we act as if there are social laws   
  The concept of the spirit as used by early social thinkers, embodies Monte’s understanding of the distinctive character of a system of social laws  
  MONTESQUIEU PROPOSED THE IDEA OF SOCIAL LAWS & HELD THAT THEY HAVE PARTICULAR QUALITIES   
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 Montesquieu proposed that one of the qualities of social laws is that:  
  1.  they are the necessary relations arising from nature of things  
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 2.  they apply to nature & to people
 
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 3.  they underlie all things, human, natural, & divine
 
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 4.  philosophy's task was to discover these laws
 
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 5.  laws about human nature were extremely complex, hence the need for the scientific method & ideal types
 
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 6.  knowledge of the laws would ease ills of society
 
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 Monte believed customs emerge spontaneously while social laws are estb in a formal & explicit fashion
 
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 Monte believed that social laws are spontaneous & natural, but formal  
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 Monte’s conception of social laws is itself ambiguous because laws can be at variance w/ what a society needs because of the limits of human knowledge, errors, & chance events  
  TODAY, THERE ARE NO UNIVERSAL SOCIAL LAWS   
  But while law's are universal, there are there are no truly universal laws in society  
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 We can reconcile the apparent lack of universal social laws by recalling that there can be laws, and/or ideal types which are generally true  
  But it is difficult to generalize, so each must be tailored to fit the particular situation  
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 Monte believes that intellectual freedom is intact despite the apparent determinism implied by social laws  
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 People are not passive creatures, evolving or developing automatically, rather we are active players who attempt to understand & influence our env & ourselves  
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 Reflexive social theorists, post modernists & others do not accept the existence of social laws  
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 Monte’s ideas on intellectual freedom are similar to many contemporary social theorists in that they see no conflict btwn social laws & freedom  
  SOCIAL SCIENTISTS ATTEMPT TO BRIDGE THE GAP BTWN DETERMINISM & INDIVIDUALISM   
  Monte & contemporary social theorists try to bridge the gap btwn social determinism & individualism, including:   
  a.  Anthony Giddens' concept of reflexive sociology   
  b.  in econ, the Rational Man Theory  
  c.  in psych: the 100th Monkey Syndrome  
  d.  Karl Weick's organizational theories   
  e.  Post Modernists who practically deny any structural forces  
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 All theories do not try to bridge the gap btwn social determinism & individualism, but some, such as Giddens, Weick, & post modernists focus on the social forces / free will interaction  
  THERE ARE COMMONALTIES BTWN THEORIES OF DETERMINISM & THEORIES OF INDIVIDUALISM   
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 What all of the theories that bridge the gap btwn determinism & individualism have in common is that:   
  a.  some people discover a new relationship, principle, or law in a particular field   
  b.  people learn this knowledge at different rates due to exposure, intelligence, access to power & resources...   
  c.  people act in accordance w/ this new knowledge   
  d.  people's reaction based on the new knowledge about an 'old' law or relationship often tends to negate the original law   
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 Thus social laws are laws so long as people follow them
-  out of ignorance
-  out of agreement
-  from being forced		  
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 Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions  in 1962 in which he contrasts normal research & the new paradigm research when the old paradigm becomes transparently inadequate  

 
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Example of Monte’s ambiguity of Social Laws

Monte felt that democratic republican societies had made mistakes in developing slavery

Domination of one race by another was believed to be a "nat law" based on Darwin, but Monte did not accept it


 
 
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Outline on the Scientific Method
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  SUMMARY:  There are SEVEN steps in the scientific method including:  1.  Observe     2.  Classify      3.  Apply Logic 4.  Hypothesize    5.  Research 6.  Record & Analyze Findings    7.  Record Findings  
  There are SEVEN steps in the Scientific Method  
  The scientific method is put into operation through the steps of the research design process  
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 1.  Observation (a.k.a. empiricism) employs the five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, & tasting  
  Hume found that the senses are subject to illusions, errors, or prejudices  
  Because of problems w/ the senses, the scientific method makes further demands on the researcher  
  Observations must be subject to confirmation and verification  
  Confirmed & verified observations lead to "factual information" where the facts are socially created  
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 2.  Classification establishes relationships among facts:   
  Facts & classifications alone are sometimes viewed as "knowledge"  
  But this knowledge, classifications, must be seen as culturally based (i.e. biased)  
  In the mid 1800s, there was an explosion of modern classification  
  3.  Applying logic infers a relationship among facts or objects of classification  
  The relationship inferred by application of logic becomes a hypothesis, if it is to be tested  
  But there are other ways of knowing than by deductive logic, including emotion, tradition, religion, feminist, post-modern  
  And logic tells us nothing of values; but other ways of knowing do deal w/ values  
  Science & logic tacitly support existing social relations, cultural & moral identities  
  We live in a culture where tradition, religion, emotions, etc. have less influence than science, logic, etc.  
  Scientism is the habit of thought or procedure of scientists that embodies a particular set of values, norms, structures & institutions  
  Choosing the types of analyses to be utilized in the research project reflects the application of logic  
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 4. Hypothesize:   If the hypothesis is true, then such & such should follow 
 
  A hypothesis is an "if, then statement"  
  A hypothesis takes the form that: 'If "C" or the Cause occurs, then "E" or the Effect should follow'  
  The hypothesis is a concise statement of the problem to be researched  
 
 In research, the answers you get depend on the questions you ask
Some questions are never asked. 
Who controls the questions asked? 
See Interest Based Knowledge
 
  5. Research:  In actually conducting the research, some variation of the research instruments are used  
  Research instruments include surveys, interviews, statistical analysis, analyze existing data, observation, experiments, etc.   
  6. Record & analyze findings is the process by which the researcher documents observations, numerical data, etc.  
  7. Reporting findings is the process where scientific findings are usually reported in journals, books, govt publications, conferences, etc.  

 
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1. Observe
Examples:  Egyptians studied motions of heavenly bodies to predict seasons, flooding of Nile & when to plant & harvest
1830:  Darwin observed species & developed theory of evolution

 
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2. Classification
e.g. Periodic Table, Phylums;  types of society (ancient, agriculture, industry, service)

 
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4. Hypothesize
If a build-up of CO2 causes warming in greenhouses, then a build-up of CO2 in the Earth's atm should cause warming
Social isolation causes suicide

 
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Outline on the Qualities of the Scientific Method
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  THE 3 QUALITIES OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD ARE ORGANIZED SKEPTICISM, SHARING FINDINGS, & MINIMIZE VALUES   
  There are THREE Qualities of the Scientific Method which are utilized by the natural & the social sciences   
  a.  ORGANIZED SKEPTICISM:  All scientific claims must be supported by proof (research) which has been reviewed by the scientific community and replicated by others   
  Organized skepticism attempts to mitigate the effect of values in research by making the research process visible to all   
  b.  SHARE FINDINGS:  There is an obligation to share both findings & methods so that others can review & replicate the experiment   
  The sharing of findings is done to prevent mistakes & hoaxes   
  One of the fundamental differences btwn common sense & science is that scientific knowledge is shared & replicated ( tested by others ) while common sense is merely our own personal experience w/ little or no methodology, replication, etc.   
  c.  MINIMIZED VALUES:  Science tries to minimize values in research 
For most of the public AND many scientists (social & natural), there is the assumption that science is neutral, i.e. value free 		  
  Max Weber originated idea of value free science, but even he knew it was impossible to accomplish   
  - See Also:   
  - Criticism of science:  Weber on values & science   
  - Hoaxes: 
   - The Piltdown man 
   - Cold Fusion 		  

 
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Outline on the  History of the Development of the Scientific Method
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  The History of Science:   
  1.  In relation to the hist of the sci method, in the pre historical era there was an immense amount of knowledge necessary to develop agriculture, animal husbandry, trade routes, villages, etc.   
  2.  In relation to the hist of the sci method, in the in the era of early civilization math & medicine were the 1st sciences to develop, followed by the physical, life, & social sciences   
  3.  In relation to the hist of the sci method, during the height of the Greek empire, "science" was untested & the truth became whatever respected people said it was   
  The Greeks advanced architecture, astronomy, & other areas of academe   
  The Greeks viewed the elements as fire, earth, water, & air & this unquestioned classification certainly inhibited some sci dev in this era   
  4.  In relation to the hist of the sci method, during the height of the Roman Empire, the practice of science was very similar to that of the Greeks, & the Romans actually appropriated ideas, science, etc. from conquered nations   
  5.  In relation to the hist of the sci method, after the fall of the Roman Empire, science continues development in Islamic nations but stagnates in the West   
  6.  In relation to the hist of the sci method, during the Middle Ages, circa 400 AD to 1400 AD there was little growth of science in Europe   
  During the mid ages, most scholars focused on theology & translated Greek & Roman science texts, w/ many errors   
  During the mid ages, while science in the West languished, the Arabs continued scientific exploration as seen in   
  -  al-Khowarizmi;'s expansion of algebra in the 800s   
  -  Avicenna's, circa 900-1000, dev of the a med encyclopedia: Canon of Medicine   
  -  the use of the sci method by many Arabs   
  -  the spread of Hindu Arabic numbers into Euro, stimulating development of math   
  Towards the end of the mid ages, there were a few new medical discoveries in Europe   
  Epidemics swept Europe in mid 1300 & the Black Death killed 25% of the population   
  Peter Abelard, & Thomas Aquinas started systematic efforts to bring Christian teachings into harmony w/ rediscovered sci ideas   
  The rebirth of science in the West continued to expand in the late mid ages   
  In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus wrote his seminal On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres which challenged Ptolemy's geo-centric view   
  Copenicus' heliocentric theory was not that accurate & in the late 1500s, Tyco Brahe observed planets w/ more precision   
  In 1609,  Johannes Kepler, Ger, used elliptical math theory to /\ accuracy   
  In 1543, Vesalius wrote  On the Fabric of the Human Body & anatomical observation advanced med sci & replaced the wk of ancient Galen & Avicenna med views   
  The "Scientific Revolution" in the West occurred circa the late 1500s to the 1600s   
  During the era of the sci rev, early scientists used math & esp more observation   
  Galileo, an Italian, used observation & math to refute Aristotle's view that heavier objects falls faster   
  Galileo held that objects fall at same rate regardless of weight, estbing one of the basic principles of mechanics   
  In 1687, Isaac Newton wrote Principia  which estb the universal laws of gravity   
  During the era of the sci rev, many other early scientists advanced their fields, including 
-  the German Leibnitz's work on calculus 
- the British Harvey's work on blood circulation 
- the Irish Robert Boyle's work on chemistry 
- Robert Hook's work on the microscope 		  
  The Frenchman Rene Descartes'  work which estb that math must be model for all sci   
  Francis Bacon, England, 1627, The New Atlantis:  observe nature, & discover universal laws   
  During the Middle Ages the conflict of science & religion grew dramatically, & some theologians supported science  
  Scientists & some theologians believed   
  -  science helped reveal the wonders of god's creation & could also be used to help human kind  
  -  science/reason was god's gift to humans & should be used  
  Other theologians feared science because they believed it contradicted theology & therefore science must be devil's work  
  7. During the era of the Enlightenment, circa 1642 - 1789, science came to dominate mainstream society much in the same way it does today  
  The 28 volume Encyclopedia, 1751-1772, ed by Denis Diderot & Jean d'Alembert advanced sci by cataloging & organizing all knowledge of the era  
  During the Enlightenment, chemistry made great advances, the the law of conservation of matter was estb  
  In 1776  Adam Smith, a Scot, wrote  The Wealth of Nations was the 1st systemic formulation of econ & perhaps the most imp soc sci tome of its time  
  Montesquieu on the Origins of the Scientific Method  
  Montesquieu  1689-1755  
  8.  During the era of the Industrial Revolution, circa the 1700s to the 1900s, science began the era of the "scientific explosion" where science advances so rapidly that it is no longer possible to have one central repository  
  9.  During the era of the Modern Science, circa the mid 1900s to the present, science continues to "explode" at an every faster rate  

 
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Outline on  Montesquieu on the Development of the Scientific Method:
The Contextualization of Knowledge
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  Monte on the contextualization of knowledge:  
  Monte was one of first to explore the branch of theory called epistemology or the sociology of knowledge  
  As a consequence of his work in Persian Letters, Monte understood that all knowledge is contextual, i.e., we, as individuals, & each society understands its major ideas in relation to its values, morals, history, economic system, etc.  
  The coneption of the contextualization of knowledge leads to conclusion that there is no absolute knowledge available to people  
  The conception of no absolute knowledge is consonant with Monte's view on political systems that each pol sys is contingent on the various factors of society, i.e., the social institutions  
  For Monte, all features of society are interrelated as seen in the contextualization of knowledge, the contingency of pol systems, & so on  
  Monte on the origins of the scientific method:
 
  Monte noted that during the Enlightenment period, modern scientific methods were developed  
  W/o classification, science & the understanding of reality is impossible, so, the 1st thing that must be done is description, classification, typefication  
  Aristotle only classified:
- political states
- morality
- religion
- economics
- families
 
  For Monte, each of the social sciences areas seemed so variable that no one thought they could be classified  
  Monte notes that the physical & life ciences also require classification, interpretation, & explanation  
  Scientific methods are grounded in the tenets of the Enlightenment, particularly the tenet that scientific methods presuppose order & rationality  
  Because we each have a particular context, limited experience, vision, understanding, etc., errors are unavoidable  
  Monte developed TWO features that took the scientific method from its medieval limitations to its modern form, including:
- the study of social facts
- the  interpretation of social facts to determine laws that govern humanity		  

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