67 The Scientific Revolution
At first glance, there may not seem to be much of a connection between the “Scientific Revolution” that took place in Western Europe starting in the 17th century CE, and the political revolutions that took place in Western Europe and its colonies beginning in the late 18th century. What could the development of calculus and the discovery of laws of physics (such as gravitation) possibly have to do with the overthrow of monarchical and colonial governments and the establishment of new democracies?
In fact, they have a lot to do with one another. In order to understand the connection, and also to understand both the scientific and the political developments better, we must look to the philosophical ideas they share.
There are 2 ideas that are fundamental to both the “Scientific Revolution” and the political revolutions. These 2 ideas appear in one form or another in the basic documents of both. They are:
- the idea that the universe and everything in it work according to “laws of nature.” These laws are established by the Divine Being (generally the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).(1) Thus the universe is ultimately run by a divine being, but this divine being does not do things at random or capriciously; rather, the divine being makes things work in an orderly and regular fashion. This idea is accompanied by
- the idea that the laws of nature are discoverable by means of reason. Reason of course needs observation (we need something to reason about, some data to work with). But the point is that if we want to understand the way the universe works, we can do so by means of observation and reasoning. All human beings are supposed to have the ability to reason, although many do not use or cultivate this ability much.
Now, the idea that we can learn true things about the universe by means of observation and reasoning has important implications for politics, thought, and life in general. First, everyone is capable of observing things, and everyone is capable of reasoning. If we were not able to observe and reason, we could not be expected to make choices, obey laws and religious rules and moral standards, etc. Of course, some people lack the ability to observe certain things (blind people cannot observe colors, for example), but everyone can observe something.
If we all have the ability to observe and reason, then in principle we all have the ability to learn true things about the universe, according to the writers of the Scientific Revolution and the European “Enlightenment.” In other words, if we want to learn about how the universe works – from how volcanoes form to how diseases occur to how stars develop to what kinds of laws are fair to humans – we can do it by training our powers of observation and reasoning. We can train our powers of observation and reasoning by learning mathematics (arithmetic, algebra, geometry) and logic, by carefully recording and checking our observations, and by doing experiments. All