education and intellectual patterns erin mcginnis alexa stefanko chris mark

Education and Intellectual Patterns

Erin McGinnis

Alexa Stefanko

Chris Mark

12-13th Century Education

• After the Black Death, parents took control of their children’s education

• Men went to school to study for future professions, and studied Latin, logic, medicine, law, and religion.

• Education for women stopped at primary school.

Renaissance Thoughts

• There was an emphasis on individuality and secularism• Desire to become a “Renaissance Man”. This followed Castiglione’s

Book of the Courtier: called for good character, grace, noble birth, excellent education in arts, and physical prowess.

• Machiavelli’s Prince brought forth ideas that a good ruler ought to be loved and feared, but mostly feared.

• From Machiavelli’s Prince: “It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can

hope either to deceive him or to get round him.”-The Prince, Chapter XIX, ‘That One should Avoid Being Despised and

Hated’

Humanism

• Humanism- Intellectual movement based on the lieral arts and classical works. Petrarch is the father of humanism

• Civic humanism- the idea that one had to live an active life for one’s state.

• This lead to a rebirth of classical ideas, artwork, and styles of thought, and history became less miracle-centric

• Northern humanists wished to reform Christianity.• Humanist education focused on the liberal arts, and was seen

as the best preparation for life.

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Religious/Philosophical Thoughts

• Hermeticism- product of Florentine Intellectual activity. It stressed astrology, theology, philosophy, and magic.

• Pantheism- the idea that God if everything in nature, be it celestial or earthbound.

• The Oration on the Dignity of Man- used works of philosphers and came to the conclusion that humans have unlimited potential, and can accomplish whatever they put their mind to.

• It also said that philosophy is the science of the mind. • Growing emphasis on secularization, despite some religious

sentiment.

Renaissance Education

• Schools were based off of the classical ideas of Cicero and Quintillian, and influenced by humanism.

• Core of academic training were liberal arts: rhetoric, history, moral philosophy, letters, poetry, astronomy, art, and music.

• This was for the purpose of producing virtuous members of society.

• Education geared for ruling classes, so the masses remained largely uneducated. Women were also uneducated.

• The women who did study didn’t study math or the sciences.



The School of Athens



Styles of Education

• Protestant schools aimed for a variety of schoolgoers. • They wanted to have semiliterate believers who could

understand the Bible for themselves.• The general sentiment from the church was that all children had

the right to state-run education.• Martin Luther strongly advocated for public schools.• Gymnasium, or secondary school, was introduced. Again, the

emphasis was on the liberal arts.

Education Under Louis XIV

• Then, schools were mainly run by Protestant churches

• Due to the Edict of Fontainbleu, some Protestant Schools were closed.

• Despite his lack of support, the Jesuits continued to create schools around Europe.

Hobbes vs. Locke

• Because England was preoccupied with creating a Constitutional Monarchy, Natural Rights became a hot topic

• Hobbes’s Leviathan espoused ideas that humans were not good, and Absolutist ideas were necessary

• John Locke believed people were good a heart, had strong faith in natural rights, and was an advocate of a Constitutional Monarchy.





Pre-Scientific Revolution

• Previously, Hermetic magic fused with alchemy was the popular belief for a world model.

• The conception of the Universe was geocentric, as promoted and maintained by Aristotle

• Everything outside of Earth was made of purely perfect substances.

• These ideas were questioned, due to the Renaissance painters and technological innovations.

• Renaissance painters couldn’t “paint well without a thorough knowledge of geometry”.

• Ideas on the human systems and anatomy also questioned by painters.



Scientific Revolution Climate

• Many were open to new ideas about science.• Scientific Societies like the English Royal Society gained

importance• The Printing press continued to spread knowledge.• Mercantile elites were attracted to the new role science played• Political interests were key in gaining people’s interest in the

sciences.

Copernicus and Kepler

• Copernicus stated the sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth.

• This idea was not accepted• Kepler understood that planetary orbits are elliptical. • He found that the closer something is to the sun, the

faster it goes. • Kepler experimented in motion.



Galileo and Newton

• With his telescope, Galileo learned that the heavenly bodies were not perfect.

• The Church was still strong, and he was subject to the Inquisition.

• His Dialogue on the Two World Systems advocated Copernicus’s ideas.

• Newton invented Calculus• His Principia espoused universal gravitation and his 3 laws of

motion.• His concept of the Newtonian world-machine remained a

popular belief system for a long time.

Women

• Cavendish, Winkelmann, and Maria Merian were all important women who were denied posts because of their gender.

• Men believed that women were biologically inferior. • The Querelles de Femmes were the arguments pertaining to

women’s rights, but it never got women any more recognition.



Descartes and The Scientific Method

• “I think, therefore I am.”• He emphasized Rationalism-using deductive reasoning,

(generalizations to specifics)• Cartesian dualism- the mind and the body are separate entities. • Wrote Discourse on method.• Francis Bacon set up the modern scientific method- using

inductive reasoning, (specifics to generalizations)• This was known as Empiricism

Science and the Church

• There was a wide response to the intellectual activity• Spinoza-Pantheistic: God is everything, everything is

God.• Pascal desperately wanted to unite science and

religion, but was unable to do so.





The Enlightenment: The Beginning

• Summed up in “If Isaac Newton can figure out the secrets of the world, so can I!”

• Seen as the age of reason for man.• The Enlightenment began when:

1. Science was popularized by the rich elite.2. The scientists of the Revolution had done their work in God’s

name. Now, science was conducted in the name of the individual and skepticism

3. Some began to relate their culture to others via travel writings. This lead to Cultural Relativism.

4. Locke and Newton left lasting legacies, saying that there were secrets of the universe that humans could discover. People accepted that challenge.

Philosophes

• Umbrella term for the philosophers of the Enlightenment• The political climate was mildly hostile, state censors continued

to censor challenging works.• Philosophes had to publish abroad or under pseudonyms.• The Philosophes often met in Salons to discuss their ideas.

Philosophes Ideas on Government

• Montesquieu and Locke advocated a 3 part government• Rousseau and Wollestonecraft believed in complete

democracy, otherwise the government becomes too corrupt.• Most, other than Hobbes, Rousseau, and Wollestonecraft,

wanted Constitutional Monarchies in place.• Hobbes was a fervent absolutist in his ideas• Most believed the government ought to act as a servant to his

country, not meddle.• Rousseau, Locke, and Hobbes believed in a “Social contract”

between the people and the government



Philosophe’s ideas on Religion

• Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot often poked fun at Christianity, and advocated against such severe dogma.

• Others, like Locke, advocated for a church reform• Voltaire strongly advocated for deism- the idea that God was a great

clockmaker, who’d then left the universe to run by itself• Hobbes wanted to keep the church the way it was. • Quote from Thomas Paine’s: Of the Religion of Deism Compared with

the Christian Religion, “When we see a watch, we have as positive evidence of the existence of a watchmaker, as if we saw him; and in like manner the creation is evidence to our reason and our senses of the existence of a Creator”

1. Link to Paine’s Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/paine-deism.html

Natural Rights

• Locke was one of the strongest advocates of natural rights.• These included “life, liberty, and property”• In addition, the idea that all men were created equal was firmly

agreed with. • The general consensus was that there were certain unalienable

rights, which hundreds of years later continue to effect us.

New Science of Man

• “Natural Laws” could be applied to all areas of life.• Natural Laws of economics

1. The land is the only source of wealth.

2. Mercantilism is not healthy for an economy. Instead, supply and demand are more wholesome natural laws.

3. The State ought to stay out of the economy, according to the laissez-faire policy; This came to be known as economic liberalism.

Women

• Women were not able to participate in such discussions.• Rosseau believed that women were far inferior, and had to lead

a sedentary lifestyle.• Diderot and Voltaire that women were close to equals.• Mary Wollstonecraft was the biggest advocate of women’s

rights, claiming that they were every bit as able as men. • She believed that if all people were created equal, then women

and men were equal.

Education in the Enlightenment

• Literacy rates for men went from 29% to 47%, and for women they went form 14% to 27%

• The elites were mostly literate, but the peasants remained mostly illiterate.

• Catholic Europe’s education was mostly community work.

• In Hapsburg Austrian Empire, state-supported primary schools called the Volkschulen were created.

• Swiss cantons, Scotland, German states had universal primary education.

• Ruling class feared teaching poor class, so some like Hannah More set up schools for the poor that taught morals

• The Philosophes were fond of a “natural education”, which allowed children to learn as they wanted to.

Enlightened Absolutism

• Enlightened Absolutism- an idea that an absolute monarch could adhere to certain Enlightenment principles.

• A monarch was supposed to be the “first servant of the state”• Most believed in natural rights, like life, liberty, equality, and

property.• 3 main Enlightened Absolutists: Catherine the Great of Russia,

Frederick II of Prussia, and Joseph II of Austria.




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Catherine, Frederick, and Joseph

• Frederick II of Prussia-Well educated and cultured, and was a personal friend of Voltaire. He allowed for limited free speech, abolished torture, and complete religious toleration. But, he kept serfdom, and was reliant on his miltary.

• Catherine the Great- She wrote an “Enlightened” code of laws, but ended up changing nothing, and making the lives of the serfs worse.

• Joseph abolished serfdom, changed the national language to German, and instituted hundreds of other reforms. It proved too much for Austria, and after he died his reforms were reversed.

• Primary Source on Catherine the Great’s Proposed legal system: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/18catherine.html

New Ideas and Attitudes

• Balance of Power- no country should be overwhelmingly more powerful than another.

• Reason of state- Plan for the future of the state, not the ruling family.

• The poor became less respected. Before, they’d been seen as a defect of society that people ought to care for, but in the end they were seen as lazy and irresponsible.

New Documents- French Revolution

• Philosophes ideas made their way into the American Declaration of Independence.

• Declaration on the Rights of Men- Document of French Revolution saying men are born free, have the right to life, liberty, property, freedom of speech, fair trial, and had the right to vote.

• Declaration on the Rights of Woman- it stated that women deserved what men had, but was ignored.

French Revolution and Ideas

• Many wanted revenge on the king, and set up a Constitutional Monarchy. Revolutionary writers often quoted the Philosophes like Rousseau.

• The Reign of Terror of the Constitutional Monarchy caused fear. France was de-Christianized, and ruled brutally.

• Napoleon took over; his Napoleonic Code gave fewer rights to women, but gave more people rights.

• Education- Napoleon made education easily available, and set up secondary schools based on intellectual and military prowess.

• Boy’s in school were divided between military and civil careers.

The Industrial Revolution

• Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit and the capitalist idea that “you can never have to much!” helped contribute to the I-Rev.

• People were focused on getting the poor to factories, and succeeded with the Poor Law Acts and the Enclosure Acts.

• The family unit was more or less destroyed, as each person in a poor family spent hours working.

• Factory-working children had to be educated at least 2 hours a day by factory workers.

• Before long, trade unions came up. The most effective protests were carried out by the Chartists.Primary source for Chartist movements: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/chartism/soldier.htm

• These, among other factors, led to reforms like the 10 hours act, the Coal Mine act, and the Factory Acts.



Congress of Vienna and its Effects

• After Napoleon, Europe’s powers found themselves to be cartographers.

• The Congress was hosted by Metternich of Austria, a conservative Absolutist.

• The Congress was led mostly be Conservatives- men who wanted to restore the monarchy.

• Liberalism and Nationalism were the enemy- Liberals being in favor of progressive change, and nationalists having the potential to unite countries like Germany.

• Principle of Intervention- if one country started to get to powerful, others would intervene and crush rebellions.

• Civil governing policies like balance of power continued to have significant importance.

education and intellectual patterns erin mcginnis alexa stefanko chris mark

Documents

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