What you must do in this unit
- Read chapters 16 and 17 in the textbook.
- Check the course notes on the Scientific Revolution. We also have notes on Voltaire and his ideas about religion. You can also watch the short video by Professor Evans on the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.
- Check out Professor Campbell's video, Was The Enlightenment B.S.?
- Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the week.
- Submit the Required American Declaration paragraph (50 points).
What you can do in this unit
- Listen to some further information about this unit as a mp3 file. You can also read the information as a txt file.
- Check out the National Archives website devoted to the Declaration of Independence, which has images, transcripts and critical articles.
- The idea of women's rights first appeared during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, but it took a long time for women to receive the right to vote in the United States. Check out this timeline by Tabitha Kleehammer (summer 2016) on First Wave Feminism.
- When I teach this course on campus, I usually schedule a class on the development of classical music in the eighteenth century. Here is a link to my class notes on classical music (*.PDF).
- Plan ahead. Take a look at some of the available optional special project assignments in unit 13. These are additional extra credit options in the course.
Some videos that you can watch for this unit
- The Seven Years War: Crash Course World History #26
- The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook: Crash Course World History #27
- Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution: Crash Course World History #28
- The Enlightenment - Part 1 and Part 2
- Isaac Newton (biography)
- Isaac Newton and a Scientific Revolution
- Steven B. Smith - Yale, Democracy and Participation: Rousseau, Social Contract
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the URL and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.
Extra Credit Options
- Watch Barry Lyndon and write a one-page paper (Was the movie an accurate depiction of eighteenth-century European life?) for a maximum of 50 points.
- In a well-researched, one-page paper, explain who fired the first shot of the American Revolution for a maximum of 50 points.
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, watch Amadeus and write a one-page paper in which you examine which aspects of the European Enlightenment the movie illustrated.
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (free copy at art-bin.com/art/oweala.html) and explain, in a one-page paper, how his conception of capitalism does or does not match the characteristics of present-day capitalism.
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, read Nicholas Copernicus, The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543, excerpts, and write a one-page paper explaining some of the revolutionary ideas found in this text. Please be sure to include quoted material.
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, in a one-page paper, explain the principle points of Immanuel Kant's idealist philosophy as expounded in his Critique of Pure Reason (free copy at www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/cpr/toc.html).
- For up to 10 points of extra credit, in a long paragraph, What did Voltaire mean, in terms of the European Enlightenment, when he wrote "let us cultivate our garden" at the end of Candide.
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, have a look at Isaac Newton, Principia Mathematica and write a long paragraph explaining some of the revolutionary ideas found in this text. Please be sure to include quoted material.
- For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), The Spirit of the Laws (1748), excerpts, and write a long paragraph in which you explain Montesquieu's main political ideas. Please be sure to include quoted material.
- For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): A Discourse Upon The Origin and The Foundation of The Inequality among Mankind, and write a long paragraph in which you explain Rousseau's ideas about inequality. Please be sure to include quoted material.
- For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the Royal Proclamation of Rebellion by King George III as he reacted to the American rebellion (1775) and write a short paragraph summarizing the King's view of his American subjects.
- For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course. Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.
Unit Learning Objectives
- Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to (1) explain the basic ideas of the Enlightenment and (2) describe the scope of the Scientific Revolution.