The Enlightenment Essay, Research Paper

“I think, therefore I am,” a quote by Descartes, an enlightenment mathematician

and developer of analytic geometry. Other mathematicians include Galileo

Galilei, and Newton, the founder of gravity. Galileo was a grand mathematician

I believe with his theories on the solar system that proved Copernicus’s

theories igniting a revolution in astronomy. Galileo also came up with his

wonderful Inertia theory. Newton was the man who came to the concept of gravity.

Isaac Newton also came to know of universal gravitation. This theory is a good

one and I agree with it to every last end. Newton was also the man who

conceived calculus- a form of mathematics. Newton was the best physicist of the

period.

Politics are something that seem to be very interesting to me. Locke and Hobbes

interest me in their political philosophies of a social contract between the

people and the government. This interests me because I believe that the people

should have a big role in the governing authority. Locke interested me not only

in his social contract but also his Ideas of natural law and natural rights.

These rights are different from Hobbes’ in that they deal with an actual

person’s rights to life, liberty and property. Other political views such as a

separation of powers, as Montesquieu proposed, seem corrupt in that they

separate the government, which subsequently and inadvertently leads to the break

down of government unity leading to utter chaos in my mind.

The sciences in they enlightenment took bounding steps. Anatomy was improved

ten fold by Vesalius and Harvey which was a consequence of a Catholic breakdown

that allowed the human body to be dissected. Hooke discovered the cell in

plants and Boyle and Priestly made giant leaps in chemistry, which was formerly

just alchemy. Along with chemistry came air and the discovery of the elements

in it. This was a particularly great discovery by Lavoiser and others because

it is what we breathe.

In astronomy, a controversial subject, as due to the church, astronomers made

very good progress as long as they kept it to themselves. Copernicus original

came to the theory that the sun was the center of the universe and that the

planets revolved around it. Other astronomers built on this theory such as

Kepler and Galileo.

All in all, the Enlightenment was a great period for my time as an intellectual

and it will serve the future wonderfully. The discoveries in mathematics,

astronomy, politics and other areas will live on for long perods of time.