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Do not fill this in! === Age of Enlightenment === {{Main|Science in the Age of Enlightenment}} [[File:Prinicipia-title.png|thumb|Title page of the 1687 first edition of ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]'' by Isaac Newton|alt=see caption]] At the start of the [[Age of Enlightenment]], [[Isaac Newton]] formed the foundation of [[classical mechanics]] by his ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]'', greatly influencing future physicists.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gribbin|first=John|title=Science: A History 1543–2001|year=2002|page=241|publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-7139-9503-9|quote=Although it was just one of the many factors in the Enlightenment, the success of Newtonian physics in providing a mathematical description of an ordered world clearly played a big part in the flowering of this movement in the eighteenth century}}</ref> [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] incorporated terms from [[Aristotelian physics]], now used in a new non-[[Teleology|teleological]] way. This implied a shift in the view of objects: objects were now considered as having no innate goals. Leibniz assumed that different types of things all work according to the same general laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Leibniz/|title=Gottfried Leibniz – Biography|website=Maths History|access-date=March 2, 2021|archive-date=July 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711221621/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Leibniz.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During this time, the declared purpose and value of science became producing wealth and [[invention]]s that would improve human lives, in the [[Economic materialism|materialistic]] sense of having more food, clothing, and other things. In [[Novum Organum|Bacon's words]], "the real and legitimate goal of sciences {{em|is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches}}", and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or spiritual ideas, which he believed contributed little to human happiness beyond "the fume of subtle, sublime or pleasing [speculation]".<ref>{{Cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PgmbZIybuRoC&pg=PA162|title= The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific Revolution: Texts by Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann|last1= Freudenthal|first1= Gideon|last2= McLaughlin|first2= Peter|date= May 20, 2009|publisher= Springer Science & Business Media|isbn= 978-1-4020-9604-4|access-date= July 25, 2018|archive-date= January 19, 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200119203949/https://books.google.com/books?id=PgmbZIybuRoC&pg=PA162|url-status= live}}</ref> Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by [[scientific society|scientific societies]] and [[Academy|academies]],<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Goddard Bergin |editor-first1=Thomas |editor1-link=Thomas G. Bergin |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofre0000unse_d0p5 |title=Encyclopedia of the Renaissance |editor-last2=Speake |editor-first2=Jennifer |editor2-link=Jennifer Speake |year=1987 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0816013159 |publication-date=December 1, 1987}}</ref> which had largely replaced universities as centers of scientific research and development. Societies and academies were the backbones of the maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the [[popular culture|popularization]] of science among an increasingly literate population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Horn Melton |first=James |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rise-of-the-public-in-enlightenment-europe/BA532085A260114CD430D9A059BD96EF |title=The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0511819421 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511819421 |access-date=May 27, 2022 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120143805/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rise-of-the-public-in-enlightenment-europe/BA532085A260114CD430D9A059BD96EF |url-status=live|pages=82–83}}</ref> Enlightenment philosophers turned to a few of their scientific predecessors – [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]], [[Johannes Kepler|Kepler]], [[Robert Boyle|Boyle]], and Newton principally – as the guides to every physical and social field of the day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment (1500–1780) |url=https://www.tamaqua.k12.pa.us/cms/lib07/PA01000119/Centricity/Domain/119/TheScientificRevolution.pdf |access-date=January 29, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Scientific Revolution {{!}} Definition, History, Scientists, Inventions, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref> The 18th century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine<ref name="Brock">{{cite book |title=Brock Biology of Microorganisms |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=2006 |isbn=978-0131443297 |veditors=Madigan M, Martinko J |edition=11th}}</ref> and [[physics]];<ref>{{cite book |last=Guicciardini |first=N. |url=https://archive.org/details/readingprincipia0000guic |title=Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton's Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0521640664 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> the development of biological [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]] by [[Carl Linnaeus]];<ref name="calisher">{{cite journal|author1-link=Charles Calisher |last1=Calisher |first1=CH |year=2007 |title=Taxonomy: what's in a name? Doesn't a rose by any other name smell as sweet? |journal=Croatian Medical Journal |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=268–270 |pmc=2080517 |pmid=17436393}}</ref> a new understanding of [[magnetism]] and electricity;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Darrigol |first1=Olivier |url=https://archive.org/details/electrodynamicsf0000darr |title=Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0198505949 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> and the maturation of [[chemistry]] as a discipline.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Olby|first1=R.C.|last2=Cantor|first2=G.N.|last3=Christie|first3=J.R.R.|last4=Hodge|first4=M.J.S.|year=1990|title=Companion to the History of Modern Science|location=London|publisher=Routledge|page=265}}</ref> Ideas on human nature, society, and economics evolved during the Enlightenment. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature]]'', which was expressed historically in works by authors including [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|James Burnett]], [[Adam Ferguson]], [[John Millar (philosopher)|John Millar]] and [[William Robertson (historian)|William Robertson]], all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of [[modernity]].<ref name="Magnusson">{{Cite web |last=Magnusson |first=Magnus |date=November 10, 2003 |title=Review of James Buchan, ''Capital of the Mind: how Edinburgh Changed the World'' |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606015918/http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |archive-date=June 6, 2011 |access-date=April 27, 2014 |work=New Statesman}}</ref> Modern sociology largely originated from this movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 588406|title = Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment|journal = The British Journal of Sociology|volume = 21|issue = 2|pages = 164–180|last1 = Swingewood|first1 = Alan|year = 1970|doi = 10.2307/588406}}</ref> In 1776, [[Adam Smith]] published ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'', which is often considered the first work on modern economics.<ref name="Fry">{{Cite book |last=Fry |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/adamsmithslegacy0000unse |title=Adam Smith's Legacy: His Place in the Development of Modern Economics |publisher=[[Routledge]] |others=[[Paul Samuelson]], [[Lawrence Klein]], [[Franco Modigliani]], [[James M. Buchanan]], [[Maurice Allais]], [[Theodore Schultz]], [[Richard Stone]], [[James Tobin]], [[Wassily Leontief]], [[Jan Tinbergen]] |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-415-06164-3 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page