Questions: Science in the Enlightenment: Empiricism and Reason

Question 1

Which major 18th-century publication attempted to systematize all human knowledge using Enlightenment principles of reason and empirical investigation?

• A. Newton's Principia Mathematica
• B. Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie
• C. Rousseau's Social Contract
• D. Hume's Treatise of Human Nature

Answer: (B)

The Encyclopédie, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert and published in France 1751-1772, was a defining Enlightenment project: 28 volumes systematizing arts, sciences, and trades using reason rather than religious authority. It was explicitly anti-clerical and subversive — banned by French authorities — and exemplified the Enlightenment belief that all knowledge could be organized, communicated, and judged by rational standards.

Question 2

The Enlightenment's application of 'scientific reason' to human society produced uniformly progressive results.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

The Enlightenment's application of scientific rationalism to society had deeply ambiguous results. It produced both liberal political philosophy (natural rights, popular sovereignty) and 'scientific' racism (classifying humans into racial hierarchies based on supposedly objective measurements). Enlightenment universalism — the claim that reason was universal — coexisted with specific exclusions: women were often deemed less rational; non-Europeans were ranked on hierarchies of civilization. The 'dark side of the Enlightenment' is a major area of historical scholarship.

Question 3

What was the Royal Society of London, and why was it important for the development of Enlightenment science?

Model answer: The Royal Society, founded in 1660 with royal charter from Charles II, was one of the first permanent institutions dedicated to natural philosophy (what we would call science). It provided a forum for presenting and critiquing experimental results; it published the Philosophical Transactions (one of the earliest scientific journals); it created networks among natural philosophers across Europe. The Society embodied the Enlightenment ideal of knowledge produced through collective empirical investigation rather than individual authority. Similar academies followed in France (Académie des sciences, 1666), Prussia, Russia, and elsewhere.

Question 4

David Hume applied empiricist principles most rigorously and reached conclusions that challenged Enlightenment confidence in reason. What was his central philosophical problem for Newtonian science?

Model answer: Hume's 'problem of induction' challenged the logical foundations of science. Science generalizes from observed cases to universal laws — but Hume argued this move was not logically justified. No matter how many times we observe that bread nourishes us, or that the Sun rises, we cannot prove these will always be so. All knowledge beyond immediate observation rests on an assumption — that the future will resemble the past — that cannot itself be justified without circular reasoning. This challenge has never been fully resolved and remains a foundational problem in philosophy of science.

Hume was simultaneously an Enlightenment thinker and its most rigorous critic, using empiricist logic to undermine confident claims to certainty. Kant described reading Hume as 'awakening him from his dogmatic slumber.'

Question 5

How did Enlightenment scientific institutions change who could legitimately contribute to natural knowledge?

• A. They democratized science by opening membership to all social classes
• B. They created a new professional class of scientists but largely excluded women and non-Europeans
• C. They transferred authority from universities to independent gentleman-scholars
• D. They required government approval for all scientific publications

Answer: (B)

Enlightenment scientific societies created professional structures for science — membership, publication, peer evaluation — but these structures were largely restricted to educated European men of means. Women were excluded from most scientific societies (exceptions like Mary Somerville came much later). Non-European knowledge was collected but its producers excluded from scientific fellowship. The professionalization of science simultaneously elevated empirical investigation above tradition and created new exclusions.