Astronomy and Cosmology
Medicine/Living Things
Natural/Philosophy
Thinking Historically
Mystery Flavor
100
What is a deist/what is deism?
The belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. Deists accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.
100
What was a searcher?
People, mostly (older, poorer) women, hired by parishes in London to examine corpses and determine the causes of people's deaths beginning in the sixteenth century.
100
What was the Accademia del Cimento?
For an additional 100 points - What was the Vienna Academy of Stalwart Observers?
Founded in 1657, a short-lived Italian academic society founded by followers of Galileo (among others). Sponsored by Leopoldo de' Medici (notably - a catholic cardinal, only 25 years or so after the trial of Galileo)
Bonus - NOTHING! This is fake!!!!!!!
100
It is March 2022, and you are a staunch presentist about to take a class on The Scientific Revolution. To prepare, you decide to read Robert Boyle’s New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air and its effects (1660). What kinds of presentist conclusions do you make from reading this text? Name two.
Boyle finally gets it right, father of modern chemistry, he changed everything forever, etc etc - sense of progress, inevitability, "great men," etc.
100
Describe one problem with the London Bills of Mortality.
Potential for inaccurate information (bribing searchers to change cause of death, uncertainty of determining it in the first place); Recording burials in Church of England churchyards and not deaths; Not including the English Dissenters, Roman Catholics or those of other faiths.
200
Sitting in class one day at Cambridge University in the late 1600s, your mind wanders from the lecture toward bigger questions of existence. “I wonder how old the universe is?” you think to yourself. Not long after, you discover that a man called Bishop James Ussher (1581-1656) actually published a book that answers this very question!
When did he argue that God created the universe, and on the basis of what evidence?
Calculating the age of the earth by reading Genesis
‣ October 23rd, 4004 BCE in the evening around 6pm
‣ Bible as lab notebook.
‣ Contradicted by classical texts which proposed a much older origin, but in the 1600s people were way into questioning those guys, so...
200
Were early modern European hospitals like hospitals today? Why or why not?
No - wider range of services - hostel, sanctuary, charity, hospice, etc. in addition to caring for the sick and the injured - often associated with monasteries etc caring for religious pilgrims
Becoming more for the sick and injured in the 17th-18thcs BUT more for the poor who couldn't afford home care
200
What was natural theology? How did it shape the way in which European natural philosophers like Robert Boyle interpreted natural phenomena?
The belief that the study of nature could reveal the attributes of God (i.e. the "two books" - the Bible and the Book fo Nature). A theology or knowledge of God based on observed facts and experience apart from divine revelation.
200
Describe what is methodologically wrong with this assumption: "Robert Boyle's sister Katherine contributed very little to his scientific thinking, because the sources describe largely only his own ideas separate from her work in natural philosophy."
The source problem - sources often offer incomplete information or certain sources have not been preserved which would offer a full picture (esp true for women and other marginalized groups). Reading carefully and asking robust historical questions can help a historian work through these kinds of problems!
200
Stephen Hales (1677-1761) devised “haemodynamic” experiments, inspired by the work of Boyle and others, to measure _______________.
blood pressure!
300
Describe René Descartes’ cosmology.
For an extra 100 points, draw a diagram!
Mechanical vortices (FYI, "vortices" is the plural of "vortex") of stars w/ their own planetary systems thru 3d space (instead of fixed, confined sphere of stars).
300
What was the title of this book? Who wrote it and when? Name one of its interventions.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body), Andreas Vesalius 1543. Revealed the inaccuracy of some of Galen's anatomical knowledge via human dissections.
300
What on earth is the New Philosophy? Name either a person or institution which is associated with it.
◦ Observation and experiment (reorienting sources of authority)
◦ Arguing for a central role for mathematics and measurement
◦ Emphasis on the practicality of science
Assoc.: Francis Bacon, Royal Society of London
300
Discuss one thing you found particularly interesting about Daniel Defoe’s account of the Great Plague of London (1665-1666) in his A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).
Some options: fact vs fiction, historical memory, EM public health measures
300
How did the concept of a relationship between “microcosm” and “macrocosm” shape early modern natural philosophy?
Theories of matter and cosmology central to understandings of the human body (and other bodies but esp. humans). Examples include the Hippocratic tradition, William Harvey (!!)
400
How did the Paris Condemnation of 1277 respond to Aristotelian ideas concerning the possibility of extraterrestrial life?
Catholic theologians angered that several Aristotelian doctrines seemed to limit the power of God (e.g. when he said multiple worlds were impossible)
‣ Bishop of Paris issued a document condemning over 200 Aristotelian ideas that he believed negated the idea of an omnipotent creator
‣ Proposition 34 condemned the assertion that "the First Cause cannot make many worlds"
‣ Other parts of the Condemnation of 1277 concerned the Aristotelian assumption that the universe had always existed, which contradicted the idea that God created everything including space and matter (and could do with them as He wished)
400
In 1677, Antoine van Leeuwenhoek observed sperm under the microscope (gross). This was an observation of great interest to European natural philosophers, because it potentially spoke to the origins of all living things. How did van Leeuwenhoek interpret what he saw with regard to the question of how living things develop early on?
Movement towards thinking about sperm as the entire form, womb as nourishing/developing (previously, sperm as ARISTOTELIAN form/spirit, womb materializes)
400
In the 1600s, a mechanistic concept of nature emerged, changing the way in which people thought about everything from living things to the operation of the universe as a whole. The astronomer Johannes Kepler, for example, wrote that he had become newly convinced that the “motor cause” of the motion of the planets was not, as he said he had formerly believed, a kind of world soul, but rather, he wrote, “I am [now] much occupied with the investigation of the physical causes. My aim in this is to show that the machine of the universe is not similar to a divine animated being, but similar to a clock.”
Offer a definition for the mechanistic theory of nature, and describe a consequence of the clockwork analogy for early modern European concepts of nature.
Mechanistic theory of nature: You can think of the clockwork analogy as a kind of definition - as opposed to the organic theory of nature (focus on soul or purpose), the mechanistic theory of nature focuses on a passive understanding (the clock doesn't change in and of itself, it's wound and keeps going), God as clockmaker
Consequences for understanding of what is a living thing, people begin to ask whether mech phil could explain the origin of species (what if matter is perfectly self-capable? uh oh!)
400
You come across a primary source written by an eighteenth-century corpuscular matter theorist who claims that, because they are religious and loathe Lucretius, Lucretius’ De rerum natura has had no influence whatsoever on their own work in natural philosophy. Thinking from the perspective of historical method, should you take this person’s claim at face value? Why or why not? How should you proceed as a historian in evaluating this claim?
No - thinking about context, this person's ideas building from a long line of influence of Lucretius (also, saying so strongly you WEREN'T influenced by someone... sorta speaks volumes...)
Evaluation - looking at the pieces this person DOES cite as influences, comparing theories, etc.
400
Name one challenge to natural philosophy -- and mechanical philosophy in particular -- posed by Abraham Trembley’s discoveries in the 1740s concerning the interesting features and abilities of the freshwater polyp (aka hydra).
Abraham Trembley (1710-84) reporting puzzling challenge of polyps regenerating - challenge to nature as organic as opposed to mechanical (does the soul regenerate too?)
500
Why did an increase in acceptance of heliocentrism help lead to a general increase in belief in extraterrestrial life? Explain the connection.
New parity/equality between planets, AND undermining Aristotelian cosmology (and by extension matter theory)
500
Explain to a friend the significance of, and basic differences between, early modern European theories of preformation versus epigenesis.
Preformation - the homunculus (not a super popular argument - more thought they saw parts or elements that would be unfolded - but a good frame of thinking)
Epigenesis - life forms assembled through the organization of previously unorganized material within the womb (sometimes constituent parts)
Significance - role of the womb or sperm, broadly the origin of life
500
Explain Descartes’ demon. Did Descartes believe there was actually such a demon, or was the “demon” a device for the purposes of setting up his arguments?
A way in which Descartes describes a theory of systematic doubt (we can't trust our senses) - a demon imagined to present a complete illusion of an external world (constantly trying to fool you!). He does NOT actually, however, believe firmly in this demon - it's an idea he puts forth in his Meditations, but he ultimately trusts that God is good and would not fool us.
500
WAS there a "Scientific Revolution" ???
INSIDER TIP - This is going to be the final essay question! You didn't hear it from me!!! (You did - Prof. Daly said I could tell you)
You can make an argument either way, but your answer should be grounded in the kinds of historical thinking we have emphasized throughout this course. Some things to think about: narratives of "progress," continuity/discontinuity with the deeper past (e.g. the classical or medieval periods), "great man" histories, positionality of the present
500
What was Renaissance Humanism?
An intellectual movement typified by a revived interest in the classical world (celebrating as well as surpassing). NOT to be confused with secular humanism. Continuous in some ways w/ scholasticism, but saw themselves as reacting against it.