第5章　第17世纪

Questions for Revision:

1What were Galileo’s contributions to modern science?

【答案】Galileo is the greatest name in physics in the 17th century. He has made contributions to the world:

(1) He was the first to apply telescope to the study of the skies. He even made a telescope for himself and used it to observe the stars;

(2) In 1609 he announced a series of astronomical discoveries which caught the attention of the whole of Europe. With the help of telescope, e proved that Ptolemy’s system would not work and that Copernicus’s hypothesis had been right;

(3) Galileo discovered the importance of acceleration in dynamics and the law of inertia;

(4) Galileo was the first to establish the law of falling bodies;

(5) He invented thermometer.

2How did Kepler’s laws clarify and amend Copernican theory?

【答案】Copernicus heliocentric theory was put forward only as a hypothesis. It was Kepler who supported him scientifically. Kepler is best known for his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion, the three laws being called Kepler’s laws published in 1609 and 1619. They may be stated as follows:

(1) Each planet moves in an ellipse, not a perfect circle, with the sun at one focus;

(2) Each planet moves more rapidly when near the sun than farther from it;

(3) The distance of each planet from the sun bears a definite relation to the time period the planet took to complete a revolution around the sun. This law was reduced to a mathematical formula: the square of the period of revolution of a planet about the sun is proportional to the cube of the mean distance of the planet from the sun.

Kepler’s laws supported, clarified and amended the Copernican system and turned the system from a general description of the sun and the planets into a precise mathematical formula/ these three laws formed the basis of all modern planetary astronomy and led to Newton’s discovery of the laws of gravitation.

3Why Newton is generally considered to be the greatest scientist that ever lived?

【答案】Newton has made great contributions to history of science:

(1) As a mathematician, he invented calculus;

(2) In optics, he discovered that while light is composed of all the colors of the spectrum;

(3) Most important of all, he discovered the law of the universal gravitation. According to this law, every body attracts every other with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. To put it simply, the sun, the moon, the earth, the planets, and all other bodies in the universe move in accordance with the same basic force which is called gravitation. The law of gravitation is considered to be one of the most important discoveries in the history of science and had not been questioned until Einstein discovered the law of relativity;

(4) Newton’s influence was not limited to the physical universe. His analytical method, the way he approached natural laws by observation, experiment and calculation, began to be applied to human society, to all branches of knowledge and thought. Thus he was generally considered to be the greatest scientist that ever lived.

4Why do we say that Bacon was a founder of modern philosophy?

【答案】Bacon was regarded as the founder of modern philosophy:

The whole basis of his philosophy was practical. He held the philosophy should be kept separate from theology instead of being blended with it as the Scholasticism; Bacon maintained that it was crucial to supply mankind with a scientific method of inquiry into nature. He rejected the traditional deductive method and founded modern inductive method;

To exert any great advancement in science, bacon held that we must begin anew. The fresh start required the mind to overcome all the preconceptions, all prejudices, all the assumption, to sweep away all the fallacies and false beliefs, in a word, to break with the past, and to restore man to his lost mastery of the natural world.

This was what Bacon called the Great Instauration.

5What were the major differences between Locke’s concept of “social contract” and Hobbes’s?

【答案】(1) Hobbes’s concept of “social contract” is as follows. To escape anarchy, men enter into a social contrast, by which they submit to the sovereign. In return, men attain peace and security. In his theory, the powers of the sovereign must be absolute, and it is only by the centralization of authority in one person that the evil can be avoided. And the sovereign is not a party himself to the social contract. The subjects of the sovereign cannot either change the form of the government or repudiate the authority of the sovereign. As to the form of government, Hobbes preferred monarchy.

(2) Locke tried to show the rational foundation of political society and government. He emphasized that the social contract must be understood as involving the individual’s consent to submit to the will of the majority and that the will of the majority must prevail. For him, absolute monarchy was contrary to the original social contract and dangerous to liberty. For him, the ruler of government is one partner of the social contract.

(3) Although both Hobbes and Locke used the term “social contract”, they differ fundamentally. First, Hobbes argued that men enter into a social contract to escape the state of war, for, in his view, men are enemies and at war with each other. Locke argued that men are equal and that individuals surrender their rights to one man, the sovereign whose power is absolute. Locke argued that the individuals surrender their rights to the community as a whole. According to him, by majority vote a representative is chosen, but his power is not absolute. If he fails to implement the people’s will, the people have the right to overthrow him.

6How did Locke justify rebellion against government?

【答案】Locke believed that the ruler of government is one partner of the social contract. If the ruler substitutes his arbitrary will for the laws and shows no regard for people’s wills, in a word, if he violates the social contract, the government is effectively dissolved. If the government is dissolved. Rebellion is justified. As to who is to judge when circumstance render rebellion legitimate, Locke replied, “The people shall be the judge.”

7What is the theme of John Milton’s Paradise Lost?

【答案】The theme of Milton’s Paradise Lost is the fall of men: man’s disobedience and the loss thereupon of the Paradise, with its prime cause-Satan. In this epic poem, the evil, rebellious, courageous, heroic and tragic Satan is the most successfully portrayed character and is different from the traditional image.

8What is Descartes’s method of Cartesian doubt? What is its significance?

【答案】Descartes employed methodic doubt with a view to discovering whether there was an indubitable truth. And he expressed this truth in this famous motto: “I doubt, therefore I think: I think, therefore I am.” This Cartesian doubt is the most important point in his philosophy. According to Descartes, “I think therefore I am” makes mind more certain than matter. He believed that is thinking is one that doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, imagines, and feels. Doubting is thinking, thinking is the essence of mind. So he concluded that knowledge of things that we conceive very clearly and distinctly are true, and that knowledge of things must be by the mind. As to the senses, he believed that they are not dependable.

9Who was the most well-known writer in the 17th century French literature? Say something about one of his major works.

【答案】Corneille, Racine and Moliere were the most well-known writers in the 17th century French literature. Corneille’s masterpiece was Le Cid which shows the intense conflict between love and duty. One of the representative tragedies of Racine is Phaedra which tells the story of the overwhelming passion of Phaedra for her stepson. The theme of the play is the conflict of passion with reason. Tartuffe is one of Moliere’s best known comedies. In this play, he exposes religious hypocrisy.

10What are some of the characteristics of Baroque art?

【答案】Baroque art, flourished first in Italy, and then spread to Spain, Portugal, France in south Europe and to Flander and the Netherland in the North. It was characterized by dramatic intensity and sentimental appeal with a lot of emphasis on light and color. The representatives were Bernini, Michelangelo Caravaggio, Borromini, Rubens, Velazquez, Rembrandt, etc.

In architecture, it referred to architecture of the period with its proliferation of ornament. Later the term “baroque” was applied to paintings and music. In music, the new art represented a transformation of its elements into a swelling, emotional style.