Life in 1648: Leviathan
Outline:
A. 1648 is a shift in mindset.
1. emergence of science and technology
2. new philosophy: F. Bacon, R. Descartes
3. political experiments
4. secularization
B. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. “Every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hopes of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use, all helps and advantages of war.”
C. The absolutist state
D. R. R. Palmer & Joel Colton: Science in time provided Europe with new faith in itself. The rise of science in the seventeenth century possibly saved European civilization from petering out in a long post-medieval afterglow, or from wandering off into diverse paths of a genial skepticism, ineffectual philosophizing, desultory magic or mad fear of the unknown.
E. The break-down of the medieval synthesis leads to the denial of objective truth. Bacon seeks the modern synthesis