Western Civilization II / Unit 6 WC2 0504 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Newton as Cause: Laws of Nature, Laws of Human Nature
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The idea
The anchor says the Enlightenment begins with the Principia of sixteen eighty-seven. If nature ran on immutable rational laws, human nature must too, and the philosophes set out to find them: how people learn, how government should be designed, why people deviate from reason.
In practice
The witness: Newtonianism as Enlightenment's foundation.
Where people slip
Reason: the faculty ordering sensory data, universal and inherent.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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