השכל, וגבולותיו

The second half of unit 1's first sentence

• The rediscovery of works from ancient Greece and Rome and observation of the natural world changed many Europeans' view of their world.
• 1.2 followed the first half — the texts. This unit follows the second: observation.
• So the Scientific Revolution is not a new beginning in the CED's structure; it is a thread that has been running since 1450.

From nature to society

• The spread of Scientific Revolution concepts and practices and the Enlightenment's application of these concepts and practices to political, social and ethical issues led to an increased but not unchallenged emphasis on reason in European culture.
• The mechanism is in the sentence: methods developed for nature are applied to society.
• That application is what the word Enlightenment names in this course.

Scientific concepts and practices informed varied arguments about human institutions

"But not unchallenged"

• The CED's qualifier is doing serious work: the emphasis on reason increased, and it was contested throughout.
• 4.2 records alchemy and astrology continuing; 4.3 records Rousseau's exclusion of women; unit 5 will record the reaction.
• So an answer describing an unopposed age of reason contradicts the sentence it is quoting.

And everyday life was changing too

• The experiences of everyday life were shaped by demographic, environmental, medical and technological changes.
• So this unit is not only about ideas: 4.4 and 4.5 cover population, cities, childhood, consumption and print.
• The CED puts them in the same unit because a reading public is a precondition for a public argument.

Writing the context

• Conditions: unit 1's observation and printing, unit 3's market economy and states that could fund academies.
• And a literate public large enough that a printed argument reaches beyond a university.
• Name a condition and what it made possible — the same shape as 1.1, 2.1 and World History's 8.1.