Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Honors World History II: 15 September 2010

Prayer

Current Events:


O'Donnell vs. Castle: Upset in Delaware

Section 1 The Scientific Revolution

Sixteenth-century Europeans began to question the scientific assumptions of the ancient authorities and to develop new theories about the universe. Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei revolutionized astronomy. Copernicus claimed that the sun, not the earth, was at the center of the universe—an idea considered heresy by the Catholic Church. Equally revolutionary were Isaac Newton's explanations of gravity and the movement of the planets. There were breakthroughs in medicine and chemistry, and numerous women contributed to the body of scientific research. The new view of the universe affected Western philosophy. The Frenchman Rene Descartes, the first rationalist, declared that matter could be independently investigated by reason. Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, developed the scientific method—a system for collecting and analyzing evidence.

Terms, People, and Places

Nicolaus Copernicus

Pope Bans Copernicus' Theory of Sun-Centered Universe, 1:20


Ptolemy (c. AD 90 – c. 168), was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek; his influence was unprecedented in Islamic and European science and was not superseded until the Scientific Revolution.

The Catholic Church listed Copernicus' "De revolutionibus" on its Index of Prohibited Books, thus prohibiting its publication and denying the physical reality of the earth's movement around the sun. Andreas Cellarius circumvented the ban by depicting the theory in the lavish and ingenious drawings of "Harmonia macrocosmica", the most beautiful and famous Celestial Atlas.

heliocentric

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Planetary Motion, 4:28

Questions to consider:

Are planets moved by angels?

In 1618, what happened?

In 1619, what book was published?

What important scientific law was in the book?

What is the Third Law?

What did Kepler begin to understand?

What other scientist noticed Kepler's idea?

What did Newton conclude based on Kepler?

What is the significance of first Brahe's observatory, Kepler's writing, and Newton's conclusions based on the new scientific discoveries?


Are planets moved by angels?

Kepler believed that a force from the sun moved the planets. But he did not know what.

In 1618, what happened?

Kepler found himself in the midst of a religious war between Catholics and Protestants.

In 1619, what book was published?

Harmony of the World was published.

What important scientific law was in the book?

The Third Law was in the book.

What is the Third Law?

A characteristic constant was observed in the planets, comets, and asteroids.

What did Kepler begin to understand?

He began to understand God's plan in creation.

What other scientist noticed Kepler's idea?

Newton noticed Kepler's idea.

What did Newton conclude based on Kepler?

Newton described attraction demonstrated by any body characterized by mass.

What is the significance of first Brahe's observatory, Kepler's writing, and Newton's conclusions based on the new scientific discoveries?

The Copernican world view was now unassailable. After Brahe, Kepler, and Newton, our modern view of the universe is based on their ideas.

Johannes Kepler

Galileo

Galileo Galilei, 1:17

Based on this video, what would you say was the relationship like of Galileo to the Church?


Francis Bacon

René Descartes

scientific method

hypothesis

Robert Boyle

Isaac Newton

gravity

calculus

In 1609, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei heard of a new Dutch invention, the telescope. It was designed to help people see distant enemy ships. Galileo was interested for another reason—he wondered what would happen if he trained a telescope on the night sky. So he built his own telescope for this purpose. When he pointed it at the sky, he was amazed. The new telescope allowed him to see mountains on the moon, fiery spots on the sun, and four moons circling the planet Jupiter. “I did discover many particulars in Heaven that had been unseen and unheard of until this our age,” he later wrote.

Learn

Focus Question

How did discoveries in science lead to a new way of thinking for Europeans?

The Renaissance and the Reformation facilitated the breakdown of the medieval worldview. In the mid-1500s, a profound shift in scientific thinking brought about the final break with Europe’s medieval past. Called the Scientific Revolution, this movement pointed toward a future shaped by a new way of thinking about the physical universe. At the heart of the Scientific Revolution was the assumption that mathematical laws governed nature and the universe. The physical world, therefore, could be known, managed, and shaped by people.

Summary of the Scientific Revolution:

Until the mid-1500s, Europeans’ view of the universe was shaped by the theories of the ancient writers Ptolemy and Aristotle. More than 1,000 years before the Renaissance, they had taught that Earth was the center of the universe. Not only did this view seem to agree with common sense, it was accepted by the Church. In the 1500s and 1600s, however, people began to question this view.
Copernicus Challenges Ancient Astronomy

In 1543, Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus (koh pur nih kus) published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. In it, he proposed a heliocentric, or sun-centered, model of the universe. The sun, he said, stands at the center of the universe. Earth is just one of several planets that revolve around the sun.

Most experts rejected this revolutionary theory. In Europe at the time, all scientific knowledge and many religious teachings were based on the arguments developed by classical thinkers. If Ptolemy’s reasoning about the planets was wrong, people believed, then the whole system of human knowledge might be called into question. But in the late 1500s, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (tee koh brah uh) provided evidence that supported Copernicus’s theory. Brahe set up an astronomical observatory. Every night for years, he carefully observed the sky, accumulating data about the movement of the heavenly bodies.

After Brahe’s death, his assistant, the brilliant German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler, used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun. His calculations supported Copernicus’s heliocentric view. At the same time, however, they showed that each planet does not move in a perfect circle, as both Ptolemy and Copernicus believed, but in an oval-shaped orbit called an ellipse.

Galileo’s “Heresies”

Scientists from many different lands built on the foundations laid by Copernicus and Kepler. In Italy, Galileo Galilei assembled an astronomical telescope. As you have read, he observed that the four moons of Jupiter move slowly around that planet—exactly, he realized, the way Copernicus said that Earth moves around the sun.

Views of the Moon

Galileo sketched the views of the moon he saw through his telescope in 1609. Pictures of the moon taken through a modern telescope look remarkably similar.

Galileo’s discoveries caused an uproar. Other scholars attacked him because his observations contradicted ancient views about the world. The Church condemned him because his ideas challenged the Christian teaching that the heavens were fixed in position to Earth, and perfect.

Vocabulary Builder

In 1633, Galileo was tried before the Inquisition, and for a year afterward he was kept under house arrest. Threatened with death unless he withdrew his “heresies,” Galileo agreed to state publicly in court that Earth stands motionless at the center of the universe. Legend has it that as he left the court he muttered, “And yet it moves.”


In Chapter 10, we are moving on to Section 2 The Enlightenment

philosophe (notice the spelling: this is not the same thing as philosopher)


separation of powers


deism


laissez-faire


social contract


salon (there is a common everyday word, but in reference to the Enlightenment, it means a physical place more specific and relates directly to the Enlightenment)


Lecture:


At this point, we will make a transition to:


Chapter 10: Revolution and Enlightenment, 1550–1800


Section 2 The Enlightenment


Ideas Spread in Salons


New literature, the arts, science, and philosophy were regular topics of discussion in salons, or informal social gatherings at which writers, artists, philosophes, and others exchanged ideas. The salon originated in the 1600s, when a group of noblewomen in Paris began inviting a few friends to their homes for poetry readings. By the 1700s, some middle-class women began holding salons. Here middle-class citizens could meet with the nobility on an equal footing to discuss and spread Enlightenment ideas.


Madame Geoffrin (zhoh fran) ran one of the most respected salons. In her home on the Rue St. Honoré (roo sant ahn ur ay), she brought together the brightest and most talented people of her day. The young musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played for her guests, and Diderot was a regular at her weekly dinners for philosophers and poets.


Pens to Inspire Revolution


Diderot


Enlightenment thinker Denis Diderot compiled a controversial 28-volume work called the Encyclopedia, which was published between 1751 and 1772. This work was a forum for Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire. These thinkers believed that with the power of reason, they could fix the problems of society. Although the Encyclopedia was banned in many places and censored in others, it would prove to be a major factor in the years of revolutions to come. It contains the passage below on freedom.

“No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.”


—Denis Diderot


Objectives

* Explain how science led to the Enlightenment.
* Compare the ideas of Hobbes and Locke.
* Identify the beliefs and contributions of the philosophes.
* Summarize how economic thinking changed during this time.

Terms, People, and Places (some of these may be posted on our Shanawiki page (http://shanawiki.wikispaces.com/) as well.


natural law

Thomas Hobbes

John Locke

natural right


Rousseau Stirs Things Up

In Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s most important work, The Social Contract, he argued that in order to be free, people should do what is best for their community. Rousseau had many supporters who were inspired by his passionate writings. European monarchs, on the other hand, were angry that Rousseau was questioning authority. As a result, Rousseau worried about persecution for much of his life. The “chains” below represent the social institutions that confined society.

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”

—Rousseau, The Social Contract

What effects did Enlightenment philosophers have on government and society?

By the early 1700s, European thinkers felt that nothing was beyond the reach of the human mind. Through the use of reason, insisted these thinkers, people and governments could solve every social, political, and economic problem. In essence, these writers, scholars, and philosophers felt they could change the world.


Scientific Revolution Sparks the Enlightenment

The Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and 1600s had transformed the way people in Europe looked at the world. In the 1700s, other scientists expanded European knowledge. For example, Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against smallpox, a disease whose path of death spanned the centuries.

Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason. Natural law, or rules discoverable by reason, govern scientific forces such as gravity and magnetism. Why not, then, use natural law to better understand social, economic, and political problems?

Using the methods of the new science, reformers thus set out to study human behavior and solve the problems of society. In this way, the Scientific Revolution led to another revolution in thinking, known as the Enlightenment.

Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher best known for his work The Critique of Pure Reason, was one of the first to describe this era with the word “Enlightenment.” Despite Kant’s skepticism about the power of reason, he was enthusiastic about the Enlightenment and believed, like many European philosophers, that natural law could help explain aspects of humanity.


Hobbes and Locke Have Conflicting Views

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, two seventeenth-century English thinkers, set forth ideas that were to become key to the Enlightenment. Both men lived through the upheavals of the English Civil War. Yet they came to very different conclusions about human nature and the role of government.

Hobbes Believes in Powerful Government

Thomas Hobbes outlined his ideas in a work titled Leviathan. In it, he argued that people were naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish. If not strictly controlled, they would fight, rob, and oppress one another. Life in the “state of nature”—without laws or other control—would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

To escape that “brutish” life, said Hobbes, people entered into a social contract, an agreement by which they gave up their freedom for an organized society. Hobbes believed that only a powerful government could ensure an orderly society. For him, such a government was an absolute monarchy, which could impose order and compel obedience.

Hobbes Writes the Leviathan

The title page from Leviathan (1651) by Hobbes demonstrates his belief in a powerful ruler. The monarch here represents the Leviathan who rises above all of society.

Locke Advocates Natural Rights

John Locke had a more optimistic view of human nature. He thought people were basically reasonable and moral. Further, they had certain natural rights, or rights that belonged to all humans from birth. These included the right to life, liberty, and property.

In Two Treatises of Government, Locke argued that people formed governments to protect their natural rights. The best kind of government, he said, had limited power and was accepted by all citizens. Thus, unlike Hobbes, Locke rejected absolute monarchy.

England during this time experienced a shift in political power known as the Glorious Revolution. James II, an unpopular absolute monarch, left the throne and fled England in 1688. Locke later wrote that he thought James II deserved to be dethroned for violating the rights of the English.

Locke proposed a radical idea about this time. A government, he said, has an obligation to the people it governs. If a government fails its obligations or violates people’s natural rights, the people have the right to overthrow that government.

Locke’s idea would one day influence leaders of the American Revolution, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Locke’s idea of the right of revolution would also echo across Europe and Latin America in the centuries that followed.


The Philosophes

In the 1700s, there was a flowering of Enlightenment thought. This was when a group of Enlightenment thinkers in France applied the methods of science to understand and improve society. They believed that the use of reason could lead to reforms of government, law, and society. These thinkers were called philosophes (fee loh zohfs), which means “philosophers.” Their ideas soon spread beyond France and even beyond Europe.

Montesquieu Advances the Idea of Separation of Powers

An early and influential thinker was Baron de Montesquieu (mahn tus kyoo). Montesquieu studied the governments of Europe, from Italy to England. He read about ancient and medieval Europe, and learned about Chinese and Native American cultures. His sharp criticism of absolute monarchy would open doors for later debate.

Biography
Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet, most commonly known as Voltaire (1694–1778) was an impassioned poet, historian, essayist, and philosopher who wrote with cutting sarcasm and sharp wit.

Voltaire was sent to the Bastille prison twice due to his criticism of French authorities and was eventually banned from Paris. When he was able to return to France, he wrote about political and religious freedom.

Voltaire spent his life fighting enemies of freedom, such as ignorance, superstition, and intolerance.

Montesquieu

Born to wealth, Charles Louis de Secondat (1689–1755) inherited the title Baron de Montesquieu from his uncle. Like many other reformers, he did not let his privileged status keep him from becoming a voice for democracy.

His first book titled Persian Letters ridiculed the French government and social classes. In his work published in 1748, The Spirit of the Laws, he advanced the idea of separation of powers—a foundation of modern democracy.

In 1748, Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws, in which he discussed governments throughout history. Montesquieu felt that the best way to protect liberty was to divide the various functions and powers of government among three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial.

He also felt that each branch of government should be able to serve as a check on the other two, an idea that we call checks and balances. Montesquieu’s beliefs would soon profoundly affect the Framers of the United States Constitution.

Voltaire Defends Freedom of Thought

Probably the most famous of the philosophes was François-Marie Arouet, who took the name Voltaire. “My trade,” said Voltaire, “is to say what I think,” and he did so throughout his long, controversial life.

Voltaire used biting wit as a weapon to expose the abuses of his day. He targeted corrupt officials and idle aristocrats. With his pen, he battled inequality, injustice, and superstition. He detested the slave trade and deplored religious prejudice.

Voltaire’s outspoken attacks offended both the French government and the Catholic Church. He was imprisoned and forced into exile. Even as he saw his books outlawed and even burned, he continued to defend the principle of freedom of speech.

Diderot Edits the Encyclopedia

Denis Diderot (dee duh roh) worked for years to produce a 28-volume set of books called the Encyclopedia. As the editor, Diderot did more than just compile articles.

His purpose was “to change the general way of thinking” by explaining ideas on topics such as government, philosophy, and religion. Diderot’s Encyclopedia included articles by leading thinkers of the day, including Montesquieu and Voltaire.

In these articles, the philosophes denounced slavery, praised freedom of expression, and urged education for all. They attacked divine-right theory and traditional religions. Critics raised an outcry.

The French government argued that the Encyclopedia was an attack on public morals, and the pope threatened to excommunicate Roman Catholics who bought or read the volumes.

Despite these and other efforts to ban the Encyclopedia, more than 4,000 copies were printed between 1751 and 1789. When translated into other languages, the Encyclopedia helped spread Enlightenment ideas throughout Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Rousseau Promotes The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (roo soh), believed that people in their natural state were basically good. This natural innocence, he felt, was corrupted by the evils of society, especially the unequal distribution of property.

Many reformers and revolutionaries later adopted this view. Among them were Thomas Paine and Marquis de Lafayette, who were leading figures of the American and French Revolutions.

In 1762, Rousseau set forth his ideas about government and society in The Social Contract. Rousseau felt that society placed too many limitations on people’s behavior.

He believed that some controls were necessary, but that they should be minimal. Additionally, only governments that had been freely elected should impose these controls.

Rousseau put his faith in the “general will,” or the best conscience of the people. The good of the community as a whole, he said, should be placed above individual interests.

Rousseau has influenced political and social thinkers for more than 200 years. Woven through his work is a hatred of all forms of political and economic oppression. His bold ideas would help fan the flames of revolt in years to come.

Women Challenge the Philosophes

The Enlightenment slogan “free and equal” did not apply to women. Though the philosophes said women had natural rights, their rights were limited to the areas of home and family.

By the mid- to late-1700s, a small but growing number of women protested this view. Germaine de Staël in France and Catharine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft in Britain argued that women were being excluded from the social contract itself. Their arguments, however, were ridiculed and often sharply condemned.

Wollstonecraft was a well-known British social critic. She accepted that a woman’s first duty was to be a good mother but felt that a woman should be able to decide what was in her own interest without depending on her husband.

In 1792, Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In it, she called for equal education for girls and boys. Only education, she argued, could give women the tools they needed to participate equally with men in public life.

Contact info:
Twitter: gmicksmith@twitter.com
gmsmith@shanahan.org
Shanahan: 610.518.1300 x4281
For Honors Business Economics and Honors World History II:
http://gmicksmithsocialstudies.blogspot.com/
For World History 2:
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/worldhistory/gwhmt2003/index.php4

Book references are available at:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gmicksmith

GradeConnect


HW or in-class work due the following day.

You may email to gmsmith@shanahan.org.

1. Peruse Chapter 10 Revolution and Enlightenment, 1550-1800 (if you do not have a textbook yet; do not worry. We will cover any material you need in class): in particular, however, if reading, be familiar with the material in Section 1 The Scientific Revolution; we are covering this material in-class, and in detail, so every student has access to the same exact information.

2. In the textbook, p. 299, answer #4-5.

Honors Business Economics Chapter 1 Section 1, 15 September 2010

Prayer

Current Events:

Michelle Obama's health reform plan for the nation's restaurant menus and families dining out, L.A. Times, September 14, 2010

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday announced the award of $16.8 million to support 27 Public Health Training Centers at accredited schools of public health across the country.

The Seen & Unseen of Government Regulation: Bastiat

In class assignment for today (email or hand in with your HW):

Who was Bastiat?

What example does he describe?

What did he mean by the "seen and unseen" of economics?

What affect does government regulation have on small business? Good or bad?


Chapter 1: What Is Economics?

I had asked yesterday for the terms to be defined for the Student Web Activity:

human capital

trade-offs

opportunity cost


Chapter Overview

Section 1: Scarcity and the Science of Economics

Economics is a social science that deals with the fundamental economic problem of scarcity—a condition caused by the combination of seemingly unlimited wants and limited resources. Because of this, people are forced to make choices and decisions about how they will use their resources. People have needs such as food, clothing, and shelter; people have wants, which are nonessential ways of expressing needs. The notion of TINSTAAFL, which stands for There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, is often used to remind us that resources are scarce and that we must make careful economic decisions regarding WHAT, HOW, and FOR WHOM to produce. Other concepts relevant to economics are the four factors of production: land, capital, labor, and entrepreneurs. And the four key elements to this study are description, analysis, explanation, and prediction.

Scarcity

This is an excellent illustration for your notebook.



Scarcity & Choice (Shhh, if the volume is too low), 4:36

In-class assignment for today:

According to the video, what is Economics? What is scarcity? Can you provide an example of a choice that is not rational nor is it in your self-interest?




Definition of Economics

Definition of scarcity

The Factors of Production, p. 8

Graphic Organizer: Chapter 1, Section 1 - Review, The (4) Factors of Production, p. 8


p. 8: Descriptions of Land, Capital, Labor, and Entrepreneurs

Land

Capital

Labor

Entrepreneurs, p. 9

A good is said to be an economic good (also known as a scarce good) if the quantity of the good demanded exceeds the quantity supplied at a zero price. In other words, a good is an economic good if people want more of it than would be available if the good were available for free.

A good is said to be a free good if the quantity of the good supplied exceeds the quantity demanded at a zero price. In other words, a good is a free good if there is more than enough available for everyone even when the good is free. Economists argue that there are relatively few, if any, free goods.

An item is said to be an economic bad if people are willing to pay to avoid the item. Examples of economic "bads" include things like garbage, pollution, and illness.

Goods that are used to produce other goods or services are called economic resources (and are also known as inputs or factors of production). These resources are often categorized into the following groups:

1. Land,
2. Labor,
3. Capital, and
4. Entrepreneurial ability.

The category of "land" includes all natural resources. These natural resources include the land itself, as well as any minerals, oil deposits, timber, or water that exists on or below the ground. This category is sometimes described as including only the "free gifts of nature," those resources that exist independent of human action.

The labor input consists of the physical and intellectual services provided by human beings. The resource called "capital" consists of the machinery and equipment used to produce output. Note that the use of the term "capital" differs from the everyday use of this term. Stocks, bonds, and other financial assets are not capital under this definition of the term.

Entrepreneurial ability refers to the ability to organize production and bear risks.

The resource payment associated with each resource is listed in the table below:

Economic Resource Resource Payment
land rent
labor wages
capital interest
entrepreneurial ability profit

And, again here below:

Web Activity Lesson Plans

The Student Web Activity is based on the class lesson. For example, students should look up and define these three terms before the Activity begins:

human capital

trade-offs

opportunity cost

Terms defined:

Student Web Activity
Chapter 1: What Is Economics?

Student Web Activity

"Learning About an Occupation"

Introduction

The freedom to make our own economic decisions, including our occupations, employers, and when and where we work, is one of our most cherished freedoms. Information available on the World Wide Web makes these choices increasingly easier to explore. One useful source is the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has detailed information on hundreds of occupations—from "able seamen" to "zoologists"—including job descriptions, earnings, job outlooks, and educational requirements. It is never too early to think about an occupation. The Handbook may even help you to decide which courses you want to take before you graduate. One occupation you might want to consider is that of an economist. Economists have one of the higher paying jobs in the economy and it's a career worth considering.

The class will be divided into four groups and one of the questions below will eventually be your group question. Your group is expected to find a suggested answer to each of the four questions, and then your group will answer one question for the entire class.

Think of your own individual answer to these questions: this is your HW for tonight:

1. Read the description under "Nature of the Work." Then, describe several aspects of the job that appeal to you.

2. If you were to decide to become an economist, what other academic disciplines would you have to study in college? Why is this so?

3. Where do economists find employment, and what salaries can economists expect to make?

4. What are the opportunity costs that you are likely to encounter if you decide to become an economist?





Textbook site:

Economics: Principles and Practices

Economics Web Links

Games & Simulations

Stock Market Game (SMG)

"Student teams are $15 each."

Mankiw Macroeconomics Presidential Game

Please note: this game requires the Shockwave version 7.0 or higher: test page for Shockwave.

There is an abundance of economics resources for Mankiw (edition 5e) as well.

References
Textbook site:

Economics: Principles and Practices

Economics Web Links

Games & Simulations

National Geographic MapMachine and maps to illustrate areas.

Study-to-Go: download a portable version of your textbook-related materials onto your Palm or Pocket PC, including Self-Check Quizzes.

ECONOMY WATCH

This Index page collects all of the stories that we have written about the nation’s economic and financial crisis.

Cf. http://blog.glencoe.com/blog/2010/08/25/economy-watch/

Cf. Scarcity

Energy Crisis: Resource Scarcity, Oil Wars & Climate Change, 1:25:18

Participants: George Soros; Mary Kaldor; Yahia Said; Sir Nicholas Stern. Chaired by Howard Davies

Description: This event seeks to promote their political agenda and thinking about energy security, and marks the launch of the publication Oil Wars, edited by Mary Kaldor, Terry Karl and Yahia Said.

July 4, 2007 at the London School of Economics.

(Audio only unfortunately)


HW

Email me at gmsmith@shanahan.org, or in a hard copy hand in.

These questions are the four we covered in class today.

1. Read the description under "Nature of the Work." Then, describe several aspects of the job that appeal to you.

2. If you were to decide to become an economist, what other academic disciplines would you have to study in college? Why is this so?

3. Where do economists find employment, and what salaries can economists expect to make?

4. What are the opportunity costs that you are likely to encounter if you decide to become an economist?