Sources for Western Society: Printed Page 260
Nicolaus Copernicus (Document 16-1) and Francis Bacon (Document 16-2) were separated by a lifetime. (Copernicus died almost twenty years before Bacon was born.) What similarities do you note between their modes of thinking? In what ways did they differ?
What differences do you note between Montesquieu’s (Document 16-4) and Rousseau’s (Document 16-5) theories about the nature of government and how it ought to interact with its citizens? Where do they seem to be in agreement?
Frederick the Great (Document 16-3) ruled a state in which “the legislative and executive powers [were] united in the same person.” What would Montesquieu (Document 16-4) say to such an arrangement? How do you think Frederick would reply to Montesquieu’s charge that under those conditions, “there can be no liberty”?
How did the new vision of the universe created by participants in the Scientific Revolution shape Voltaire’s view (Document 16-6) of human beings and their societies?
What would Frederick (Document 16-3) think of Bossuet’s divine-right monarchical theory (Document 15-2), and why? How would Rousseau respond to Frederick’s and Bossuet’s views on the monarchy?