Exercise 1

Even as the Scientific Revolution brought new insights into the structure of the universe, it brought a deeper understanding of the body.  One of the earliest contributions to this understanding came from the Renaissance physician, Andreas Vesalius, whose The Fabric of the Human Body (1543) included detailed anatomical diagrams.  Consider, for example, Vesalius' depictions of the muscles, blood vessels, and nervous system.  Over eighty years later, the English physician, William Harvey, published the results of his observations of the circulatory system.  Read the following sample of his discussion in On the Motion of the Heart (1628).  How do Vesalius' diagrams and Harvey's discussion exemplify the intellectual values of the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution?  Do you think they used deductive or inductive reasoning to produce their representations of the body?

Now look at The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolas Tulp (1632) by Rembrandt van Rijn.  How does the artist represent the process of anatomical study? What do you think is the artist's attitude toward that process? Do you think he shares Vesalius' and Harvey's interest in how the body functions and is structured?

Exercise 2

One of the most interesting personages to emerge during the Enlightenment was the so-called Enlightened despot—the monarch who ruled according to Enlightenment principles.  The rulers generally thought to exemplify Enlightened despotism included Frederick II (a.k.a. "the Great") of Prussia, Maria Teresa of Austria, and Catherine II (a.k.a. "The Great") of Russia.  Read the following excerpts from Frederick's Essay on Forms of Government, and Catherine's "Proposals for a New Law Code" and "Decree on Serfs" in Various Documents on Government.  Then consider some remarks on the division of Poland by Frederick, Catherine, Maria Teresa.  What was Enlightened despotism? How did Enlightenment principles inform the ideas and decisions of these monarchs? Do you think Enlightenment values are compatible with despotic rule? If so, how? If not, how did these rulers accommodate those values with their political aims and the means they used to achieve them?