17th-Century Transformation: Society, Science, Ideology

Historical Context of the 17th Century

Following the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries), the 17th century witnessed the emergence of the modern world across all levels of society. This period was marked by significant transformations in several key areas:

Economic Developments

There was substantial growth in trade and manufacturing. Early productive capital began to shift, gradually transforming feudal serfs into wage laborers, moving away from the guild system.

Political Landscape

Absolutist states, the first form of the modern state, dominated Europe, displacing feudal fiefs. Nobles were subjected to the absolute monarch (the sovereign), who, in turn, depended on lenders to finance the considerable costs of the centralized state. This included maintaining a standing army composed of mercenaries serving the monarch, rather than relying on knights.

Scientific Revolution

Modern science was born, spearheaded by advancements in physics. The feudal, geocentric conception of the world (finite, hierarchical, with separate celestial and terrestrial realms) was replaced by the heliocentric model of modern physics. This new worldview posited a universe that, while initially centered on the sun, was ultimately understood as infinite, homogeneous, without privileged positions, and governed by universal laws.

This transformation began in the 16th century with Copernicus and continued in the early 17th century with Galileo (who established the law of falling bodies) and Kepler (who formulated the laws describing planetary motion). It culminated in the late 17th century with Newton, whose law of universal gravitation unified these discoveries.

Modern science fostered the idea of a deterministic world governed by laws that humans could understand and use to their advantage. Descartes, influenced by the rise of modern physics, contributed to its development by explicitly formulating the law of inertia. However, Descartes envisioned the world as extensions moving in a vacuum and did not accept action at a distance, explaining phenomena like gravity and planetary motion through the artifice of whirlwinds.

Ideological Shift

The 17th century saw the rise of the concept of man as a free subject who autonomously determines his own life. This contrasted sharply with the feudal concept of man as a servant of God. A shift occurred from feudal geocentrism to anthropocentrism. This process permeated all fields, including literature, art, and philosophy. Examples include Cervantes' Don Quixote, who chooses to be a knight-errant, and Descartes, who asserts that reason determines truth and dictates action.