How did the Scientific Revolution inspire the Enlightenment?
If you define “Enlightenment” not so much as an age in history, but a specific idea – that knowledge should be extended to as many as possible – then Enlightenment is prior to the “Scientific Revolution,” and perhaps inspired it. Thinkers like Machiavelli, Descartes, and Francis Bacon – I mean, yeah, the latter two did scientific experiments – all had arguments for the extension of knowledge as well as a new purpose for it. Recall that “Enlightenment” is pretty much an attack on the authority of the Church; the latter’s purpose for knowledge was to enable appreciation of the life beyond, what Aquinas called the “beatific vision.” Sources are listed below.
