Historyspeaking topic
How did Newton's formulation of the law of universal gravitation in the Principia lay the scientific foundation of the Enlightenment?
— Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- When the printing press was invented, the greatest fear was 'information pollution'; clergymen were horrified that everyone would read and produce their own wrong interpretations. The fact that everything said about the internet today was said about the printing press five hundred years ago makes you wonder whether our fear of new technology is really new, or just a recurring reflex.
- Let's talk about the contradiction between the promise of liberty and equality in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) and the exclusion of women and slaves at the time.
- How did the Industrial Revolution radically change the life of the worker? Let's discuss how the steam engine and the factory system moved people from village to city, from field to machine.
- How did Marco Polo's journey to China change Europe's image of the East? How much of what he described was real, and how much was legend?
- The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804): let's talk about how the French Revolution's idea of equality ignited the world's first successful slave revolt.