Page:Open Source Philosophy and the Dawn of Aviation.pdf/4

Mattos, B.S. great amount of computer power is necessary. It would take a monstrous supercomputer to get the job done. SETI programs could never afford to build or buy such computing power. SETI@home involved more than five million people, whose combined machines provided more than the equivalent to two million years of computing time looking for faint signs of intelligent life beyond earth.

There are uncountable initiatives for the development of ‘open source engineering software packages. Indeed, it can register such initiatives on all fronts of engineering subjects like structural analysis, computational fluid dynamics, vehicle system simulation, for naming just a few of them. It is worthy of mention Scilab (Scilab, 2012), which is a scientific software package for numerical computations that provides a powerful ‘open computing environment for engineering and scientific applications. Since 1994 it has been distributed freely along with the source code via the Internet. It is currently used in educational and industrial environments around the world.

The French and English Revolutions

The French Revolution in 1789, which caused the fall of the monarchy in France, is one of the most important facts of history. Louis the 16th received from his predecessor a country economically ruined, with dissatisfied and oppressed population, which faced a high load of taxes. France still kept its mediaeval social structure, counting three classes: nobility, clergy, and the so-called ‘third state’, A farmer had to allocate approximately two-thirds of its production for the payment of taxes (Maior, 1966).

The liberal ideas of Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau contributed to the goals of revolution. In addition to these philosophers, the economists Quesnay and Adam Smith contributed ideologically to the great transformation of 1789 (Maior, 1966).

In general, four causes can be enumerated to explain the French Revolution (Damton, 1982). Firstly, the Enlightenment contributed to an environment in which revolution was possible by its insistence on reforming institutions to comply with standards of reason and utility. Furthermore, it coincided with public opinion rise, which undermined the absolutist notion that political decisions required no consultation or tolerated no opposition. Secondly, the French state faced bankruptey due to a regressive and inefficient tax system, as well as the participation in the Seven Years War (from 1756 to 1763) and the War of American Independence (from 1775 to 1783). Thirdly, France witnessed endemic political strife in the 18th century. Technically, absolutist monarchs ruled by divine right and exercised sovereignty without the interference of representative institutions. French kings in reality met with opposition to their policies from the noble magistrates of the highest law courts (Parlements), who resisted fiscal reforms in the name of protecting traditional rights from arbitrary authority. Finally, while class conflict did not cause revolution, there were stress zones in French society, as a growing population threatened many people with destitution and as talented commoners chafed at their exclusion from high offices in the church, state, and military. Economic problems intensified after bad weather doubled the price of bread in 1789.

Enlightenment was a movement which stated that science could explain everything in nature. Until then, most people believed that God controlled the universe in a ‘metaphysical’ manner. Metaphysical means beyond physical, and suggests that it is impossible for humans to comprehend things that happen in our environment. Since it was developed more or less simultaneously in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, the movement spread through much of Europe, Russia and Scandinavia as well as the United States and Latin America. It has been argued that the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, were motivated by Enlightenment principles (Israel, 2001).

Galileo was one of the first thinkers of the Enlightenment. Galileo used a refracting telescope to search the skies, some Jupiter moons were discovered and he became the first person to observe Saturn’s rings, though he could not see them well enough to discern their true nature. Based on his observations, he confirmed the Copernicus’ theory that the earth traveled around the sun.

Enlightenment thinkers encouraged people to use science to explore nature and to question what they had always accepted without questioning. The Enlightenment stimulated people to participate in the government and to rethink old ideas, such as feudalism and primogeniture. The American Revolution and the French Republic are seen by many as huge achievements for the Enlightenment.

No moment in history stands alone, but each builds surely from the moments before it. The French Revolution and its aftermath were no exceptions, being recorded as a period of political and social upheaval in the history of France. In many ways it sprang from the undeniable and unswayable forces of modernization, toppling a system that was dying under its own weight and intrinsically unable to adapt and J. Aerosp. Technol. Manag., São José dos Campos, Vol.4, No 3, pp. 355-379, Jul.-Sep., 2012 358