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Slide Notes
The Scientific Revolution from the 15th through the 17th Centuries was not a revolution in the sense that it happened suddenly or rapidly but it did usher in radically new perspectives on the world. By the end of this time period science took a preeminent place in Western Civilization as a source of authority and as a fount of progress. While the Renaissance and humanism had emphasized a view towards the greatness of past civilizations the application of the scientific method brought about an optimism for the future, that the greatest lies ahead of us, that persists in Western Civilization to this day.
AP European Scientific Revolution
Published on Nov 18, 2015
Scientific Revolution, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Bacon, Descartes, Cosmology, Astronomy, Empiricism, Induction, Deduction, Mechanical Universe, Pascal and the limits of Science
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Scientific Revolution
15th - 17th Century
The Scientific Revolution from the 15th through the 17th Centuries was not a revolution in the sense that it happened suddenly or rapidly but it did usher in radically new perspectives on the world. By the end of this time period science took a preeminent place in Western Civilization as a source of authority and as a fount of progress. While the Renaissance and humanism had emphasized a view towards the greatness of past civilizations the application of the scientific method brought about an optimism for the future, that the greatest lies ahead of us, that persists in Western Civilization to this day.
Big Idea
- Using empiricism (evidence) and rationalism (reason)
- Challenging faith, tradition, and authority
Medieval Worldview 1
Ptolemaic-Aristotelian Universe
The Medieval view of the world and it's place in the universe was founded on Ptolemy's and Aristotle's ideas. Most people took on the assumption of a geocentric universe. Around the earth were concentric spheres of fluid that contained the moon, planets, and stars and beyond these spheres was the domain of God and the angels.
Copernicus' Universe
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Copernicus' theories about the universe are a great example of the many false starts and dead ends of the Scientific Revolution. While Copernicus did place the sun at the center of the universe, he adopted the rest of the Ptolemaic universe and his system could not predict the location of the planets. Copernicus did, however, inspire other astronomers to look for new models that would resolve the inaccuracies in the old ones.
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler
New Astronomical Models
Two of those astronomers would be Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Brahe was never a defender of the Copernican model but he made incredibly detailed and consistent observations of the motions of heavenly bodies that Kepler, his assistant, would make use of after his death. Kepler was able to predict the elliptical, rather than circular, orbits of the planets in a book entitled "The New Astronomy" in 1609.
Galileo Galilei
The Mechanistic Universe
Galileo Galilei was the first to use the improved Dutch telescope to observe the skies and found previously undiscovered stars, the imperfections of the surface of the moon, new moons orbiting Jupiter, and sun spots. Galileo became convinced that the universe needed new mathematical models and that it didn't have to conform to medieval scholastic logic. His Italian noble patrons sponsored his work and became convinced that the world was a rational one and could be explained down to the finest details by mathematical models.
Isaac Newton
A Mathematical Model for the Universe
There was a large piece missing from the new astronomical models that would explain how the planets and stars moved at all, much less in a perfectly orchestrated fashion. Isaac Newton proposed that all of the heavenly bodies moved through a force of mutual attraction, gravity. In his "Pricipia Mathematica" (1687) Newton provided a more complete mathematical model for the universe than anyone had before and formed the foundation of modern physics. He was convinced, however, that only a creator of vast intelligence could have wrought such a finely tuned and balance universe. His beliefs were consistent with other Deistic views of a mechanistic universe. While new discoveries were uncovering the inner workings of the machine of nature it seemed to confirm to many that there must be a rational divine Creator.
Medieval Worldview 2
Humoral theory of the body and disease
Advances in Medicine
- William Harvey - Circulatory System
- Anatomy contributes to the understanding of the human body as a system
- Vesalius - Father of modern anatomy
Reason and Empiricism
Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes
The discoveries and methodologies of the Scientific Revolution had a profound impact on philosophy. Many people began to see that discoveries about the natural world would not lead to a greater understanding of the divine but it could be used to improve human society.
Rene Descartes
- The Deductive Method
- Rejected the spiritual or divine revelation in the material world
- Father of modern rationalism and wrote in the vernacular
Rene Descartes was the inventor of analytic geometry and an advocate of a scientific method that relied on deduction. In his "Discourse on Method" he stated that he doubted everything by default but because he could think and doubt then it followed that he must not be able to doubt the existence of his mind, "I think; therefore, I am". Descartes also affirmed the existence of God, and since God would not deceive than human reason could fully comprehend the material world. He was famous in his time and was invited to royal courts throughout Europe, but his methods would eventually lose out to Bacon's as the predominant scientific method.
Francis Bacon
- The Empirical/Inductive Method
- Science and Human Progress
- Government strengthened through Science
Francis Bacon, in particular believed in this idea of human progress through scientific discovery and advancement. In his writings he condemned the idea that in order to better oneself one must look back to the great ancient civilizations. Bacon divided philosophers into two categories, "men of experiment and men of dogmas". He rejected the idea that one could come to truths about the natural world through observation and logical conclusion and formulated much of the modern scientific method. As the father of empiricism he advocated that a scientist must gather all the data available through the 5 senses, make hypotheses and then test these predictions through experiments. This is also called scientific induction. Truth or discovery arrived at through deduction is untested and therefore, suspect.
Royal Societies and Academies
New Institutions
Bacon and Descartes advocated for a link between governments and science, believing that the relationship would strengthen the state and give science much needed funding and support. The French Academy of Science founded by Colbert and Louis XIV and the Royal Society of London served as important places of collaboration for scientific work and served to separate the work of science from religious controversy by providing a secular forum for scientific debate.
Women and the Scientific Revolution
Women were largely absent from the list of famous scientists with a few exceptions like Margaret Cavendish. The norms that had excluded women from universities and clerical positions continued to prevent them from entering the field of scientific research. Noblewomen were in a unique position to patronize the sciences and attract famous scientists to their courts and some entered into research through marriage becoming assistants to their husbands in their research. However, when their husbands died and they sought permission to continue their research or take their place in teaching positions they were usually rejected.
End of Witch Panics
The new environment of rationalism and empiricism definitely played a role in the decreasing frequency of witch panics in Europe among Protestant and Catholic religions. Witch panics had reached their height during the Protestant Reformation and 30 Years War but rapidly declined thereafter. Science had separated the spiritual and physical worlds and it no longer seemed probable that an individual's words or a curse could have an effect in the material world. Advances in medicine were also leading to longer life spans and a greater understanding of where disease comes from. All of these things combined to reduce the incidence of witch trials and executions.
HOWEVER
- Folk culture continued to emphasized divine and demonic forces
- Natural philosophers, like Newton, still studied alchemy and astrology
Blaise Pascal's Wager
A response to the false optimism of Science
Science's reliance on rationalism and it's mechanistic view of the universe led many to embrace a deistic or even atheistic view. Blaise Pascal, instead, tried to reconcile science and his faith, and criticized those who thought that reason alone could improve the human condition. His famous wager against the skeptics was that it was a better bet to believe God exists and to stake everything on his promised mercy than to not do so. If God does exist, the believer will gain everything and if he doesn't very little will have been lost by believing.
