Download Impact of the Scientific Revolution

Impact of the
Scientific Revolution
MR. MEESTER
AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
PAGES: 466-475
New Institutions
 Attacked traditional approaches to gaining
knowledge in universities
Embraced Bacon’s empiricism
 The new ideas and methods began to changes universities

 Led to the creation of “institutions of sharing”
 Met to exchange information & perform experiments
 Membership was diverse including both educated elites
and middle class craftsmen
 Institutions often focused on practical knowledge
 Interaction between the institutions and the
government would lead to The Enlightenment
Scientific Revolution & Women
 Many factors kept most women from
participating in the Scientific Revolution
 A few isolated women managed to contribute
through their husbands and male relatives
Margaret Cavendish was a noblewoman who critiqued
both Descartes and Hobbes
 Women from the middle class had greater freedom to
pursue the new sciences

Wives and daughters made discoveries but credit went to the male
relative
 They were excluded from being part of mainstream science

Galileo & The Catholic Church
 The new sciences challenged
religion in several ways
 The most famous conflict
arose between Galileo and the
Catholic Church
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The Church was in a difficult
position balancing scripture
and the new science
On the Revolutions of Heavenly
Spheres was censored by the
Inquisition
1633 Galileo is put on trial for
defending the Copernican
system
Blaise Pascal
 Pascal made one of the
best attempts at
reconciling religion and
the new sciences
 Pascal was closely linked
to the French Jansenists
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Believed in two essential
truths in religion
Reason was not enough to
explain everything
Argued using reason that
it is better to believe God
than not
Science & Religion in England
 Several English scientists tried to explain the
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relationship between Science & Religion
Francis Bacon argued there were 2 books of divine
revelation: The Bible & Nature
Isaac Newton believed, as many did, that by studying
nature one better understands God
These ideas gave rise to Physico-Theology
English thinkers began to express the idea that the
new science and technology was part of God’s plan
Witch-Hunts
 Old superstitions about magic and the occult
remained common in Europe even with the
emergence of the new sciences
 One of the most common manifestations was seen in
the witch-hunts
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Panics over witches were common in the 16th & 17th centuries
The origins of witches were in both rural villages & urban areas
The Christian Church also played an important role in causing
the witch-hunts
The overwhelming majority of witches were women
 Several factors led to the decline of witch-hunts