Download Toward a New Worldview

Chapter Overview
0 Scientist and Intellectual transform people’s understanding of
their universe and their place in it.
0 They ask questions & create methods for answering
0 Scientific revolution
0 Replaced medieval reliance on authorities
0 Experimentation
0 Observation
0 Mathematical analysis
0 Enlightenment
0 Light of reason to society
0 Social science
0 Economics
0 Psychology
0 Political science
0 Characteristics
0 Reason & rationalism
0 Belief in human progress – materially & intellectually
0 Profound secularism
0 Deep commitment to limited gov & human liberty
Key Concepts
0 Scientific Revolution 1540
0 Overturned Aristotelian physics & Ptolemaic
0 Copernicus advocated the heliocentric theory of the solar system- proved by
Galileo & Kepler
0 Governments estab science societies
0 Newton discovered the universal law of gravitation
0 Enlightenment Philosophies
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Centered in France
Fostered by conversations held at salons – well-to-do women
Used reason to examine their own societies
Discovered the scientific laws of human life
Opposed censorship, religious/political persecution & autocratic gov
individual rights & intellectual freedom were crucial for advancement
0 Reforms
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Banning of torture
Reduction in the number of capital crimes
Religious toleration
Reduction of mercantilist restrictions
Burdens of serfdom
Scientific Thought - 1500
0 Scientific thought in the early 1500s was based on
ancient and medieval ideas.
0 European notions about the universe were based on
Aristotelian principles.
0 A chief feature of this view was the belief in a
motionless, static earth at the center of the universe.
0 Ten crystal spheres moved around the earth.
The Scientific Revolution
16th century
0 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
0 heliocentric view (refutes the Medieval geocentric
view): earth revolves around the sun
0 By the early 16th century, the Catholic Church viewed
Copernicus‘ theory as heretical
0 Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) – Built best observatory in
Europe and compiled a mass of scientific data from
observations of the heavens
0 Data used later by Kepler, Galileo and others
0 Johann Kepler (1571-1630) – 3 laws of planetary
motion: orbits are elliptical
Copernican System
This illustration of the Copernican System
from the published text of Copernicus's
treatise On the Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres (1543) shows the earth and the
planets revolving around the sun. Copernicus
challenged traditional astronomy and its
earth-centered universe. (Erich Lessing/Art
Resource, NY)
The Copernican Hypothesis
0 Copernicus overturned the medieval view of the
universe.
0 He proposed that the earth revolved around the sun
and that the sun was the center of the universe.
0 This heliocentric view was a departure from the
medieval view endorsed by both Catholic and
Protestant churchmen.
Medicine:
0 Scientists began challenging Greco-Roman medical
authority (esp. Galen-2nd c. AD)
0 Andreas Vesalius (1514-64)
0 The Structure of the Human Body (1543): renewed and
modernized study of anatomy
0 William Harvey (1578-1657):
0 On the Movement of the Heart and Blood (1628)-- blood
circulation
0 Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723):
0 developed powerful microscopes
0 First to see and write about bacteria, yeast plants, living
organisms in a drop of water and the circulation of blood
corpuscles in capillaries.
Scientific Revolution
17th century
0 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) – used the telescope to prove
Copernicus‘s heliocentric theory
0 Forced by the Roman Inquisition to retract his support of the
Copernican theory
0 Also developed laws of motion
0 Scientific Method
0 Bacon‘s inductive method, coupled with Descartes deductive
reason formed the backbone of the modern scientific method.
0 Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
0 • empiricism: first-hand study of scientific subjects
0 • inductive method: scientific conclusion is reached after much
observation
Galileo
This 1624 engraved portrait by Ottavio Mario
Leoni (1578-1630) of Galileo Galilei (15641642) shows the Italian scientist in full vigor
at age 60, before he was hounded by the
Roman Inquisition. (Courtesy of the Trustees
of the British Museum)
Galileo's moon paintings
When Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) published the results of his telescopic
observations of the moon, he added these paintings to illustrate the marvels he'd
seen. (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence/Art Resource, NY)
Scientific Method
0 Bacon‘s inductive method, coupled with Descartes
deductive reason formed the backbone of the modern
scientific method.
0 Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
0 empiricism: first-hand study of scientific subjects
0 inductive method: scientific conclusion is reached after
much observation
0 Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
0 deductive method: conclusion is reached by logic
0 v ―I think, therefore I am (cognito ergo sum)
0 Believed science must:
0 start with clear and incontrovertible facts
0 subdivide each problem into as many parts as necessary, using a step-by-step
logical sequence
0 Cartesian dualism: divided all existence into the spiritual and the material
0 The spiritual can only be examined through deductive reasoning (logic)
0 The material is subject to the experimental method
0 Developed analytical geometry
0 Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1747): Principia – law of universal gravitation
0 Incorporated the astronomy of Copernicus and Kepler with the physics of
Galileo into an overarching theory explaining order and design to the
universe.
0 This view came to be the foundation of the Enlightenment view of God:
deism
Newton’s Synthesis
0 Newton synthesized the integral parts into a whole.
0 Newton integrated the astronomy of Copernicus and
Kepler with the physics of Galileo.
0 He formulated a set of mathematical principles to
explain motion.
0 At the core of Newton’s theory was the universal law
of gravitation.
Madame du Chatelet
Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de
Breteuil, marquise du Chatelet (17061749) was an intellectually gifted
women from the high aristocracy with a
passion for science. She was fascinated
by the new world system of Isaac
Newton. She helped to spread Newton's
ideas in France by translating his
Principia and by influencing Voltaire, her
companion for fifteen years until her
death. (Giraudon/Art Resource, NY)
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution
0 Medieval universities had provided the framework for
the new view.
0 The Renaissance stimulated science by rediscovering
ancient mathematics.
0 Better ways of obtaining knowledge about the world,
including improved tools such as telescopes and
sextants, improved the scientific method.
0 Bacon advocated empirical, experimental research.
0 Descartes emphasized deductive reasoning and was
the first to graph equations.
Some Consequences of the
Scientific Revolution
0 The Scientific Revolution helped create the international
scientific community.
0 It resulted in the development of the scientific method.
0 The Scientific Revolution had few economic and social
consequences for the masses until the eighteenth century.
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Enlightenment
Clash with religion
Agricultural Revolution
Improvement in exploration
Decline in witch hunts
Memory Device for
Scientific Revolution:
0 C ops Copernicus
0 B ring Brahe
0 K ids Kepler
0 G reat Galileo
0 B ig Bacon
0 D onuts Descartes
0 N ow Newton