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Scientific Revolution
What was it?
• Changes in the way
Europeans thought,
using REASON
– Systematic doubt (“Prove
it!”)
– Empirical, sensory
verification
– Abstraction of human
knowledge into separate
sciences
– View that world works like
a machine
When was it?
• Like the Renaissance,
no set beginning date
–
–
–
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Newton (1700s)?
Galileo (1600s)?
Da Vinci (1500s)?
Earlier (re-discovery of
Aristotle, in 1200s)?
Why did it happen?
• Trade with Islam brought
Europeans the works of Aristotle
• Development of Scholasticism
– 1100s-1500s
– resolve contradictions beteewn
church, ancients thru Aristotlean
deductive logic
• Alchemy (prim. Chemistry)
• Humanism
– Introduction of Greek (Plato)
classics, to Europe
– Ultimately led to Prot. Reformation
Astronomy: The Greeks
• Most believed in a Earth
centered (“geocentric”)
universe
– Look at the stars…
– Cycles!
– Problem w/ geocentric:
planets moved in circles,
but also moved
backwards (precession)
– Problem w/ heliocentric: if
Sun at center, Earth
moves 1000s of MPH
(jump up – where land?)
Precession (Epicycles)
Astronomy: Copernicus
(1473-1543)
• In year of his death,
published On the
Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres
• Proposed sun centered
(“heliocentric”) universe
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
•
•
•
Proved orbits
were elliptical, not
circular
His model
perfectly predicted
planetary motions
His book, New
Astronomy,
inspired Galileo
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
• Referred to as the “Father
of Modern Astronomy”
• First to use telescope to
observe the sky
• Masterwork: Dialogues on
the Two Chief Systems of
the World
• Written in style of a
conversation, it insisted
universe operated along
mathematical principles
Galileo and the Church
• Galileo, a professor, taught his students
of his findings
• In 1616, Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino
personally ordered Galileo NOT to teach
the Copernican system
• In 1632, he published “Dialogue
Concerning the Two Chief World
Systems”, a criticism of the Geocentric
model
• In 1632, he was ordered to appear before
the Inquisition, accused of heresy
Galileo and the Inquisition
• Why did the Church care
about Galileo?
– Psalms 93: “the world is
firmly established, it
cannot be moved”
– Psalms 104: “the LORD
set the earth on its
foundations; it can never
be moved”
– Ecclesiastes 1: “and the
sun rises and sets, and
returns to its place”
• In his Dialogues, Galileo
personally offended the
Pope, a former supporter
Decision of the Inquisition
• Galileo was required to recant, or deny, his
heliocentric beliefs; this was considered heretical
• Galileo was ordered imprisoned; later, he was
put under house arrest
• His “Dialogue” was banned, and any further
writing of his was forbidden
Scientific Method
• Francis Bacon (15611626) advocated
inductive thinking
– Observe natural
phenomena
– Derive general principles
to explain observations
• His idea led to the
formal scientific method
– Gather evidence
– Collect additional data
through experimentation
– Test hypothesis
Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
• English physicist, natural
scientist, astronomer,
mathematician
• Believed in “clockwork
universe”
• 1687 Masterwork = The
Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy (known
as Principia Mathematica)
–
–
–
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Universe was mechanistic
Universe explained thru math
Laid out attraction of gravity
Laid out 3 laws of motion
Biology
• Antony van
Leeuwenhoek (16321723) (“Father of
microbiology”)
– Use of microscope (up
to 500x!) to examine
plants, animals
– Named cells
• Carolus Linnaeus
(1707-1778)
– Systema Naturae:
catalogued all creatures
in a system
Chemistry
• While people were discovering
chemical reactions, no one
could explain how they worked
• Henry Cavendish: discovered
hydrogen
• Joseph Priestley: discovered
oxygen
• Antoine Lavoisier: law of
conservation of mass
• With these (& other)
discoveries, Europeans began
moving away from belief that all
matter was made of 4 elements
(Fire, Air, Water, Earth)
Electricity
• Stephen Gray, 1729:
proved electricity could
be transmitted through
metal wires
• 1745: Leyden jar (first
electrical storage
device, aka…)
• Ben Franklin, 1749:
lightning = electricity
Medicine
Dissection of human
cadaver by Belgian
physician Andreas
Vesalius (1514-1564)
• Dissections led to
investigation of body
–
–
–
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Anatomy
Circulation of blood
Inoculation (live virus)
Vaccination (dead virus)
• Proposal that body was
a natural system,
followed predictable
and rational ways
• Man was mechanistic!
The End
Newton’s apple tree