Intro to the Scientific Revolution--Major figures, ideas, and some critique

1. How Scientific and to what Degree
a Revolution?

2. Before Scientific
Revolution the west
was steeped in
superstition—science
hadn’t existed since a
brief showing under
the ancient Greeks
Once Scientific
Revolution took place,
superstition and
religion (seen largely
as the same thing)
were out and the west
became rational and
orderly

3. SCIENCE BEFORE THE
REVOLUTION
Always making advances—
since Mesopotamia and Egypt
Mechanical advances in the
Middle Ages
• Black Death scientific
exploration of the human
body
Religious reformationsnew
questions about nature of God
and the world and the
relationship between the two

4. RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND
CONNECTIONS PERSIST,
EVEN AMONG BIG NAMES
OF SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION
UNSCIENTIFIC PURSUITS
FOLLOWED BY KEY
FIGURES
Copernicus’ lectures heard
with interest by Pope
Clement VII and he
dedicated De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium to Pope
Paul III
Pope Urban VIII a patron to
Galileo until 1633
Pascal a Jansenist
Newton interested in
alchemy
Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo
and Newton all followed
Hermeticism and astrology
and alchemy

5. 1536 John Calvin publishes
The Institutes of the
Christian Religion
1543 Copernicus
publishes On the
Revolution of the
Heavenly Spheres
1545 Start of
Council of Trent
1555 Peace of
Augsburg ends
religious wars in
Germany
1588 Defeat of
Spanish Armada
1598 end of French
Wars of Religion with
Edict of Nantes
1603 death of
Elizabeth I
1610 Galileo
publishes
Starry
Messenger
1637
Descartes’
Discourse on
Method
1686 Newton
finishes
Principia

6. PROTESTANT RESPONSE CATHOLIC RESPONSE
Martin Luther one of first to
speak out against
Copernicus—defied his
literal interpretation of the
Bible
Catholic court, the
Inquisition, tried Galileo for
heresy for teaching
Copernican ideas as more
than a hypothesis

7. Popes patrons of scientists, such as
Copernicus and Galileo
Royal Societies in England and France
endorsed by their respective monarchs,
who were religious leaders

8. Together with end of religious wars and
spread of official religious toleration,
intellectual world questions religious
assumptions
• Does not mean religious feeling ends

9. Long span of time—
over a century
• Small increments of
change
Women go from being
seen as created by God
to serve men (Genesis)
to being seen as
biologically inferior to
men (anatomy and
physiology)
Center of the world
changes from earth at
the center of the
universe to sun at the
center
Intellectuals go from
seeking proof of God’s
existence (St. Anselm’s
ontological argument) to
proof of man’s own
existence (Descartes’
cogito ergo sum)

10. Change from geocentric to heliocentric
theory of the universe

11. His observations with the telescope moved
the Copernican system beyond hypothesis

12. Universal law of gravity
Idea of world machine

13. More accurate view of human anatomy

14. The circulatory system confirmed by
Harvey
• His teacher, Realdo Columbo, discovered the
clitoris

15. Questioned over reliance on reason

16. Cartesian dualism—mind and body
separate
Reason the key—I think, therefore I am
Queen Christina of
• Sweden and Descartes
Deductive reason

17. Famous wager
Attempt to reconcile faith and reason
Abandoned math @age
• 23 after mystical experience

18. Urged a scientific method built on inductive
principles (begin with specific
observations, then make generalizations)

19. Bacon’s
inductive
reasoning (start
w/observations)
Descartes’
deductive
reasoning (start
w/principles)
Newton’s
Scientific
Method
Specific
observations
Generalizations
Tested by
experiments

20. At “end” of Scientific Revolution still largely
an intellectual, elite conversation taking place
at meetings of the Royal Societies or among
highly educated and literate peoples