Transcript Scientists of the Scientific Revolution

The “Scientific Revolution”
Science Challenges the Old Ideas
Science and the Enlightenment
Scientific advances and Enlightenment contributions came from all
Factors That Led To The
Scientific Revolution
• Renaissance (1400 - 1800)
– The invention of the printing press - ideas could be spread
quickly and cheaply.
– The revival of classical learning - scholars went back to the
original Greek and Roman texts. These reminded scientists to
observe nature closely and make theories that explained the
world.
– The Church was criticized for the first time - people
challenged old ideas and established authorities. In the
Reformation the Catholic Church lost its hold over many
countries, as well as universities and education. People became
less willing to accept the Church's rulings about issues such as
dissection.
– Voyages of exploration - people traveled more and had greater
contact with other societies. New ideas and attitudes were
brought into Europe. New drugs were introduced, such as
quinine, which could be used against malaria.
•
•
•
•
Causes of the Scientific Revolution: Renaissance
Scholarship and Classical Disagreements
This view began to be challenged with the emergence of
the Renaissance
Renaissance humanists mastered not only Latin, but also
Greek which made available to them new writings of
Galen, Ptolemy, and Archimedes but also Plato and the
pre-Socratics
This led humanists to recognize that the unquestioned
authorities of the Middle Ages, Aristotle and Galen, had
been contradicted by other thinkers
This stimulated the desire to discover which school of
thought was the correct one with the result sometimes
leading to the complete rejection of the classical
authorities
Causes of the Scientific Revolution:
Artists and Close Observation of
Nature
•
•
•
Renaissance artists have been also credited with
making an impact upon scientific study - desire to
imitate nature led them to rely on a close
observation of nature
With their accurate renderings of rocks, plants,
animals, and human anatomy, they established
new standards for the study of natural phenomena
Moreover, the “scientific” study of the problems of
perspective and correct anatomical proportions led
to new insights as a Renaissance artist declared,
“No painter can paint well without a thorough
knowledge of geometry.”
Causes of the Scientific Revolution:
Science and Art
Renaissance
• Study of art, architecture
not separate from study of
science
• Artists learned anatomy in
order to paint the body
Architecture
Artists
• Experimented with chemistry
of paints, nature of light
• Used math to create
compositions of perfect
balance
Science and religion
• Mathematics, physics
crucial to great
architecture
• Combined to produce great
artistic achievements of
Renaissance
• Also used in engineering
achievements of the time
• Most art, architecture
dedicated to glory of God
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution: Reformation
• Reformation and Religious Conflicts
The printing press increased
communication and the standardization of
knowledge.
• Religious conflicts led to an increase in
toleration.
• There was skepticism toward religion,
thus, an atmosphere where ideas could be
more freely explored.
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution: Early Modern
Technological Innovations
•
•
•
The solving of technical problems
also stimulated the growth of
scientific knowledge
Many of the technical innovations
of the period were accomplished
outside the universities by people
who placed an emphasis upon
practical and not theoretical
knowledge
Either way, the invention of new
instruments and machines, for
example the microscope and the
telescope, made new scientific
discoveries possible
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution: New Technology
• Technical problems, like
calculating how much weight a
ship could hold, spurred a
movement towards observation
and measurement.
• New instruments like the
telescope and microscope made
fresh observations and
discoveries possible.
• Printing spread ideas more
quickly than ever before.
•
•
•
•
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution: The New
Mathematics
Rediscovery during the Renaissance of the works of
ancient mathematicians and the influence of Plato
While mathematics was seen as the key to navigation,
military science, and geography, there was also a
widespread belief during the Renaissance that
mathematics was the key to understanding the nature
of things
Many of the great minds of the period, Copernicus,
Kepler, Galileo, and Newton, who were all
mathematicians, believed that the secrets of nature
were written in the language of mathematics
Lastly, mathematical reasoning was seen as promoting
a degree of certainty that was otherwise impossible
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution: New Mathematics
• The study of mathematics in the
Renaissance contributed to the
important role mathematics had in
the scientific achievements of the
sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
• The great scientists of the day
believed that the secrets of nature
were written in the language of
mathematics.
New Mathematics
•New Mathematics
Arabic numbers, introduced in the Renaissance, came
increasingly into use in the 16th century.
• Signs for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
were introduced by Francois Vieta in 1603. This became
standardized so all mathematicians used the same signs (printing
press).
• Logarithms were introduced by John Napier (Scotland).
Logarithms reduced to addition and subtraction the more
complex and timely math such as multiplication and long division.
• Analytical Geometry was introduced by Renee Descartes in
1637. This was useful in engineering and military ballistics.
• Calculus was introduced by Newton and Leibnitz in the 1660s.
Calculus measures quantifies variations in speed, which is useful
for tabulating the motions of planets.
Causes of Scientific Revolution:
National Monarchies
•
Monarchs provided money for scientific studies to
centralize government, promote trade, and reduce
the influence of the church in state affairs.
•In 1484 King John of Portugal appointed
mathematicians to work out a method for finding
latitude at sea.
•In 1660 King Charles II established the Royal Society
and naval laboratories.
•Queen Elizabeth I established Gresham College at
Oxford to study navigation and astronomy c. 1597.
Causes of the Scientific Revolution:
Dawn of Modern Science
Ancient scholars could provide no information about
new lands, people, animals
• Age of Exploration led scientists to study natural world
more closely
• Other things to be discovered, things unknown to
ancients
• Navigators needed more accurate instruments,
geographic knowledge
• Scientists examined natural world, found it did not match
ancient beliefs
Causes of the Scientific Revolution:
Dawn of Modern Science
Some Middle Ages scholars sought answers about the natural world from the
church. In the mid-1500s, others began to think in new ways.
The Old View
• Scholars relied on traditional
authorities for beliefs about
structure of universe
• Geocentric theory, Aristotle
– Earth center of universe
– Sun, moon, planets revolved
around sun
• Ideas upheld by church, accepted
authority for European
intellectuals
New Viewpoints
• Scholars began to challenge
traditional authorities, 1500s
• Scientific Revolution, new way of
thinking
• Posed theories, developed
procedures to test ideas
• Why open to new ideas?
– Exploration
– New lands, new people, new
animals
A Funny Story about Seeing and
Knowing
One day I was at the home of a very famous doctor in Venice, where
many persons came … to see an anatomical dissection performed
by a man. … He was investigating the source and origin of the
nerves about which there exists a notorious controversy [in ancient
Greek medical texts. Aristotle and Galen (a famous medical writer)
believed nerves began in the heart]. The anatomist showed that
the … nerves, leaving the brain … extended down the spine and …
only a single strand… arrived at the heart. Turning to a gentleman
whom he knew to be an [Aristotelian] philosopher … he asked this
man whether he was … satisfied that the nerves originated in the
brain and not the heart. The philosopher after considering this for a
while, answered “You have made me see this matter so plainly and
clearly that if Aristotle’s text were not contrary to it, stating clearly
that nerves originate in the heart, I should be forced to admit it to be
true.”
- Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
(1632)
The Scientific
Revolution
began during
the Renaissance
and continued
through the
17th and 18th
centuries.
Defining The Scientific
Revolution
• The Scientific Revolution began during the
Renaissance.
• It was a movement that rejected traditional
authority and church teachings in favor of
scientific reasoning.
• A new scientific method was developed.
The Scientific Revolution – Two Fundamental
Changes
The Scientific Revolution was about more than just finding
the “right” answers to questions.
Much more importantly the Scientific Revolution was about
two fundamental but interrelated changes in the way people
understood the world.
1. Change in how people KNOW (epistemology).
• Authority vs. Reason
• People gradually become less satisfied with existing
sources of “truth” – Aristotle, Bible
• Reason - Deduction vs. Induction
• People gradually become more comfortable with the
uncertainty inherent in inductive reasoning
2. Change in how people SEE.
• Scientists begin to observe the world more closely
• Later scientists begin to experiment on the world
Like
Galileo
and his
telescope,
scientists
began
to look
and to
prove truths.
Defining the Scientific Revolution:
Science and Community
Scientific Revolution established new way of
thinking about physical world
• Great advances made in astronomy, physics, biology,
chemistry
• Advances influenced developments in arts, architecture
• Impact of Scientific Revolution soon would cause
philosophers, scholars to wonder if reason could solve
poverty, war, ignorance
Seeing in the Scientific
Revolution
Instruments develop to help people SEE the world better
and more precisely.
Galileo’s Telescope
Tycho Brahe’s Observatory
Seeing in the Scientific
Revolution
Robert Hooke’s
Microscope (1670)
Showing in the Scientific Revolution
The power of the PRINTING PRESS to break down established
AUTHORITY lies only partially in the speed of reproduction. If
you want to give people faith in the value of INDUCTIVE
REASONING you have to make them SEE WHAT YOU SEE.
Galileo – Images of
Moon
Harvey – Images of
Circulation
Hooke – Images of
Cork Plant