Scientific Revolution (1543 – 1687)

Science before the Revolution

 Aristotle
o Rediscovered by humanist during the Renaissance
o Inspiration for empirical thinking.
o Believed movement needed a mover
o Teachings were integrated with the church (because it went along with it)
 Middle Ages
o Scholasticism
 Use science to prove religion
 Bible
o Main source of knowledge for the people
 Ptolemy
o Geocentric theory
 Went along w/church
 Every planet has its own mini orbit epicycles which all surrounded Earth
 Earth is the center of the universe
 Could calculate movement of planets
 All planets created their own light
 Galen
o Medical Theories dominated
 Blood comes from Liver and Heart
 Two types of Blood Nutritional and Vital
 Cure illness by getting rid of bad spirits
o Blood letting
o Believed until William Harvey

Scientist of the Revolution

 Copernicus
o Polish astronomer
o Wrote The Revolution of Heavenly Bodies
 Did not publish till he died because of the church
o Criticized geocentric theory for being so complicated
o Developed Heliocentric Theory (Earth orbits the sun)
 *Bruno
o Supported Copernicus and refused to obey the church
 Was burned at the steak
 Bacon
o Scientific method
o Inductive reasoning (detail --> general)
o Insauratio Magna (Great renewal)
o Did not understand mathematics
o Reject everything unless you can prove it
o Advocated empiricism
 Descartes
o “Cogito ergo sum”→ “I think therefore I am”
o 1596-1650
o Deductive (general --> detail)
 Senses can lie
o Mathematician
 Inventor of coordinate geometry
o Doubted all previous knowledge
o Wrote Discourse on Method
o Advocate of rationalism
 Brahe
o Built an observatory and collected lots of data on stars
 Kepler
o Used Brahe’s information (he was his assistant)
o Saw that planets moved faster as they got closer to the sun, slower farther away
o Created First and Second Laws of Planetary Motion
 1st law states all planets orbit in an elliptical shape
 2nd law states planets move through an equal amount of space in an equal
amount of time
o Set Heliocentric theory in its dominant place
 Now the direction of planets could be determined
 Newton
o Wrote the Principia
o Combined all the knowledge (Spirit bomb of the scientific revolution)
o Natural laws
o Theories of gravity and inertia
 Law of Universal Gravitation
- Gravity applies to Earth and the Heavens
o Invented calculus
o Colors are combinations of primary colors
o Particles of matter attract one another
o Created Three Laws of Motion
 Motion continues in a straight line
 the rate of change of the motion is determined by the forces acting on it;
 action and reaction between two bodies are equal and opposite
o Man could control the world (Deism)
For more on the Scientific Revolution go the ultimate notes