INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTIONS THAT DEFINED SOCIETY

Objectives

1. Discuss how the ideas postulated by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud contributed to
the spark of scientific revolution
2. Analyze how scientific revolution is done in various parts of the world like in Latin
America, East Asia, Middle East, and Africa.
Scientific Revolution
 Science is as old the world itself.
 No individual can exactly identify when and where science began.
 Science is always interwoven with the society
 An idea – ideas, theories, systematic explanations
 An intellectual activity – systematic and practical studies
 A body of knowledge – subject or a discipline, field of study, or a body
knowledge that deals with the process of learning
 As a personal and social activity – Activities to develop better
understanding of the world around them; improve life and survive in life.
NATURAL AND PHYSICAL WORLD
Seek answers to questions
NOBLE IDEAS|PHILOSOPHY
alternative solutions or possible explanation
“Humans also used religion to rationalize the origins of life and all lifeless forms. (STS, Serafica 2018)
 Printing
Machine

EUROPE
Intellectual
Traditions Activities

Scholars
Scientific Revolution
Science
• Period of Enlightenment
Ideas
• Transformed the views of society
• Emergence of Birth of Modern Science
• Reflect, Rethink, Reexamine

Scientific
Revolutions

Humans Society
-passion to know
-passion to discover

 Scientists are not driven by clamor for honor and publicity. They are ordinary
people doing extraordinary things. Some scientists were never appreciated
during their times, some were sentenced to death, while others were
condemned by the Church during their time. In spite of all the predicaments
and challenges they experienced, they never stopped experimenting,
theorizing and discovering new knowledge and ideas.
Nicolaus Copernicus
 De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres)
 Model of the universe in which everything moved around a single center at unvarying rates.
 Thought Experiment
 Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you
desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think
and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book.
All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should
you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences?...Of course, while
in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think that it's all actually
happening...Would you plug in
 ?"
 Imagine that you’re at the controls of a railway switch and there’s
an out-of-control trolley coming. The tracks branch into two, one
track that leads to a group of five people, and the other to one
person. If you do nothing, the trolley will smash into the five people.
But if you flip the switch, it’ll change tracks and strike the lone
person. What do you do?
 This one’s reminiscent of Plato’s Cave, another classic (and disturbing)
thought experiment. Proposed by Thomas Nagel in his essay, “Birth, Death,
and the Meaning of Life,” it addresses issues of non-interference and the
meaningfulness of life.
 He got the idea when he noticed a sad little spider living in a urinal in the
men’s bathroom at Princeton where he was teaching.
 The spider appeared to have an awful life, constantly getting peed on, and
“he didn’t seem to like it.”
 Gradually our encounters began to oppress me. Of course it might be his
natural habitat, but because he was trapped by the smooth porcelain
overhang, there was no way for him to get out even if he wanted to, and no
way to tell whether he wanted to...

Would you help the spider get out or no?

 So one day toward the end of the term I took a paper towel from the wall
dispenser and extended it to him. His legs grasped the end of the towel and
I lifted him out and deposited him on the tile floor.
 He just sat there, not moving a muscle. I nudged him slightly with the towel,
but nothing happened . . . . I left, but when I came back two hours later he
hadn't moved.
 The next day I found him in the same place, his legs shriveled in that way
characteristic of dead spiders. His corpse stayed there for a week, until they
finally swept the floor.
 Nagel acted out of empathy, assuming that the spider would fare
better — and perhaps even enjoy life — outside of its normal existence.
But the exact opposite happened. In the end, he did the spider no
good.
 This thought experiment forces us to consider the quality and
meaningfulness of not just animal lives, but our own as well. How can
we ever know what anyone really wants? And do our lives actually do
us any good? It also forces us to question our policies of intervention.
Despite our best intentions, interference can sometimes inflict
unanticipated harm. It’s a lesson embedded within Star Trek’s Prime
Directive — but as the Trolley Problem illustrated, sometimes inaction
can be morally problematic.
Do you think the Church should
intervene in scientific activities?
 Abortion
 Same-sex Marriage
 Contraceptions
 Death Penalty
Assignment #2
 Make a Curriculum Vitae of Nicolaus Copernicus, Charles Darwin,
and Sigmund Freud

 Make a pictographic timeline for the Cradles of Early Science

 Mesoamerica
 India
 China
 Middle East Countries
 Africa