Lecture 4 - STAS

Scientific Revolution
It has been established that most, if not all, of the discoveries and inventions in science and
technology during each time period were due to human needs and wants.
Brilliant minds responded to the call of the times and created things that could make life easier
for the people.
There have also been instances when advancements in science and technology changed
people’s perceptions and beliefs.
Much of these events happened in a period now known as the Intellectual Revolution.
Scientific Revolution is used to refer to the great intellectual achievements of science from
sixteenth to seventeenth century marking a radical change in the assumptions attitudes and
methods in scientific inquiry.
Scientific revolution was the golden age for people committed to scholarly life in science but it
was also a deeply trying moments to some scientific individuals that led to their painful death or
condemnation from the religious institutions who tried to preserve their faith, religion and
theological views.
The Scientific Revolution develops as an offshoot of the Renaissance.  The same questioning
spirit that fueled the Renaissance led scientists to question traditional beliefs and the Church
about the workings of the universe.  It was a new way of thinking about the natural world.
Before 1500, the Bible and Aristotle were the only authorities accepted as truth
A geocentric model of the universe, in which the Earth is at the center was supported during the
Middle Ages
Until the mid 1500’s, European scholars accepted and believed the teachings of Ptolemy, an
ancient Greek astronomer.
Ptolemy taught that the Earth was the center of the universe.
People felt this was common sense, and the geocentric theory was supported by the Church.
It was not until some startling discoveries caused Europeans to change the way they viewed the
physical world.
Industrial revolution- refers to complex technological innovations from 1750 to 1895
characterized by the substitutions of machines for human skill and machine power for that of
human and animal bringing a shift from handicraft to manufacture and marking the birth of
modern economy.

Causes or Genesis of the Scientific Revolution

 The remarkable achievements of specific individuals such as Nicolas Copernicus, Francis
Bacon, Rene Descartes, Andreas Vesalius, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Robert Hooke
and Isaac Newton.
 The philosophy of new science, a new way of doing science using what is known as the
scientific method advocated by Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes among others.
 The desire to break away from the ideas of the feudal middle ages and the Aristotelian
view.
 The establishments of the universities from the 12 th century which were later engaged in
the critical analysis of the Aristotelean views.
  The Renaissance hopeful period of concerned with the present life as well as the
empirical and mundane interest in the natural world and humanity.
 Important inventions such as mechanical clock, lenses, telescope, microscope etc.
 The combinations and cooperation’s of the skills of the craftsmen and the intellectual,
computational and logical method of the scholars.
 Printing press spread new ideas
 Age of Exploration fueled a great deal of scientific research because of technology
needed for navigation
 Translation of the works of Muslim scholars opened the minds of European thinkers to
new scientific knowledge

Nicolaus Copernicus

• Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and astronomer who studied in Italy.

• In 1543 Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres).
• In his book, Copernicus made two conclusions: The universe is heliocentric, or sun-centered.
The Earth is merely one of several planets revolving around the sun.

Copernicus’ model of the solar system:

1. Sun
2. Moon
3. Mercury
4. Venus
5. Earth
6. Mars
7. Jupiter
8. Saturn

 Copernicus came to these conclusions using mathematical formulas.

 The Copernican conception of the universe marked the start of modern science and
astronomy.
 Up to the time of Copernicus, people thought that there was a sort of crystal sphere
that kept the planets, moon, and stars in orbit around the Earth. It was Copernicus that
proposed the idea that the Earth revolved around the sun, and not vice versa… The sun
was the center of the Universe, not the Earth.
 Most scholars rejected Copernicus’s theory.
 Most scholars rejected his theory because it went against Ptolemy, the Church, and
because it called for the Earth to rotate on its axis.
 Many scientists of the time also felt that if Ptolemy’s reasoning about the planets was
wrong, then the whole system of human knowledge could be wrong.
Tycho Brahe

 In the late 1500s, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe provided evidence that
supported Copernicus’ heliocentric theory.
 Brahe set up an astronomical observatory.
 Every night for years he carefully observed the sky, accumulating data about the
movement of the stars and planets.

Johannes Kepler

• After Brahe’s death, his assistant, the German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler,
used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun.
• Kepler’s calculations supported Copernicus’ heliocentric theory.
• His calculations also showed that the planets moved in oval shaped orbits, and not perfect
circles, as Ptolemy and Copernicus believed.
• Kepler’s finding help explain the paths followed by man-made satellites today.

Galileo Galilei

• Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who built upon the scientific foundations laid by
Copernicus and Kepler.
• Galileo assembled the first telescope which allowed him to see mountains on the moon and
fiery spots on the sun.
• He also observed four moons rotating around Jupiter – exactly the way Copernicus said the
Earth rotated around the sun.
• Galileo also discovered that objects fall at the same speed regardless of weight.
• The Church punished him for his belief in this idea. He was questioned by the Inquisition and
forced to confess that his ideas were wrong.
• The Church came against Galileo because it claimed that the Earth was fixed and unmoving.
• When threatened with death before the Inquisition in 1633, Galileo recanted his beliefs, even
though he knew the Earth moved.
• Galileo was put under house arrest, and was not allowed to publish his ideas.

Sir Isaac Newton

• Sir Isaac Newton was an English scholar who built upon the work of Copernicus and Galileo.
• Newton was the most influential scientist of the Scientific Revolution.
• He used math to prove the existence of gravity - a force that kept planets in their orbits around
the sun, and also caused objects to fall towards the earth.
• Newton published his scientific ideas in his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.
• He discovered laws of light and color, and formulated the laws of motion:
1. A body at rest stays at rest
 2. Acceleration is caused by force
3. For every action there is an equal opposite reaction
• He invented calculus: a method of mathematical analysis.

Charles Darwin

• Studied medicine at Edinburgh, theology at Cambridge

• Interest in natural history
• Taught by a freed black slave who told him exciting tales of the South American Rainforest
• Darwin developed the biological theory of evolution that explains how modern organisms
evolved over long periods of time through descent from common ancestors
• In 1831, he began a 5 year voyage on the HMS Beagle that would change his life.
• Darwin observed that the characteristics of many animals and plants varied noticeably among
the different Galapagos Islands. Among the tortoises, the shape of the shell corresponds to
different habitats.
• Darwin thought about the patterns he’d seen on his voyage
• He realized that there were many similarities between the animals he’d seen.
• There was evidence that suggested that species were not fixed and that they could change by
some natural process.

Artificial Selection

• To find an explanation for change in nature, Darwin studied the changes produced by plant and
animal breeders
• Some plants bear larger or smaller fruits than others
• Some cows give more or less milk than others in their herd
• This told Darwin that variation could be passed from parents to offspring and used to improve
crops and livestock
• In artificial selection, nature provides the variations, and humans select the ones they find useful
• Darwin knew that variation occurs in wild species as well as domesticated species
• He realized that that natural variation provided the raw material for evolution
• Darwin wanted to gather as much evidence as he could to support his ideas before he made
them public
• In 1858, Darwin read an essay by Alfred Wallace whose thoughts about evolution were almost
identical to his!
• In order to not get “scooped”, Darwin decided to present his work at a scientific meeting in 1858
along with some of Wallace’s essay
• The next year, Darwin published his complete work on evolution: On the Origin of Species
• Struggle for Existence
• From Malthus’ theory of supply and demand, Darwin reasoned that if more individuals are
produced than can survive, they will have to compete for food, living space and other
necessities of life
• Darwin described this as the struggle for existence
• Variation and Adaptation
 • Individuals have natural variations among their inheritable traits
• Some variations are better suited to life in their environment than others
• Fast predators capture prey more efficiently
• Prey that are faster, better camouflaged or better protected avoid being caught.

Variation and Adaptation

• Any heritable characteristic that increases an organisms ability to survive and reproduce in its
environment is called an adaptation
• Examples of Adaptations:
• Tiger’s claws
• Camouflage colors
• Plant structures
• Avoidance behaviors

Survival of the Fittest

• Darwin felt that there must be a connection between an animal’s environment and how it
survives
• Ability to survive and reproduce in a specific environment is called FITNESS
• Fitness depends upon how well an organism is suited for its environment
• Fitness is a result of ADAPTATION
• Good adaptations allow organisms to survive and are passed on to their offspring.
• Good fitness: Reproduce
• Low Fitness: Few offspring/extinction
• Darwin thought that this seemed very similar to artificial selection
• He referred to “survival of the fittest” as Natural Selection
• Survival means more than just staying alive. It means reproducing and passing adaptations on to
the next generation
• Natural Selection: Nature chooses
• Artificial selection: Man chooses
• Favorable characteristics are inherited over several generations.
• Natural Selection is the process by which organisms with variations most suited to their local
environment survive and leave more offspring
• Natural Selection occurs in any situation in which more individuals are born than can survive
• Over time, natural selection results in changes in the inherited characteristics of a population.
• These changes increase a species’ fitness in its environment.
• A single “tree of life” links all living things
• This is known as the principle of common descent.
• Darwin argued that living things have been evolving on Earth for millions of years.
• Today, fields like genetics and molecular biology support Darwin’s basic ideas about evolution
DARWIN'S FOUR POSTULATES

• individuals within species vary

• some of these variations are passed on to offspring
• individuals vary in their ability to survive and reproduce
• Individuals with the most favorable adaptations are more likely to survive and reproduce.
• Natural selection produces organisms with different structures than their ancestor, different
niches, and new habitats.
• Each living species has descended, with changes, over time.

Lamarck’s Evolutionary Hypotheses

• Proposed that the use or disuse of organs caused organisms to gain or lose traits over time.
• These new characteristics could be passed on to the next generation.
• Suggest that species are not fixed
• Explain that evolution uses natural processes
• Recognize that there is a link between an organism’s environment and its body
structures
• Lamarck’s work paved the way for later biologists, including Darwin.

Thomas Malthus

• In 1798, Thomas Malthus noticed that people were being born faster than people were dying
• He reasoned that if the human population grew unchecked, there would not be enough living
space and food for everyone
• The forces that work against human population growth are war, famine and disease
• He reasoned that what Malthus proposed for human populations also applied to all living things.
• He observed that most organisms produce many more offspring than survive.
• He wondered which individuals would survive . . . and why
• If all the offspring that were produced did survive, they would overrun the world.

ORGANIC EVOLUTION

• the slow and gradual process by which living organisms have changed from the simplest
unicellular form to the most complex multi-cellular forms that are existing today.
Sigmund Freud
• An Austrian Neurologist who became fascinated with studying
hysteria.
• Father of psychoanalysis.
• Psychology was considered more of an art rather than a science.
• Psychoanalysis- is the study that explains human behavior.

Levels of Consciousness: Iceberg theory

1. Conscious mind – like the top of the iceberg, only a small portion of our mind is accessible to us.
2. Preconscious mind – material that is unconscious, but can be easily brought into awareness.
Moves back & forth easily between conscious & unconscious.
3. Unconscious mind – is completely outside of our awareness (could produce anxiety if made
conscious).

Structures of Personality

1. Id – “pleasure principle” unconscious impulses that want to be gratified, without regard to

potential punishment.
 Original Core of an Individual personality
 Biological Driven
 Primarily Unconscious

2. Ego “reality principle” – tries to satisfy id impulses while minimizing punishment & guilt.

 Self- Identity which arises out of ID

o It controls voluntary motion and self- reservation behavior

3. Superego – the “moral principle” of our personality which tells us right from wrong our
conscience.
 Developing out of the Ego
 Serves as conscience