INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTIONS THAT DEFINED SOCIETY

OBJECTIVES

➢ After completing this lecture, you should be able to:

1. know how ideas of Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud inspired the spark of scientific
revolution;
2. trace the evolution of computers from its simple beginnings to its present and
various forms; and
3. articulate ways by which society is transformed by science and technology.
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTIONS THAT DEFINED SOCIETY:
COPERNICUS
 ASTRONOMY BEFORE COPERNICUS
➢ Astronomy was used to tell time, to determine the
seasons, calendars, navigation, and predict the future
(eclipses and rainfall) before Copernicus.
➢ Greek and planets
 Aristotelian model
- Aristotle believed that everything in the universe should be perfect
and that the universe was that of a Geocentric (Earth-centered)
model.

 Ptolemaic model
- He explained the retrograde motion of planets. In Ptolemaic model,
smaller circles called epicycles more around bigger circles called
the deferent. Epicycle is smaller circle that planet is on.
 COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
➢ When Renaissance scholars findings showed that neither Greeks’
theory was right, they had to think for themselves and find a new
theory that worked. This encouraged skepticism, freethinking,
and experimentation, all of which are essential parts of modern
science.
 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)
- The idea of heliocentrism can be traced to Aristarchus of Samos (3rd
century BC).
- Copernicus removed Earth from the center of the universe, set the
heavenly bodies in rotation around the Sun,
- Copernicus's own system have to be amended by later astronomers
like Kepler and Galileo.
 COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
 Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
- He proposed a "geo-heliocentric" system in which the Sun and
Moon orbited the Earth, while the other planets orbited the Sun
(Tychonic system).
 Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
- After Tycho’s death, Kepler used Tycho’s data to back up his solar
hypothesis. He discovered three laws of planetary motion.
1. The planets revolve in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus.
2. The time needed to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is
proportional to the area of the sector between the central body
and that arc (“area law”).
3. There is an exact relationship between the squares of the
planets’ periodic times and the cubes of the radii of their orbits
(“harmonic law”).
 COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

- Galileo has been called the “Father of Observational Astronomy”.
- He championed heliocentrism based on his astronomical
observations using self-made telescope.
- Galileo’s writings on heliocentrism had him accused of attempting
to reinterpret the Bible.