characterized by the substitutions of
WEEK 4: INTELLECTUAL
REVOLUTIONS
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.
 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
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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 OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
 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
 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 12th 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.
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:
o The universe is heliocentric, or sun-
centered.
o 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
 Then, 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
 His calculations also showed that the planets
moved in oval shaped orbits, and not perfect
circles, as Ptolemy and Copernicus believed.
 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 assembled the first telescope which
allowed him to see mountains on the moon
and fiery spots on the sun
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 He also observed four moons rotating around
Jupiter –exactly the way Copernicus said the
Earth rotated around the sun.
 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.
Isaac Newton
 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.
 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 (February 12, 1809-April 19,
1882)
 In 1831, he began a 5-year voyage on the
HMS Beagle that would change his life.
 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
 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
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 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
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 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
 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 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
BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Ptolemy (87-100 A.D)
 Ptolemy’s geocentric model of the solar
system:
1. Earth
2. Moon
3. Mercury
4. Venus
5. Sun
6. Mars
7. Jupiter
8. Saturn
 Notice, the Earth is first and not the sun, as it
should be.
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