MODULE 3

INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION THAT DEFINED SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION

This section reviews the intellectual revolutions that changed

the way people perceive the influence of science on society in
general. It focuses on the most intellectual revolutions in history:
Copernican, Darwinian and Freudian. By discussing these topics in
the context of science, technology and society, the attention of
students are drawn again toward the complex interplay of the
various social contexts and the development of modern science.
The section also engages students in a critical analysis of ongoing
intellectual and scientific revolutions, which they may find
themselves to be part of.

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Identify the intellectual revolutions that shaped society’s
across time;
2. Discuss how the ideas postulated by Copernicus, Darwin,
and Freud changed the way how humans see the world
3. Analyze how scientific revolution is done in various parts
of the world like in Latin America, East Asia, Middle East,
and Africa

Human beings have undertaken scientific activities in order

to understand how the nature works. They have persistently
studied physical and natural world to find meaning and answers to
their question. Over the years, society has been reformed by new
ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming,
outer space, and technology. However, this pattern of gaining
knowledge did not pick up significantly until the Scientific
Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific
Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy,
mechanics, and medicine. These new scientists used math and
observations strongly contradicting religious thought at the time,
which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory.
 Source: http://www.actforlibraries.org/difference-between-heliocentric-and-geocentric-models-of-the-
universe/

The geocentric model of the universe was formulated by the

Greek philosopher Ptolemy around 140 AD. The sun, moon,
planets and stars all revolved around the earth in circular orbits.
There were problems with this model because the planets do not
move on circular orbits and they wander among stars. Their speed
varies, their orbits wobble, and they occasionally reverse their
direction of travel, what is known as "retrograde" motion. At that
time it was believed that planetary motion must be based on
circles. Plato had argued that heavenly bodies were governed by
different laws than those that governed the motion of objects on
earth.

The Copernican Revolution

The view of geocentric universe could not answers irregularities of

the movement of the earth, until the early sixteenth century when
the Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, develop a different
model. According to him, the apparent movement of the heavens
was an illusion, caused by the movement of the observer. He went
on to argue that the wandering motion of the planets could be
explained if they were orbiting the sun rather than the earth. This
led to heliocentric theory that the earth was itself just another
planet orbiting the sun.
Being a distinguished churchman, Copernicus knew how
tenaciously it held geocentric theory. In proposing heliocentric
theory, he was not just challenging orthodox science; he was
 challenging the established religious view of reality, which in
those days held even greater sway than the scientific view. So,
fearing the wrath of the church, he kept his ideas to himself for
thirty years. Only as he was nearing death, he finally decided to
publish his book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres
( this is the start of scientific revolution) but it was immediately
placed on the list of forbidden books.

After eighty years, an Italian scientist Galileo Galilei took up

an interest in planetary motions. Utilizing the newly invented
telescope, he found convincing evidence in favor of the
Copernican model. He saw that Venus had phases, just like the
moon, when only half, or just a crescent, of it would be lit, which is
what would happen if Venus orbited the sun. He also found that
Jupiter had its own moons in orbit around it, dispelling the idea that
everything went around the earth. Under threat of torture, he was
forced to detest the absurd view that the earth moves around the
sun. He was then put under house-arrest so that he could be
watched and remained there till his death.
A German mathematician, Johannes Kepler, put into place
another key piece of the puzzle. He formulated three major laws of
planetary motion, conventionally designated as follows: (1) the
planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus; (2) the
time necessary to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is
proportional to the area of the sector between the central body and
that arc; and (3) there is an exact relationship between the squares
of the planets’ periodic times and the cubes of the radii of their
orbits.

Kepler himself did not call these discoveries

“laws,” as would become customary after
Isaac Newton derived his mathematical
description of gravity for planetary motion.
He regarded them as celestial harmonies
that reflected God’s design for the universe.

Kepler and Newton’s discoveries turned

Nicolaus Copernicus’s Sun-centred system
into a dynamic universe, with the Sun
actively pushing the planets around in
noncircular orbits.
https://earthsky.org/human-world/
johannes-kepler-birthday-dec-27-
1571
Darwinian Revolution

Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/18/charle
s-darwin-victorian-mythmaker-review-an-wilson

Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist popularized theory

of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern
evolutionary studies. His theory sets about explaining the
progressive changes that occur within species down the
generations, as well as the formation of new species, when
environmental pressures have differential effects on the
reproductive success of all individuals.

Darwin's observations

1. All species have such great potential fertility that their

population size would increase exponentially if all individuals
will reproduce successfully.

2. Populations tend to remain stable in size, except for

seasonal fluctuations.

3. Environmental resources for things such as food and shelter

are limited.

4. Individuals of a population vary extensively in their

characteristics which impacts upon their own ability to
survive and reproduce.

5. Much of this variation is genetic and is therefore heritable.

Inferences drawn from observations

1. Due to the limited resources, there is a struggle for existence

among individuals - often with only a fraction of offspring
surviving through each generation to reproduce successfully.

2. It is not a random process that determines which individuals

will reproduce and which will not, as it depends in part on the
genetic / hereditary constitution of those surviving
individuals. Those individuals whose inherited characteristics
best suit them to that environment in which they live are
likely to have more offspring than those that are not so well
adapted to the environment. This, by definition, is natural
selection.

3. The unequal ability between individuals to survive and

reproduce will lead to gradual evolution of the population,
with favourable characteristics accumulating over the
generations through natural selection.

Natural selection shapes adaptations and differentiates between

the reproductive success of individuals. Adaptations are
anatomical structures, physiological processes, or patterns of
behaviour that contribute to ancestral survival through the unique
suitability of those traits(Crawford, 1998).

Theory of Natural Selection

1. Natural selection is differential success in reproduction.

2. Natural selection occurs through an interaction between the

environment and the variability inherent among the individual
organisms making up a population.

3. The product of natural selection in the adaptation of

populations of organisms to their environments.
Theory of Evolution

1. Evolution is not progressive - Evolution is not designed to

produce the best quality products, it only seeks to design
adaptations 'that will do the job' most efficiently and
economically. Therefore, evolution used the 'mammal
template' throughout the development of all mammal species
- eg. pentadactyl limbs, mammary glands, spinal curvature,
pelvis structure - and made the necessary modifications to
suit the niche that species lived in.

2. Evolution is not an argument for the status quo - Evolution

does not dictate why things are the way they are. It must be
remembered that some of an animal’s features may be by-
products of the evolution of an unrelated adaptation.

Evolution provides constraints - What has gone before sets

physical limits on what we can do now. This is seen in the
fact that we learn some things much more readily than
others. In this sense evolution has also constrained what
things we are able to perceive and attend to.
3. Evolution provides complexity from simplicity - Species that
depend on each other for food (predator - prey relationships)
often enter into 'arms races', as they try to outdo each other.
Source:https://reason.kzoo.edu/
biology/courses/BIOL102/

To understand the origin

of whales, it's necessary to
have a basic understanding of
how natural selection works.
Natural selection can change a
species in small ways, causing
a population to change color or
size over the course of several
generations. This is called
"microevolution". Given
enough time and enough
accumulated changes, natural
selection can create entirely
new species, known as
"macroevolution." It can turn
dinosaurs into birds,
amphibious mammals into
whales and the ancestors of
apes into human.

Freudian Revolution

Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
 Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder
of psychoanalysis.
His work and theories helped shape our views of childhood,
personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. His ideas have
become interwoven into the fabric of our culture, with terms such
as "Freudian slip", "repression", and "denial" appearing regularly in
everyday language.

One of his most enduring ideas is the concept of the unconscious

mind, which is a reservoir of thoughts, memories, and emotions
that lie outside the awareness of the conscious mind. He also
proposed that personality was made up of three key elements, the
id, the ego, and the superego. Some other important Freudian
theories include his concepts of life and death instincts,