CHAPTER

INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTIONS
2 THAT DEFINED SOCIETY

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the chapter, the students shall be able to:

1. Articulate ways by which society is transformed by science and technology

What is an intellectual revolution?

In Science and Technology, intellectual revolutions refer to series of events that led to the
emergence of modern science and more current scientific thinking across critical periods in history.

Intellectual revolutions as paradigm shifts

Intellectual revolutions can be considered paradigm shifts resulting from a renewed and
enlightened understanding of how the universe behaves. They challenged long held views about the
nature of the universe. Thus, these revolutions were more often than not met with huge resistance and
controversy, especially during their onset.

In the words of French astronomer, mathematician and freemason, Jean Sylvain Bailley (1976
in Cohen), these scientific revolutions involves two-stage process:

a. Stage 1: „sweeping away the old‟

b. Stage 2: „establishing the new‟

COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

The Copernican Revolution refers to

the 16th century paradigm shift named after
Polish mathematician and astronomer
Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus formulated
the heliocentric model of the universe. At the
time, the geocentric model of Ptolemy was the
widely held belief about the universe (i.e.,
Ptolemaic model).

The idea that it is the Sun and not the

Earth that is at the center of the universe
proved to be unsettling in the beginning. In
fact, the heliocentric model was met with huge
resistance, primarily from the Church, who
accused Copernicus of being a heretic. At the
time, the idea that it is not the Earth, and, by
extension, not man too, that is at the center of
all creation proved to be uncomfortable.
Figure 22. Nicolaus Copernicus
 The contribution of the Copernican Revolution is, until today, far-reaching. It served as a catalyst
to sway scientific thinking away from age long views about the position of the Earth relative to an
enlightened understanding of the universe. This marked the beginning of the birth of modern astronomy.

DARWINIAN REVOLUTION

English naturalist, geologist, and biologist

Charles Darwin is credited for stirring another important
scientific revolution in the mid-19th century. His treatise
on the science of evolution, on “The Origin of Species”,
was published in 1859 and began a revolution that
brought humanity to a new era of intellectual discovery.

Darwinian Revolution benefitted from earlier

scientific revolutions in the 16th and 17th century in that it
was guided by confidence in human reason‟s ability to
explain phenomena in the universe. For his part, Darwin
gathered evidence pointing to what is now known as
natural selection, an evolutionary process by which
organisms, including humans, inherit, develop, and
adapt traits that favored survival and reproduction.

Darwin‟s theory of evolution was, of course, met

with resistance. Critics accused the theory of being
either short in accounting for the broad and complex
evolutionary process or that the functional design of
organisms was a manifestation of an omniscient God
that of a theory of evolution.

Figure 23. Charles Darwin

FREUDIAN REVOLUTION

Sigmund Freud is credited for stirring a 20 th century

scientific revolution named after him, the Freudian Revolution.
Psychoanalysis is at the center of this revolution. Freud
developed Psychoanalysis as a scientific method of
understanding inner and unconscious conflicts springing from
free associations, dreams and fantasies of the individual.

Scientists working on a biological approach to human

behavior criticized Psychoanalysis for lacking vitality and
bordering unscientific as a theory. Particularly, the notion that all
humans are destined to exhibit Oedipus and Electra complexes,
i.e., sexual desire to the opposite sex parent and exclusion of
the same sex parent, seemed to not be supported by empirical
data.

Amidst the controversy, Freud‟s Psychoanalysis is

widely given credit for dominating psychotherapeutic practice
from the early 20th century. Psychodynamic therapies that treat
a myriad of psychological disorders remain still largely informed
by Freud‟s work on Psychoanalysis.

Figure 24. Sigmund Freud